Ph.D. PROGRAM: DETAILED RULES
Rules A-O adopted by the Faculty 9/4/98; Rules P-S adopted 2/19/99; program revised 4/23/2004(Rule S); program revised 12/8/2006 (Rules A, G, I, J, L, O, R); program revised 3/7/2008 (Rule K); program revised 12/12/2008 (Rules C, H, K, Q).
A. Student Rights and Responsibilities:
Student rights and responsibilities are described in the University of Utah Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. To find this code, go to www.admin.utah.edu/ppmanual, click on “8. University Regulations,” then click on “8-10” (“Chapter X: Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities”).
B. Exceptions to Rules:
Students seeking exceptions to Departmental rules should seek advice from the Director of the Graduate Program as to the appropriate avenue to pursue.
C. Waiving Courses:
ECON 7002 can be waived by passing an examination given by the Department or by taking a mathematics course approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. If ECON 7002 is waived by passing an examination, the student must take an extra elective.
(Students wishing to take undergraduate mathematics courses for graduate credit may be able to do this by registering for graduate-level independent study credit from the Mathematics Department.)
Students may not use work completed at a different university to fulfill Ph.D. requirements in this program.
D. Timing of Qualifying Exams:
The Political Economy Qualifying Exam will be held on the last Tuesday in May. The Microeconomics Qualifying Exam will be held on the first Tuesday in June. The Macroeconomics Qualifying Exam will be held on the second Tuesday in June. Qualifying Exams will be held from 9 AM to 1:30 PM.
E. Autonomy and Anonymity for Qualifying Exams:
Qualifying Exam Committees are to base their judgments solely on the basis of the qualifying examination. Qualifying exams should not have student's name or University of Utah Student Identification Number on them; instead they should be graded anonymously.
F. Grading Qualifying Exams:
“Qualifying Exams” are the exams in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and political economy.
Grades on the qualifying exams are:
pass with distinction
pass
marginal
fail.
If a student takes a core-qualifying exam twice, only the second grade will count.
In order to continue to the third year of the program, a student must:
have earned a marginal or higher in all three core exams; and
have earned a pass or higher on at least one core exam.
G. No Special Qualifying Exams:
Students taking the microeconomics, macroeconomics, or political economy qualifying examinations for the second time will take the same examination as the one prepared that year for students taking the examination for the first time.
H. Minimum Grades:
Students must take or retake ECON 7002, and courses taken to fulfill the research methodology requirement, until a grade of “B-“ or better is earned.
Minimum passing grade in ECON 7800 is “B”.
Students substituting mathematics courses for ECON 7002 must satisfy a minimum grade requirement set by the Director of Graduate Program.
J. Finance:
Students may take the Ph.D. sequence in the Finance Department as one of their fields. The Finance Field consists of Finance 7810, 7815, and three courses chosen from Finance 7840, 7850, 7860, 7870, 7880, 7890, and 7900. Other finance courses may be substituted for these courses upon the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. Students must obtain at least a 3.0 GPA in finance classes. The tuition for Finance classes is greater than that for Economics classes. The Economics Department cannot pay the difference, nor is it covered by tuition waivers.
K. Field Exams:
If the field course competency requirement is a field exam, students will get two chances to pass the exam. These chances happen during the academic year immediately following the academic year during which field courses are offered. The field exam is written by the professors who taught the field most recently.
The first round of field exams will be given during the two-week period starting seven days before the first day of the Fall semester classes. For students who do not pass a field exam in the Fall round, a repeat exam will be offered during the first week of the Spring semester.
Students will not be allowed to declare a field if they do not pass the field exam by the Spring round.
Grades on field exams will be: pass with distinction, pass, and fail.
Exam grades are announced within 30 days of taking the exam.
L. Topic Defense Well before Final Defense:
Students must pass their dissertation topic defense and all their field examinations in order to be admitted to Candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. Admission to Candidacy must occur in a semester earlier than the semester in which the final defense of the dissertation occurs.
M. TA Orientation & Training:
It is mandatory for teaching assistants to participate in University or Departmental activities meant to improve teaching assistant performance. Therefore new teaching assistants and teaching fellows required to be on campus well before the first day of classes.
N. Semester of Funding Cut:
Funded students who lose part (but not all) of their funding will be notified by the Department whether they will have funding for the following Fall or for the following Spring or have it divided between Fall and Spring. Within seven days of the date on the funding letter, the student may ask the Department to shift his funding to the other semester. The Department Chair will decide whether to grant this request.
O. Minimum Load for Funded Students:
Funded students must be registered for at least 12 credit hours.
P. Chair of Dissertation Committees
The chair of a dissertation committee must be a regular faculty member of the Department of Economics.
Q. Incompletes, Qualifying Field Exams, and Field Competence Requirements
No student will be allowed to take a qualifying exam if he or she still has a grade of “incomplete” in any of the corresponding classes. The performance of a student on a qualifying exam or a field exam is not to affect the student's previously assigned grade in any of the corresponding courses. No student will be allowed to complete the field course competence requirement if he or she still has a grade of “incomplete” in any of the corresponding classes.
R. Repeated Courses
The Department follows the University's rules on Repeated Courses. These rules can be found in the “Grading Policies” section of the General Catalog’s chapter on “Undergraduate Information,” but applies to graduate students as well.
S. Ph.D. Supervisory Committees
University rules on the makeup of Ph.D. Supervisory Committees can be found at http://www.utah.edu/graduate_school/ghrequirements.html#supervisory.
T. Mathematics Exam
Incoming students must take the mathematics exam, based on the material covered in the Mathematics Tutorial, when it is offered prior to their first Fall Semester. See Mathematics Tutorial for complete information.