Strom Thurmond Institute

This student handbook has been prepared as a guide for graduate students in the Policy Studies program and includes regulations, procedures, and general information.  The original document is filed and available for inspection in the office of the program’s administrative assistant.

All graduate students should review the Clemson University policies concerning sexual and racial harassment, fair treatment and nondiscrimination of the handicapped, and research ethics.  In addition, students must comply with all safety rules and regulations and review operating procedures for each piece of Clemson University equipment prior to operation.

Students should become familiar with the information presented in this document as well as the Graduate School Announcements. Should there be discrepancies between the information presented in these two documents, the Graduate School Announcements prevails over this student handbook.

Background: In the Spring of 1999, Clemson University was granted approval by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to offer a Ph.D. and a Certificate in Policy Studies. The programs are interdisciplinary, building on traditional strengths at the university in terms of policy analysis as well as scientific and technical fields. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the program is housed within the Graduate School and draws faculty from each of the five academic colleges on campus.

Program Focus: As a land grant institution, Clemson faculty and students frequently participate in policy analysis and formulation working extensively within the state of South Carolina, but also at the national and international level. The policy programs formalize within an academic program what has been an informal agglomeration of policy related work in the past.

• Environmental and Natural Resource Policy,
• Agricultural Policy,
• Rural and Economic Development Policy, and
• Science and Technology Policy.

Doctorate Curriculum

Students entering the program with a master’s degree may transfer up to 24 hours of relevant coursework toward degree requirements. Prerequisite coursework in economics, quantitative methods or scientific/technical foundation courses will not fulfill degree requirements.

Normally, all entering doctoral students will satisfy the bulk of their core course requirements before enrolling in courses in the concentration. Each doctoral student, in consultation with the coordinator in the policy area of his/her choice and with the approval of his/her faculty advisor, develops a curriculum in one of following four areas: Environmental and Natural Resource Policy, Agricultural Policy, Rural and Economic Development Policy, and Science and Technology Policy.    Courses for the concentration are selected from among intermediate and advanced graduate courses in the departments and programs at Clemson University.

The minimum number of credit hours for the doctoral degree in Policy Studies are:

Core:	33 hours
Concentration:	18 hours
Enrichment/Electives:	12 hours
Dissertation:	18+ hours

A full-time graduate student must be enrolled in 9 credit hours per semester.  Assistantship recipients may take a maximum of 9 credit hours per semester.

To receive credit towards the Ph.D. in Policy Studies, a grade of A or B must be received in all core courses.  Please note that this policy differs from the policy found in the Graduate School Announcements.  In addition, the student must maintain a cumulative B average in all graduate level courses.

Core Curriculum:

ECON 823 – Microeconomics for Public Policy

EX ST 801 – Statistical Methods I Or ECON 806 - Econometrics I

PO ST 822 – Policy Analysis and Political Choice

ECON 605 – Introduction to Econometrics Or EX ST 803 – Regression and Least Squares Analysis Or ECON 807 - Econometrics II

ECON 820 – Public Finance Or AP EC 822 – Contemporary Public Policy

PO ST 843 - Organizational Theory and Public Management

PO ST 893 - Internship in Policy Analysis

PO ST 810 – Political Economy for Public Policy

PO ST 842 – Ethics and Public Policy

PO ST 898 - Policy Analysis Workshop

PO ST 904 - Policy Analysis Seminar I

PO ST 905 – Policy Analysis Seminar II

 

Doctoral Residency Requirements: Residence is a necessary concept in graduate education, particularly in the preparation of the dissertation.  The purpose of residence is to require the student to spend a specified minimum amount of time as follows:

• in direct personal association with members of the faculty of the University;
• under direct tutelage and advisement of a research advisor and advisory committee in the department or program of the major; and
• participating in other normal activities pertinent to graduate education such as seminars and close association with other student researchers.

To receive a Doctorate degree, the student must complete at least 15 semester hours of graduate credit including research credit hours on the Clemson University campus in a continuous 12-month period as specified in the Graduate School Announcements.

For students employed substantially more than half-time, a statement specifying the manner in which the residence requirement is to be satisfied shall be formulated by the advisory committee and be included in the graduate degree curriculum.  Also, upon completion of the comprehensive examination, the student’s committee will forward to the Graduate School a statement approved by the program chair and college dean certifying that residence requirements have been met.

Doctoral Program Advisory Committee: The Policy Studies Chair will serve as a student’s advisor until a committee has been selected.  The student should select a committee chair before the completion of their first two semesters of full-time study.  The remaining committee members should be selected before the end of the third semester of full-time study. The student is responsible for meeting with potential committee members shortly after admission to the program.  The GS2 form cannot be submitted until a committee is approved by signature on the appropriate form.  The committee may be changed at any time prior to the comprehensive exams.

The advisory committee must be composed of at least four (4) terminally degreed faculty members.  The majority of the advisory committee, including the major advisor, must be comprised of Clemson University faculty from the program offering the particular degree and who hold full-time tenure-track positions.

The tasks of the advisory committee include working with the student towards:

• approval of the student’s course work
• selection of specialization areas to be included
• composition and administration of the comprehensive/concentration examination, and approval of the dissertation proposal
• supervision and final approval of the dissertation
• administration of the final defense of the dissertation
• initiation of the recommendation to the Graduate School for forwarding the Doctor of Philosophy degree

Decisions by the advisory committee require majority approval.  Since the advisory committee is responsible for the composition and administration of the comprehensive/concentration examination, the student must select a committee that reflects the nature of the course work in the program.  Faculty selected for the committee must represent the areas of, and hold expertise in policy development, analysis, and research as well as in the concentration area.  Upon selection of the advisory committee, the student completes the appropriate form requesting approval of the committee.  The form is submitted to the major advisor for submission to the Policy Studies Chair and the Dean of the Graduate School.

Qualifying Paper: Each doctoral candidate must write a qualifying paper of publishable quality on a topic in public policy.  This requirement is intended to provide students with experience in performing in-depth research and analysis. The paper may be done collaboratively with faculty committee members and will typically be written following the student’s second year in the program.

Filing Form GS2: After the selection of the advisory committee but prior to administration of the preliminary examination, the student submits the graduate degree curriculum (the GS2 form) to the advisory committee for review and approval. To receive credit towards the Ph.D. in Policy Studies, a grade of A or B must be received in all core courses. Please note that this policy differs from the policy found in the Graduate School Announcements. Students must meet with their advisory committee at least twice prior to the comprehensive exams to discuss their understandings related to the program goals. The approved form is then submitted for approval to the Policy Studies chair and the Dean of the Graduate School.  Changes may be made in the GS2 form prior to the comprehensive exams.

Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations*: The purpose of the comprehensive examination process is threefold.  First, the comprehensive exam assesses the student’s ability to produce an independent integration and synthesis across the graduate course work and topic areas in the program of study.  The second purpose is to assess the student’s ability to interrelate theory, research, and practice in the program of study.  Third, the comprehensive exam assesses the readiness of the student to continue the doctoral program to completion, with an emphasis on subject area knowledge, scholarly writing and organizational skills.  Thus, this assessment evaluates skills developed in previous graduate course work and the student’s readiness to advance to independent dissertation research. The Graduate School will be notified of the time and place of the examination at least 10 days prior to the time as scheduled.  Satisfactory completion of the comprehensive examination must occur no less than six months and no more than five years prior to the date of graduation.

The content and scope of the examination questions are at the discretion of the advisory committee.  The student’s advisory committee will conduct the examination, and all faculty members are invited to participate. The exam consists of both written and oral components.  Upon successful completion of the written portion of the examination, the student takes the oral examination.  The time period from when the student begins the written examination and completes the oral examination must not exceed twelve months.  The exam questions will be entirely the work of the individual student.

Comprehensive exams will be graded on a Superior Pass, Pass, or Fail basis.  Students, who fail either the written or oral portion of the comprehensive exam, may be given a second opportunity to take the exam upon a positive recommendation of the advisory committee.    A majority decision is required on the exam grade though dissenting members should feel free to forward a minority report to the Graduate School.  A second failure shall result in the student being declared ineligible to receive the Doctor of Philosophy degree at Clemson University.

The chair of the advisory committee will inform the Graduate School of the exam results via Form GS5 within three weeks following completion of all components of the examination.

*Beginning with the class admitted to the Policy Studies Program in August 2006, preliminary and comprehensive examinations will be required.  Typically, at the completion of four full-time semesters of course work, a preliminary examination will be administered.  The preliminary examination will test students’ knowledge and competency in the program’s core curriculum—economics and public policy, statistics and methodology, political science and policy analysis on a common examination, given on a common date typically once a year.  Students must pass the preliminary exam before being permitted to continue in the program.  The preliminary exam will consist of a written examination, and at the discretion of the program’s Executive Committee, an oral examination may accompany the written preliminary examination.  Performance on the preliminary examination is evaluated according to the following grading criteria:  (Pass, Pass with Minor Deficiencies, or Fail).  Following the completion of all remaining courses for the program, students will be eligible to take the comprehensive/concentration examination.  The comprehensive examination covers a student’s policy concentration, including a synthesis of the policy concentration and core curriculum knowledge and competences.  Typically, students will take their comprehensive/concentration examination after completing two semesters of course work after passing the preliminary examination, if their Faculty Advisory Committee grants its approval.  Full-time research for the dissertation may begin after passing the written and oral components of the comprehensive/concentration examination.

Admission to Candidacy: Admission to the Graduate School does not qualify a student as a candidate for an advanced degree.  Such candidacy depends upon the acceptance by the Graduate Dean consisting of a written request for admission to candidacy.  This request (Form GS2) may be filed by the student’s committee after completion of a major share of course work and successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination.  Any student desiring admission to candidacy must have received full admission to the Graduate School, have a satisfactory academic standing, and have on file with the Graduate School an approved graduate degree curriculum.

Doctoral Dissertation

After successfully completing the qualifying examinations and qualifying paper, each student must choose a dissertation topic in the area of public policy research.  The project must be approved by and carried out under the supervision of the student’s committee, comprising of three or more faculty members.  Dissertations must then be defended before the dissertation committee and other interested faculty of the university.  In addressing public policy issues, the dissertation should demonstrate mastery of theories and the application of methodologies of policy research and analysis in making contributions to knowledge building and problem solving.

Students engaged in dissertation research will be required to earn a minimum of 18 credit hours of doctoral research by enrolling in PO ST 991 (Doctoral Dissertation).  The accumulation of grades of pass in dissertation research does not imply completion of the research, but only indicates satisfactory progress.

The course work and dissertation research leading to a Doctor of Philosophy in policy studies will typically take 3 to 4 years depending on the student’s preparation, the number of hours taken per semester, and the satisfactory progress in completing degree requirements.

Dissertations must address public policy problems/issues and demonstrate mastery and originality in applying theories and methodologies of policy research and analysis.  The dissertation must pursue a policy research problem and its context, the state of relevant literature, conceptual framework or model, hypotheses, research methods, and quantitative and qualitative analyses appropriate for answering the stated research question.  The dissertation in Policy Studies must pursue a rigorous examination of evidence supporting a significant argument, answering an important research question, and testing relevant hypotheses.  The dissertation must make a significant contribution to the existing knowledge on public policy and problem solving.

Dissertation Proposal: The dissertation proposal is presented to the student’s advisory committee to inform the committee of the nature and scope of the proposed dissertation and to receive approval and guidance concerning the proposed research.  The proposal or prospectus consists essentially of a draft of the first three chapters of the dissertation; that is, an introduction to a policy issue, a literature review, a description of an appropriate research methodology, and a bibliography.

The written proposal must be approved by the advisory committee and communicated through a public oral presentation scheduled with approval of the advisory committee.  The written proposal must be available to the advisory committee members at least two weeks before the committee meeting at which the proposal is to be presented and approval given.  The advisory committee will be asked to give written approval of the document after the presentation, and that approval will be primarily based on the written proposal document.  The committee chairperson should submit a copy of both the written proposal and the signed approval form to the Policy Studies Chair no later than two weeks after the proposal approval is granted.

Dissertation Defense: A candidate for the Doctorate Degree must pass a final oral examination (defense) at least three weeks prior to the time of the commencement at which time they plan to obtain the degree.  The candidate’s advisory committee will conduct the examination, and all faculty members are invited to participate.  All advisory committee members must be present.  The Graduate School will be notified of the time and place of the examination by the major advisor at least 10 days prior to the time scheduled.

The defense demands a broad and penetrating interpretation by the student of the research project and conclusions.  A student who fails a final oral examination may be allowed a second opportunity only with the recommendation of the advisory committee.  Failure of the second examination will result in dismissal from the Graduate School.

The Doctoral Candidate’s Responsibility to the Committee: The student, in consultation with the major advisor, shall provide each remaining advisory committee member with a copy of the manuscript for initial review. This action should take place well in advance of, and not less than three weeks prior to the final examination and defense of the dissertation.  When the advisory committee approves the manuscript, the dissertation is presented to the Graduate School for final review and signature prior to duplication.

Students should refer to the Clemson University Graduate School website for rules and guidelines for submission of dissertations.

Academic Integrity

“As members of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas Green Clemson’s vision of this institution as a ‘high seminary of learning.’  Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust and respect of others.  Furthermore, we recognize that academic dishonesty detracts from the value of a Clemson degree.  Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing of any form.”

Information on the Graduate Schools’ philosophy, policies, and procedures pertaining to academic integrity is online at http://www.grad.clemson.edu/academicintegrity.php.

Assistantships

To attract high caliber graduate students, graduate research assistantships are available as well as the potential for salary supplements for externally funded projects.  Assistantships are awarded based upon the student’s complete application package, academic history, scores, and recommendations.  Assistantship appointments are for a period of one year and may be renewable. Students, who have been awarded graduate assistantships, must register for nine (9) credit hours per semester and three (3) credit hours each summer session.  Assistantships generally are available while students are taking classes and writing their dissertations.  Continued support is dependent upon satisfactory progress in the degree program, academic standing, performance of assistantship duties, availability of funding, and compliance with the rules and regulations of the Policy Studies program, the Graduate School, and Clemson University. Students receiving assistantships pay reduced tuition and fees.  To receive the reduced tuition and fees for a particular semester, a qualified student must be on the University payroll at the beginning of that semester and continue through the end of the semester.  Decisions about awarding graduate assistantships are made in April for the Fall Semester and in early October for the Spring Semester.

International graduate students who are interested in receiving an assistantship should submit Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Test of Written English (TWE) scores.  International students seeking graduate teaching assistantships, whose native language is not English and whose secondary education (and beyond) was not taught fully in English, are required to pass the standardized exam Test of Spoken English (TSE).  Specialists in English as a Second Language administer this test at Clemson University after the students have arrived.  Prospective international teaching assistants also undergo an interview during which they are evaluated by faculty members in their respective departments.  The program may utilize videotaped oral presentations.  Successful scores on the test, the interview, and the presentation (if required) are completed before the student can be approved as a teaching assistant.

General Guidelines for Teaching Assistants: Teaching assistants must conduct themselves in a professional manner.  The teaching assistant and the assigned faculty member are expected to meet on a weekly basis to discuss the class responsibilities.  Teaching assistants may be responsible for lectures, grading and record keeping.  Teaching assistants are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the student records.

Clemson University policy prohibits instructors/teaching assistants from dating their students.

General Guidelines for Research Assistants: The responsibility of any funded research project lies with the faculty member.  Research assistants should meet with the assigned faculty member to discuss the work on a regular basis as determined by the faculty member.

The research assistant is responsible for keeping a clear, concise and complete research file.  In addition, the research assistant must maintain and preserve all primary data and material associated with the research.  

Doctoral Program Pathway :

• Apply for admission
• Seek advisory assistance from program chair
• Meet with potential advisory committee members
• Complete 12 hours of course work
• Select advisory committee
• Develop internship project
• Begin developing proposed doctoral degree program
• Continue course work
• Complete and submit GS2 Form at least 30 days prior to preliminary exam
• Develop directed research study/ies related to dissertation
• Secure approval to conduct research on human subjects, if necessary (Submit appropriate IRB form to Research Services http://www.clemson.edu/research/compliance/irb/)
• Prepare qualifying paper
• Meet with advisory committee at least twice prior to comprehensive exam
• Complete course work
• Apply for comprehensive exam
• Submit schedule for written & oral comprehensive exam
• Ph.D. C&I Form 4 (must have approved GS2 and approved advisory committee before comprehensive exam)
• Notify Graduate School of time & place at least 2 weeks prior to the exam
• Successfully complete comprehensive exam
• Submit GS5 within 3 weeks after completion of exam
• Develop & distribute preliminary dissertation research proposal to committee (at least 2 weeks prior to scheduled meeting)
• Arrange dissertation prospectus meeting with advisory committee
• Advance to candidacy
• Conduct dissertation study
• Write dissertation
• Apply for graduation within the first two weeks of the semester you plan to graduate (the GS4 Form)
• Defend Dissertation (at least 3 weeks prior to commencement)
• Submit GS7
• Meet with Graduate School for review of dissertation before duplication
• Pay dissertation binding fee and Microfilm fee at Bursar’s Office
• Submit duplicated copies of dissertations to Graduate School Office and submit one copy to the Policy Studies Program
• Complete Ph.D. program within 5 years of completion date of comprehensive exam
• Graduate

All GS Forms Must Be Submitted to Graduate School at Required Times.

Certificate Curriculum

Admission to the Certificate program is contingent on admission and satisfactory progress toward completion of another Clemson University master’s or doctoral program.  The certificate program generally takes one year and consists of 12 credits (4 courses).  Depending on a student’s academic program, the faculty advisor along with the program chair, may allow coursework substitution of one or more courses taken as part of an appropriate graduate program.  Otherwise, students seeking a Certificate in Policy Studies will complete the following foundation courses:

 

Note: To receive credit towards the Certificate in Policy Studies, a grade of A or B must be received in all foundation courses.

Program Organization

Administration: A member of the Policy Studies faculty serves as the Graduate Program Chair and is the initial contact for graduate students arriving on campus.  The coordinator serves as the major advisor for all incoming students until the time the student formally selects a major advisor.

Governance: a nine-member Policy Studies Executive Committee governs The Graduate Program in Policy Studies.  The Policy Studies Program Chair, a member of the policy studies faculty, will chair the Executive Committee.  Additional members of the Executive Committee will include six senior policy studies faculty members, the director of the Strom Thurmond Institute (a member of the of the policy studies faculty), and the Dean of the Graduate School.  In addition, there is a student representative.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Bruce Ransom, Professor and Policy Studies Chairman
Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0125
Telephone: 864/656-4700
E-Mail: Dr. Bruce Ransom

www.strom.clemson.edu/policystudies