About the Program

The doctoral program in Nursing consists of 20 course units (CUs); each course is worth 1 CU. A full-time students takes three or four courses each fall and spring semester and receives a teaching assistantship with tuition and stipend from the University for three years. A part-time student typically takes two courses each fall and spring semester. Part-time students do not receive teaching assistantships with tuition or stipend from the University.

Course requirements include:
* Seven (7) core courses (NURS 750, NURS 753, NURS 754, NURS 813, Statistics sequence course 1, Statistics sequence course 2, and NURS 800);
* Five (5) concentration courses (content and methods courses to support the dissertation);
* Eight (8) courses transferred in as "General Credit" from the primary Master's degree;
* Qualifying Examination (or MS General Examination for those students entering the MS-PhD program);
* Candidacy Examination (a defense of the dissertation proposal);
* Teaching Residency;
* Research Residency;
* Dissertation work;
* Defense of the final dissertation.

The length of time that most students take to complete coursework is from three to five years of full-time study. Upon acceptance to the Doctoral Program each student is assigned two co-advisors from the Standing Faculty of the School of Nursing who assist the student in developing an individualized plan of study.

View sample full-time and part-time plans of study