The PhD degree requires 90 units beyond the MS degree (or 45 units beyond the degree of Engineer), including a dissertation that is judged by the student’s dissertation advisor and committee to make an original contribution to knowledge.
Historically, the PhD degree was historically on the path leading to a career in university education and research. This remains true — our PhD graduates are highly sought-after for faculty positions by the top universities in our field worldwide. More recently, however, leading-edge companies and government agencies have been recruiting our PhD graduates to serve as practice leaders and champions in the adoption of new technologies and management approaches.
It is theoretically possible to complete the PhD Degree in six quarters of full-time study after the MS degree. A handful of our students have enrolled full-time with support from their own funds, or from an external or internal fellowship, and completed all of the requirements for the PhD in two years. However, most of our PhD students receive 50-percent-time research assistantships and can thus enroll for up to 10 units per quarter, so the PhD degree takes a minimum of 9 quarters after the MS degree to complete, and more typically requires from 12 to 16 quarters of enrollment.
See the Doctor of Philosophy page for more information.
Degree requirements
A student with a master's degree in civil engineering can satisfy the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering by completing 90 additional units at Stanford, including an acceptable dissertation. In addition, successful performance is required on both a departmental general qualifying exam and a university oral examination on the dissertation.
History shows that few students complete the PhD within the minimum unit requirements, and prospective doctoral students should plan for about four years. The combined faculty of the Construction Program must approve the program of study.
The Construction doctoral program includes the following major milestones:
- Admission to the PhD degree program: A Construction faculty member must agree to admit the student to the PhD program and at least start to serve as the principal research advisor for the student. Admission usually requires that the student get to know the faculty member and vice versa. So the Construction program almost never admits students from other universities directly to PhD candidacy without the student enrolling in the MS or Engineer degree at Stanford or a peer institution, and/or one or more visits to Stanford by the student to get acquainted.
- A problem analysis and a theory paper that demonstrate the student's ability to do both practical and theoretical work. This requirement has two components:
- First, all candidates will perform a short problem analysis exercise or “charrette” of approximately one week, in which they observe a design, engineering or construction management project in practice, or they interview multiple parties involved in some area of construction industry practice and then demonstrate their ability to describe a real engineering or business problem and use modern analysis methods to address the problem. Students must submit a written summary of up to 5,000 words that describes the problem, the student’s response to the problem and the student’s assessment of the appropriateness of the response to the problem.
- Second, all candidates will do a critical literature review that describes and analyzes prior approaches in the theoretical literature that relate to their observed problem and comment on the strengths and limits of different aspects of the theoretical literature. The written literature review should be approximately 5,000 words.
- Qualification examination for advancement to candidacy for the doctoral degree. The qualification examination normally includes a written proposal for the doctoral dissertation and an oral presentation and defense of the integrity of the proposed research. The proposal should not be longer than 10,000 words. The student should again propose the examination committee for approval by the program coordinator, and must comply with departmental and university guidelines for committee composition. In completing this milestone, the student and committee establish a consensus that the proposed work, if completed successfully, will lead to a contribution to knowledge in the area of CEM, DCI or SDC that satisfies the fundamental requirement for a doctorate. In addition, the committee certifies that it finds that the student is intellectually, technically and personally qualified to complete the doctorate. Students may take the qualification examination up to two times before completing 90 units of post-MS coursework and independent study. (Ideally, the qualification exam is passed well before reaching 90 units.)
The candidacy is valid for four calendar years from the time of advancement to candidacy (through the end of the quarter in which candidacy expires), unless terminated by the department for unsatisfactory progress. Ideally, though, the dissertation defense and acceptance by the reading committee of the written dissertation should occur around the end of the fourth year of doctoral program studies.
