​​​​​Upon the recommendation of the doctoral student's dissertation committee and the Department of Communication's Director of Graduate Studies, students may be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The stipulations for admission to doctoral candidacy are that the student has:
- Had a program of study approved and coursework​ completed
- Completed one academic year of full-time graduate study in residence at the University of Delaware
- Successfully completed candidacy examinations
- Had a dissertation proposal accepted by their dissertation committee
- Received approval from​​ the Institutional Review Board in the case that their dissertation requires data collection from human participants.​​
The deadline for admission to candidacy for the fall semester is August 31. The deadline for admission to candidacy for the spring semester is January 31. Responsibility for seeing that admission to candidacy is secured at the proper time rests with the student.
Candidacy Examinations
Two written exams and one oral exam will evaluate a student’s knowledge of theory, research, and statistical methodology as they relate to their program of study. One written exam is theory-based, and the other evaluates the student’s competency with research and statistical methodologies. The oral exam takes place after the successful completion of the written exams, and is an opportunity for students to clarify or expand on their written answers, and for faculty to encourage students to further elaborate on their responses.​
Students and their academic advisor must identify three faculty members to serve on the candidacy examination committee by the start of their fifth semester (during year 3). The academic advisor will serve as chair of the examination committee and may also be one of the three individuals who administer the questions of the exam. All other faculty members of the examination committee must be approved by the student’s academic advisor and be a member of the Department of Communication’s approved Ph.D. faculty. Students must complete a Candidacy Examinations Committee Form​ and submit it to the Communication Department’s Director of Graduate Studies.​
Ideally, these exams will be administered over the course of the five-week winter session of the student’s third year of coursework. The timing of the exams are flexible and must be agreed upon by the student and their committee, with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. On the first day of the written exam, the student will be presented with a question (or a series of questions) relating their research content area to theory, broadly defined. Students will have two weeks to complete their response. The response must be of high quality, with the eventual goal for it to serve as the basis for the Literature Review chapter of the student’s dissertation.​​
Within the following three weeks, on a day and time agreed upon between the student and their academic advisor, the student will sit for an in-person, four hour written exam based upon research and statistical methodologies. It is recommended, though not required, that the student’s exam committee have representation of faculty members who have taught at least one of the research or statistical methodology courses the student had previously taken for the preparation of this portion of the exam. It is important that members of the committee have the background necessary to pose methodological questions for this portion of the exam.
It is up to the committee to determine exam questions, with any number of committee members collaborating on each of the two exams. The advisor should coordinate the writing of exam questions. Questions should be submitted by the committee to the Graduate Academic Program Coordinator, who will distribute them to the student.
Successful completion of the written exams is required prior to scheduling the oral exam, which should take place no later than three weeks after students are notified of their written exam results.
Students are required to pass all three candidacy examinations. Written exams must be passed before the oral exam takes place. The oral exam must also be successfully completed in order to apply for candidacy status.
Committee members have the following options in evaluating the exams:
Pass: Students may proceed to the​​ next stage of their degree requirements.
Conditional Pass: If ​the examination committee determines that the student’s performance was generally acceptable but with a specific deficiency, condition(s) will be specified that the student must satisfy to achieve a pass and remain in the program. These conditions may include re-examination of one or more question areas to be completed within three months.
Re-examination: This result is appropriate for a student whose performance was unsatisfactory but who displayed evidence ​​of the potential to complete doctoral degree education. Re-examination must be completed within three months. The possible outcomes of this re-examination are pass or failure. The student may not take the exams a third time. The advisor and examination committee will determine on a case-by-case basis the composition of re-examinations.
​​​Failure: This result i​​​ndicates that the student is not capable of completing the requirements for the doctoral degree and the student will be recommended for dismissal from the program.​