Ph.D. Curriculum Committee, 2002-2003

School of Accounting and Information Systems

David Eccles School of Business

University of Utah

Members: Christine Botasan (Co-Chair), Barry Cushing, Olivia Sheng (Co-Chair)

Objective: To recommend changes in our Ph.D. curriculum, examination, monitoring/assessment and recruiting policies so as to increase the rigor of our Ph.D. program and enhance Ph.D. students’ research training and experiences in capital market, AIS and/or IS areas.

Initial Milestones:

• To identify benchmark programs that are the peer or aspiration programs with which the committee will benchmark and identify the related Ph.D. programs or departments on campus with which to share courses or other resources.
• To identify the expectations (e.g., knowledge of specific topics and research methodologies and experiences of conducting specific types and certain complexity of research) for our Ph.D. students to meet by their graduation.  This set of expectations will become the goals of our Ph.D. program that the recommended changes will support or enhance.
• To collect and summarize the following information from the select benchmark programs:
• Curriculum including courses during the bootcamp or pre-1^st-year summer period
• Examination requirements
• Monitoring and assessment policies
• Recruiting details
• Process
• Financial support for Ph.D. students
• Advertising and promotion efforts
• To collect and summarize the following information from resource-sharing programs:
• Courses and faculty who potentially could be a resource to our Ph.D. program
• Interests of other students in sharing our Ph.D. courses or resources
• To discuss with faculty members recommendations for curriculum and policy changes

Process:

• (By Sep. 25) Solicit input from faculty on which benchmark and related programs to focus and our expectations for Ph.D. students.
• (By Sep. 27) Recommend the list of benchmark and related Ph.D. programs and the set of expectations for Ph.D. students.
• (By Oct. 10) Solicit input from faculty curriculum, exam, monitoring and recruiting information from the benchmark programs and courses, faculty and students from the related Ph.D. programs.
• (By Oct. 18) Committee members meet with AIS Ph.D. students for their feedback on positive and negative experiences with the existing curriculum and policies as well as issues that need addressing.
• (By Oct. 25) Committee members meet with faculty to discuss potential changes based on benchmark information.
• (After Oct. 25) TBD

Committee Meeting Schedule:

• Sep. 13, 9 am: Committee members agreed on co-chairs, process and initial milestones
• Oct. 9, noon (tentative): Committee members meet with Ph.D. students
• Oct. 14, 9 am (tentative): Committee members organize benchmark and resource information
• Oct. 18, 2 pm (tentative): Committee members meet to discuss recommendations on changes
• Oct. 25, noon: Committee and AIS faculty members meet to discuss recommendations on changes
• After Oct. 25: TBD

Archive:

            - Summary of Relevant Comments from 2002 Retreat (by Dr. Barry Cushing) 

            - Committee Charge (by Dr. David Plumlee) 

            - UofU 2002 PhD Policy

            - AIS Ph.D. Policy 

            - DESB Ph.D. Policy

            - Benchmark Programs

                    - PhD programs in IS area from other universities

            - Related Programs

                    - POMMarketing Program

                    - Computer Science Ph.D courses in U of Utah

                    - Math Ph.D courses in U of Utah

                    - Business Ph.D courses in U of Utah

                    - Graduate Statistics Courses at UU