A student wishing to apply credit earned at another institution to a doctoral degree program at WVU must submit the an application for transfer of graduate credit to WVU and have an official transcript from the institution forwarded to the WVU Office of Admissions and Records. The approval of transfer credit is at the discretion of the student's advisory and examining committee.
The student, research advisor, academic advisor, and department chairperson appoint the student's advisory and examining committee. For the Ph.D. program, each committee must consist of at least five members'at least three, including the chairperson, from the student's major department and one from another discipline related to the student's area of interest.
At the end of the second semester of a student's attendance, at the completion of the twelfth credit hour, or when master's degree requirements are completed, whichever is later, the student, with the advice and consent of the student's academic advisor, graduate coordinator, and members of the student's advisory and examining committee, will submit a plan of study, initiated in the student's department, to the dean or dean's designee. Some departments may require that a preliminary dissertation research proposal be submitted along with the plan of study.
After admission to the program and after the residence requirement are met, the applicant will take a candidacy examination in which the student must demonstrate: (a) a grasp of the important phases and problems of the field of study and an appreciation of their relation to other fields of human knowledge and accomplishments, and (b) the ability to employ the instruments of research developed in the student's area of interest. When an applicant has passed the comprehensive examination, the student will be formally admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree. A student will have only one opportunity for reexamination.
The doctor of philosophy degree is not awarded solely on the basis of the accumulation of course credits and completion of a definite residence requirement. The amount and nature of the course work undertaken by a doctoral student will be established for each individual student with the objective of ensuring a reasonable and coherent progression of academic development beyond the baccalaureate and/or master's degree.
