Graduate Program

Overview of the program
Foreign language requirement
Course requirements for the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees
Master’s paper
Field examinations
Field examination schedule
Oral qualifying examinations
500-series course limitations
Final oral examination following completion of the dissertation
Time to degree
Candidate in philosophy degree
Disqualification and appeal of disqualification
Advising
Ethical Code of Conduct for Graduate Students and Graduate Student Instructors

For detailed course descriptions, please refer to UCLA General Catalog

Disqualification and appeal of disqualification

If a student is to be disqualified (terminated) from the graduate program for reasons other than failure to maintain a grade point average greater than 3.0, the decision regarding such a termination is generally made at the departmental level by the full faculty at its quarterly Master’s paper review meeting or the annual student review meeting. A recommendation for termination may be forwarded to that meeting by the Graduate Curriculum and Advisement Committee, which serves as the review body making recommendations to the full faculty concerning disposition of candidacies for completion of the Master’s Paper and awarding of M.A. degrees. The elected Executive Committee of the Department is the established mechanism by which a student may appeal for a review of the disposition of his/her case; and the Executive Committee may make a recommendation for reconsideration to the Department where it deems such reconsideration warranted. The Departmental By‑Laws provide for an alternative method of appeal to full faculty review of Executive Committee action, by way of the regulation (By‑Laws, Item #13) that two voting faculty members are empowered jointly to request a faculty meeting on any action within the Department.

Specific conditions that may lead to termination include (1) submission of graduate work which is, in the judgment of the full faculty review unsatisfactory for either the granting of the M.A. degree or further pursuit of the doctorate; (2) making unsatisfactory progress toward the completion of the student's Master’s Paper and/or doctoral work (e.g., requiring repeated extensions of time for completion of program requirements; receiving numerous "Incomplete" grades, and/or failure to remove such "Incompletes"); (3) repeated failure to pass any of the several required steps in doctoral studies (e.g., specialty field examinations, oral examination); or (4) failure to complete doctoral work within the required time limit (within seven years after advancement to candidacy).