Program

Rutgers University`s Ph.D. in management program trains students for careers in teaching and research in business management. It admits a small number of highly qualified students, most of whom attend the program full time with financial support.

The program office is located on the Newark campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It operates under the auspices of Rutgers Business School (RBS), which spans the Rutgers Newark and New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses. The program is staffed by RBS faculty on both and by associated faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), which adjoins the Rutgers-Newark campus. Students take courses at all three campuses, but most of the courses for the program are offered at Rutgers-Newark.

Students in the program major in one of these areas:

  Accounting

  Accounting Information Systems

  Computer Information Systems

  Finance

  Information Technology

  International Business

  Management Science

  Marketing

  Organization Management

Individualized majors also are possible. Application to an individualized major requires sponsorship by a potential faculty mentor, who specializes in the area of the major chosen. Areas where such mentors might be available include ecommerce, supply chain management, business ethics, tax accounting, and health care management.

The program admits both full-time and part-time students. A full-time student can complete the program in four years. Such a student completes the course work in the first two years by taking three courses each term and then spends the last two years writing a dissertation. Part-time students are expected to cover the same ground in six years. By taking two courses per term, students in this category complete the course work in three years and devote their final three years to writing a dissertation.

For further information about the program, including information about financial aid and detailed information about faculty, courses, and major requirements, visit the program's web site at http://phd-business.rutgers.edu.

Curriculum

Although the first two years of a student's program emphasize course work, all students are expected to begin research projects by the summer after the first year. Most course work is completed by the end of the second year when full-time students take a qualifying examination. Part-time students may delay completion of their principal course work and the qualifying examination until the end of the third year. Students who are successful in the qualifying examination then undertake a major research project aimed at producing a dissertation.

The doctoral degree requires 72 credits. At least 24 of these credits must be in dissertation research. An additional 6 credits must be taken to satisfy the program's early research requirement, leaving most of the remaining 42 credits in doctoral courses. The exact number of courses required depends on the major. In some cases, additional courses are needed as prerequisites or to correct academic deficiencies. In addition, students must satisfy a professional development requirement and a functional field requirement. Many program requirements are implemented in different ways for different majors. Details are provided at the program`s web site.

The Major

A student must complete five courses (15 credits) in his or her major. These courses usually define the broad area in which the student writes a dissertation and eventually works as a teacher and scholar. The courses a student takes to satisfy this requirement must be approved by the faculty, which may require additional courses to correct academic deficiencies.

Three courses (9 credits) must be completed in a minor designed to support the work in the major. For some majors, this minor is specified completely, while students in other majors have more latitude in picking courses, subject to faculty approval. The faculty in each major also specifies courses that provide students with foundations for the major course work and methodology for their research. Depending on the major, a student must complete four to six such courses (12 to 18 credits). Often these courses are taught outside the department administering the major. Details about the requirements and the faculty for each major are provided at the program`s web site.

Early Research

Each student must complete 6 credits of structured early research as part of his or her course work. The student fulfills this requirement through two program-wide summer paper seminars, one for the first summer paper and one for the second summer paper. In consultation with a faculty member, who usually is the student`s adviser, each student works on a paper during the remainder of the summer. This work is worth 3 credits. At the end of the summer, the faculty member who works with the student on the project consults with the course instructor and awards the student a grade.

The first summer paper often reviews an important but focused area of literature or replicates an important empirical study. The second summer paper should demonstrate the student`s ability to initiate and complete an original research project, and it may serve as the student`s dissertation proposal.

All students, full time and part time, enroll in the first summer paper seminar in the summer after their first year. Full-time students enroll in the second summer paper seminar in the summer after their second year, while part-time students can delay the second seminar until the summer after their third year.

Teacher and Professional Development

All students must satisfy a teacher development requirement, which is designed to prepare them to teach effectively and to help them improve their teaching skills throughout their careers. While they are taking courses, all students must participate in a sequence of workshops and seminars on teaching. In addition, every student, including those attending part time without fellowships or teaching assistantships, must teach at least one course in his or her area of expertise.

The activities that satisfy the teacher development requirement form part of the professional development program. This program is tailored to each area`s and to each student`s needs. It encompasses the teacher development activities, the summer paper seminars, and other research seminars, including regular departmental seminars.

Students who need training in English as a second language must participate in courses in the university`s Program in American Language Studies (PALS) until their English skills meet standards required for full participation in the program. All students, including native English speakers, are expected to pursue more advanced training in writing if their writing skills fall short of the level required for doctoral work.

The Qualifying Examination

The qualifying examination determines whether the student has acquired sufficient mastery of his or her major area of study to warrant admission to candidacy. At least four of the student`s area faculty members serve on the committee that conducts the qualifying examination.

Full-time students are required to take their qualifying examination at the end of two years of course work. Part-time students may delay this timetable by no more than one year. A student who fails the examination must take it a second time and pass it within one term. As no third attempt is allowed, students who fail the examination twice must leave the program.

To appeal a decision by the qualifying examination committee, a student must submit a written statement to the program director within two weeks of receiving notification of the decision. All appeals are reviewed by the program`s executive committee.

The Dissertation

To complete his or her doctoral degree, the candidate must pursue an original investigation under faculty direction and present the results of this research in a dissertation.

Within one year of passing the qualifying examination, the candidate must submit a written proposal that presents the projected content of the dissertation. The proposal becomes the vehicle for communicating the candidate`s project to the faculty. It should provide sufficient detail to allow faculty members knowledgeable in the subject area to determine whether the research, in terms of quality and quantity, is acceptable and valid. According to university rules, the proposal should be prepared and defended before the candidate`s dissertation committee as soon as the candidate and the adviser have agreed on preliminary guidelines for the dissertation.

The program director must formally appoint the dissertation committee before the proposal is defended. The candidate or the adviser requests that this be done by letter to the program office and sends a copy to the departmental doctoral coordinator. This committee will include an outside member, who should be consulted about the written proposal and should be at the defense if possible. The outside member must be a scholarly authority in the area of the student`s dissertation work. He or she should come from outside the program`s faculty and outside the Rutgers Business School and the units of NJIT that participate in the program. Preferably, the outside member should be from outside Rutgers and NJIT altogether, but this is not required.

The dissertation committee must have at least four members, including the outside member. At least one committee member must come from the Rutgers Business School. The chairperson of the committee, the dissertation adviser, may be from outside Rutgers and NJIT, but he or she must be appointed to the faculty of the Graduate School-Newark.

The chairperson of the dissertation committee, the dissertation adviser, determines the format of the proposal defense and conducts it. After the proposal defense, the dissertation adviser submits a copy of the proposal to the program office, together with a one-paragraph summary of the advice and direction that the dissertation committee has provided to the candidate in response to it.

The student must defend his or her completed dissertation in public before the dissertation committee. This final defense is scheduled by the dissertation adviser, who must inform the program director of its time and place at least two weeks in advance. The program office will circulate an announcement of the defense to all members of the graduate faculty who may have an interest in the topic of the dissertation.

The complete dissertation must be in the hands of all members of the committee at least one month prior to the defense. The format of the defense, which is set by the dissertation adviser, must include opportunities for the faculty to question the candidate on the research.

Because the dissertation committee advises the candidate, that candidate should submit research results to all its members on a regular basis. The committee, in turn, should review regularly the candidate`s program of study, and it may prescribe additional course work or readings at any time. The final dissertation must be approved by all members of the committee.

Transferring Credit

Students may transfer credit into this program from courses taken in other programs, but only if they meet certain conditions. First, the student must obtain a written statement from a faculty member in the student`s major area indicating that the course meets certain quality standards. This means that the course must be equivalent to a doctoral-level course at Rutgers or NJIT or complement in some way the student`s program of study. A student may transfer no more than 40 percent of the course requirements for a Ph.D. in management, and that transfer can only take place after the student has completed 12 credits in the program with a B or better. Each transfer must be approved by the program director and the dean of the Graduate School-Newark.