UofC

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Doctor of Philosophy program is designed to educate professionals for excellence in nursing scholarship through original research related to specialized practice with identified client populations.

In addition to the Faculty of Graduate Studies requirements, the Faculty of Nursing requires that an applicant must:

a) Normally be a Registered Nurse.

b) Submit a study plan outlining the areas of proposed concentration, goals in undertaking doctoral work, initial intentions regarding course work, and a statement of the preliminary plans for thesis research.

c) Provide examples of the applicant’s written scholarly work such as publications, research reports, course assignments, etc.

d) Provide a curriculum vitae.

e) Provide a letter of commitment from the identified supervisor indicating willingness to provide supervision throughout the program of studies and supporting the applicant’s study plan.

f) For applicants required to provide proof of proficiency in English, submit a minimum TOEFL score of 97 (Internet-based test); IELTS score of 7.0; PTE score of 68; or a CAEL overall score of 70 (no less than 70 on reading and writing sections). This requirement can also be met by completing the Academic Communication Certificate with a minimum grade of "A-" in writing courses.

g) Have successfully completed one graduate-level course (3 units) in quantitative methods, one graduate-level course (3 units) in qualitative methods, plus one graduate-level course (3 units) in statistics. Exceptions may be considered, but the onus will be on the applicant to provide sufficient evidence to warrant exception. Deficiencies must be successfully eliminated prior to or in the first year of the doctoral program.

h) Submit three references, one of which must be from the applicant’s supervisor of their master’s program.

Deadlines for submission of complete applications are available on the Future Students website: ucalgary.ca/future-students/graduate/explore-programs/nursing-doctor-philosophy-thesis-based.

Applicants must include requests for advanced credit, accompanied by a rationale, when they apply for admission. For courses taken outside the University of Calgary, applicants must provide official transcripts and a copy of the course outline detailing the course description, objectives, assignments, readings, etc. See Advanced Credit.

In addition to the Faculty of Graduate Studies' requirements, the Faculty of Nursing requires completion of 15 units of coursework:

• Nursing 721
• Nursing 724
• Nursing 726
• Nursing 744
• Nursing 783
  

Baccalaureate and non-nursing master's prepared applicants must complete additional coursework beyond the five core courses. Applicants are individually assessed. The number and types of additional courses required will vary according to the applicant's academic, research and practice background as well as the proposed research plan.

The Faculty of Nursing will not permit the Flexible Grade Option (CG Grade) for any course offered by the Faculty.

Students may choose the CG grade in a course taken extra-to-load.

The use of the CG grade will not affect students' ability for internal awards.

Expected completion time for doctoral students is four years; maximum completion time is six years.

Doctoral students require a Faculty of Nursing member to commit to their supervision as a condition of admission.

Candidacy

After completion of the student's coursework and approval of the thesis research proposal, a candidacy examination with a written and an oral component is required.

For complete details of the examination format and other candidacy requirements visit: nursing.ucalgary.ca/current-students/graduate/managing-my-program/examinations.

Thesis Examination

In addition to Faculty of Graduate Studies regulations for thesis examinations, the program requires:

Scheduling of the Examination
All members of the Supervisory Committee must have reviewed the student’s draft thesis document before an examination can be scheduled.

Composition of the Committee
The Internal Examiner may be internal to the home program.

The final thesis examination is open.

Doctoral students must have their research proposals approved in principle by their supervisory committee prior to candidacy. Students must receive formal approval of their research proposals from the supervisory committee before proceeding to ethical review and implementation of the project. The approved proposal will be housed in the Research Office, Faculty of Nursing.

Students whose research involves human subjects must receive ethics approval from the University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board.

Financial assistance may be available to qualified students. For information on awards, see the Awards and Financial Assistance section of this Calendar. Scholarship application packages will be available on the Faculty of Nursing Website prior to each competition deadline. The application deadline for internal scholarships is February 1. Students admitted to the doctoral program are highly encouraged to seek external funding to support their studies and research. Please note that the deadlines for external funding applications may not coincide with the February 1 deadline.