Graduate Program
Major Areas
Within the area of the environmental consequences of human decision making with a GIScience approach, our research and graduate education is concentrated in 4 fields. There is considerable overlap or cross fertilization among them, and some projects are identified with more than one:
Graduate Students
We have a diverse graduate student body researching a range of human, environment, health, and GIScience topics. We actively encourage and support students to present research papers at conferences and have regularly won awards. Students collaborate with faculty within the department and university and around the world leading to peer-reviewed publications. All of our students are fully funded and have competed successfully for intramural funding for graduate education and research.
Ph.D. Requirements
The Doctor of Philosophy program is designed to prepare students for positions in college and university teaching and in advanced research. It provides programs of study leading to broad knowledge of a field of geography and its literature and special expertise in a specific subfield.
The Ph.D. is a four- to five-year postbaccalaureate program that requires a total of 72 s.h. of graduate credit. Students can enter the program directly from the B.A. or B.S. or with advanced standing corresponding to their previous graduate education.
Before students can be admitted formally to candidacy for the Ph.D., they must submit an original research paper to a faculty committee for approval. Students who complete an M.A. or M.S. thesis can submit it to fulfill this requirement. Before taking the comprehensive examination, which consists of both written and oral components, each student must submit an area review paper to his or her Ph.D. committee. This paper, which must be approved by the student's Ph.D. adviser, consists of a critical review of research in the student's area of concentration.
The comprehensive examination covers both the student's area of concentration and his or her more general field in the discipline. After obtaining the approval of a dissertation supervisor, the student must submit a dissertation proposal to his or her dissertation committee for its critical comments and approval. The student then must complete and defend the dissertation.
MA Requirements
The M.A. is designed to be completed in four semesters. It requires a minimum of 30 s.h. of graduate work, but students accumulate 40-48 s.h. of graduate credit in completing the degree. Students use these additional hours to increase their breadth of knowledge in geography and to tailor their programs of study to their individual interests. A maximum of 6 s.h. may be earned for thesis work.
Graduate students demonstrate competence by completing appropriate course work; and completing an M.A. exam, or completing and defending an M.A. thesis, or completing the comprehensive exams for the Ph.D.
Read the UI departmental catalog about The Department of Geography.
