Comprehensive examinations at the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations (DSPS) are expected to become more research-focused with the latest updates introduced in the School’s regulations. The DSPS Doctoral Committee approved the changes in early March, reforming the old comprehensive examination system.
The updated DSPS exam structure merges the comprehensive examination and the prospectus defense into one single oral exam. While the comprehensive grade remains a composition of a prospectus defense part and literature review part, both of these will be examined at the same time. In previous years, doctoral students were required to defend their prospectus in April, and then pass an oral exam in June. In the updated system they will not be required anymore to appear twice in front of the same exam committee, but instead, they will present their prospectus and its relation to the relevant literature at the same time.
The most important change in the updated examination system is that students will no longer draw exam questions for the oral examination. Instead of leaving exam questions to sheer chance, and being tested on topics that are sometimes unrelated to the student’s main research interest, all candidates will now be examined about the core literature of their chosen (sub-) field. Probationary candidates will be required to compile their own list of literary references that are relevant for their research topics. The Comprehensive Exam committee will then examine their mastery of this specific literature.
The Doctoral School expects the changes to simplify the Comprehensive Examinations, and to make exams more focused on the real scholarly interests and research topics of probationary doctoral candidates. PhD students will be assisted by temporary supervisors and exam committees in compiling their exam literature lists, to ensure the coherence and high quality of the exam materials.
The updated exam structure will be first used in June 2015, at the comprehensive examination of the probationary doctoral candidates of Academic Year 2014-15. The updated rules of the comprehensive examination can be accessed in the latest version of the DSPS Doctoral Regulations, which can be downloaded from the Doctoral School’s website at http://pds.ceu.edu/regulations.