phd in business history

PhD in History

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Study History Where It Is Made

AU’s PhD in History will prepare you for a career as an educator, researcher, analyst, and writer working in academia, public and institutional history, and other fields requiring investigative and analytical skills. In this program, you will develop a deeper understanding of how historians investigate and interpret the past while you explore the past with your own original research .

You will receive a high level of mentorship and develop close working relationships with your professors. Under the guidance of our award-winning faculty , our students complete strong dissertations and present work at top conferences while making valuable connections and gaining experience in the Washington, DC, area.

This program is ideal for students interested in American and modern European history, including Russian history. Our department also has strengths in a variety of subfields , including public history, African American history, women’s/gender history, politics and foreign relations, and Jewish history. This diversity will open your options for research and allow for specialization without sacrificing breadth of study.

Rigorous Study with a Degree of Flexibility

Our program combines rigorous training in scholarship with the flexibility to pursue your intellectual interests. Our coursework will give you a solid foundation in historical theory and methodology, research methods, and United States or modern European history. Together with your academic advisor, you will design a program of study to match your academic goals . You will acquire and demonstrate mastery of tools of research , such as foreign languages, quantitative research methods, oral history, new media, and other methodologies. Your doctoral examinations will be tailored to fit your individual fields of study. You will then pursue your own research in writing your doctoral dissertation.

The Department will supervise PhD dissertations in the history of Modern Europe (normally for the period 1789 to the present), United States history (including the colonial period), US foreign relations, and modern Jewish history.

See all admissions and course requirements .

Cutting-Edge Faculty Dedicated to Your Success

Our history faculty makes national news, uncovers under-represented areas of history, and guides doctoral students , helping them generate innovative and influential research . From predicting presidential elections to publishing award-winning books and articles, our distinguished professors produce relevant historical scholarship and will train you do the same. With academic and professional mentorship from our faculty, you will you will enter the field as a thoroughly prepared and well-connected scholar.

Endless Opportunities in a Historic City

Pursuing your doctorate in the nation’s capital provides you with unparalleled access to renowned museums, archives, institutions, and resources . From the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution and National Archives to the DC Historical Society, our students are only a metro ride away from exceptional local and national repositories. As part of the Washington Consortium , students at American University are able to take courses at colleges and universities throughout the DC metropolitan area, providing the opportunity to work with a variety of faculty in diverse programs and fields of study.

A truly global city, DC, contains hundreds of embassies, cultural organizations, and enclave communities. Brimming with history , the DC area offers Civil War battlefields, the Capitol, Mount Vernon, the White House, and countless landmarks of the colonial period, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and more recent American history. The city is also home to smaller historical organizations like the DC Historical Society and the DC Preservation League. Whether your interest is global, national, or local, this historic city undoubtedly has something for you.

Explore the Possibilities

Our students go on to become university and college faculty and administrators or work in federal and state governments, for museums and archives, and in other exciting fields. Our alumni teach at universities around the world , from the University of Houston in Texas to University of Prince Edward Island in Canada and Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich. Our PhDs hold positions with the nation’s most important institutions , including the Library of Congress, Department of State, National Archives and Records Administration, American Historical Association, National Endowment for the Humanities, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Recent and Current PhD Dissertation topics

• Auketayeva, Laura : "Gender and Jewish Evacuees in the Soviet Union during the Holocaust" 
• Barry, Michael : "Islamophobic & Anti-Islamophobic Ideas in America"
• Brenner, Rebecca : "When Mail Arrived on Sundays, 1810-1912" 
• Boose, Donelle : "Black Power and the Organizing Tradition: Work-ing Women of Washington, DC. 1965-1990"
• Chatfield, Andrew : "American Support for India’s Self-Determination from 1915-1920: Progressives, Radicals, and Anti-Imperialists"
• Duval, Lauren : "Landscapes of Allegiance: Space, Gender, and Mili-tary Occupation in the American Revolution"
• Englekirk, Ryan : "The Third Team: Unmasking Fraternity and Mascu-linity Among Major League Baseball Umpires 1970-2010" 
• Estess, Jonah : "The People’s Money: The American Revolution, Cur-rency, and the Making of Political Economic Culture in American Life, 1775-1896" 
• Frome, Gavin : "American Protestant Service Workers in Viet Nam, 1954-1975"
• Gabor, Ruth : "'Moda' for the Masses: Moscow Fashion’s Appeal at Home and Abroad during the Cold War"
• Gibson, Laura : "It’s Love that Counts: The History of Non-Nuclear Families in American Domestic Sitcoms"
• Grant, Jordan : "Catchers and Kidnappers: Slave Hunting in Early America" 
• Grek, Ivan : "Illiberal Civil Society in Russia, 1992-2000"
• Harris, Curtis : "Hardwood Revolution: The NBA's Growth & Player Revolt, 1950-1976" 
• Hawks, Julie : "Capital Investments: Engineering American Cold War Culture" 
• Jobe, Mary "Allison" : "'We Remember Him for His Character': The Life of James W. Ford and the Communist Party USA" 
• Kaplan, Anna : "Left by the Wayside: Memories and Postmemories of the Integration of the University of Mississippi"
• Killian, Linda : "Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine: The Shared Political Ideology at the Heart of American Democracy" 
• Kitterman, Katherine : "'No Ordinary Feelings': Mormon Women’s Political Activism, 1870-1896" 
• Langford, Amy : "Creating a Body Politic: Boundary Crossings and the (Re) Making of Latter-Day Saints on the U.S. Border, 1885-1920"
• Levin, Jeffrey : "Felix Warburg and the Establishment of the Hebrew University" 
• MacNeill, Lindsay : "Policing Politics in Austria, 1918-1955"
• Milwicki, Alon : "Baptizing Nazism: An Analysis of the Religious Roots of American Neo-Nazism"
• Rafferty-Osaki, Terumi : "'Strictly Masculine': Reforming and Per-forming Manhood at Tule Lake, 1942-1946" 
• Recordati, Maurizio : "Russia Turns Inward: Russian Grand Strategy in the Post-Crimean War Period (1856-78)"
• Sowry, Nathan : "Museums, Native American Representation, & the Public: The Role of Museum Anthropology in Public History, 1873-1929"
• Styrna, Pawel : "Polish-Russian Relations, 1904-1921"
• Vehstedt, Scott : "'Lets Help Finland': The Return of American Relief Aid in the Winter War, 1939-1940"
• Weixelbaum, Jason : "At the Crossroads of Fascism: The Decision of Ford, General Motors, and IBM to do Business with Nazi Germany"

Alumni Job Placements

Graduates of the history PhD program are working as professors, researchers, and directors across the US and at international locations. Here is a list of where select graduates have or are currently working:

• Director, National Coalition for History
• Assistant Professor, University of Prince Edward Island
• Assistant Professor, Towson University
• Assistant Professor of History and Director of American Studies, West Chester University
• Independent historian
• Senior Archivist, National Archives
• Associate Professor, Ryerson University
• Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• Historian, US Army
• Senior policy adviser and special assistant to the president of the Humane Society
• Historian, Office of the Historian, Department of State
• Museum Director, Renton History Museum, Oregon
• Public History Coordinator, American Historical Association
• Assistant Professor, Bridgewater State University
• Lecturer in Sociology, California State University at Bakersfield
• Assistant Professor, Delaware State University
• Historian, Global Classroom, US Holocaust Museum
• Director, Digital Archive, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library
• Assistant Professor, Illinois State University
• Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland at College Park
• Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Assistant Professor, University of West Florida
• Independent historian and filmmaker
• Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, US Naval Academy
• Administrative Support Specialist at FEMA
• Senior editor and writer, National Endowment for the Humanities
• Instructor, Religion Dept., National Cathedral School (earned Master of Divinity after PhD)
• Curriculum and Publications Coordinator, AU Registrar's Office
• Assistant Professor, Seminole State College

News & Notes

PhD candidate Reza Akbari presented at the Middle East Studies Association's annual conference in Montreal, Canada. His presentation,  Etched in Mistrust: Continuity and Change in US-Iran Nuclear Negotiations (1969-1978),  argued that America's drive to keep Iran's nuclear program peaceful began decades before the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

PhD candidate  Andrew Sperling  published " A Halloween Party in Boston Turned Ugly when a Gang Hurled Antisemetic Slurs and Attacked Jewish Teenagers ," detailing the events of an antisemetic attack on Jewish teens at a Halloween party in 1950. 

Theresa Runstedtler 's new book on Black ballplayers of the 1970s and '80s setting the NBA up for success: Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywoof, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA (2023) .

Doctoral student Maurizio Recordati Koen won first prize in the 2022 Trench Gascoigne Essay Competition for "The Stuff of Strategy: How Sublime Strategics Turned into a Real Thing" in RUSI Journal.

John Schmitz (CAS/PhD '07) published Enemies among Us: The Relocation, Internment, and Repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War .

Doctoral student Jonah Estess presented his paper, "Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: The American Revolution and the National Origins of the Politicization of Money" as part of the panel at this year's Business History Conference.

Andrew Demshuk published Three Cities after Hitler: Redemptive Reconstruction across Cold War Borders .

PhD candidate Katherine Kitterman wrote on women's voting rights in Utah for the Washington Post.

Inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow

Nguyet Nguyen brings new perspective to the Vietnam War.

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PhD Program

Program overview.

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Rigorous, discipline-based research is the hallmark of the MIT Sloan PhD Program. The program is committed to educating scholars who will lead in their fields of research—those with outstanding intellectual skills who will carry forward productive research on the complex organizational, financial, and technological issues that characterize an increasingly competitive and challenging business world.

Start here.

Learn more about the program, how to apply, and find answers to common questions.

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Check out our event schedule, and learn when you can chat with us in person or online.

Start Your Application

Visit this section to find important admissions deadlines, along with a link to our application.

Click here for answers to many of the most frequently asked questions.

PhD studies at MIT Sloan are intense and individual in nature, demanding a great deal of time, initiative, and discipline from every candidate. But the rewards of such rigor are tremendous:  MIT Sloan PhD graduates go on to teach and conduct research at the world's most prestigious universities.

PhD Program curriculum at MIT Sloan is organized under the following three academic areas: Behavior & Policy Sciences; Economics, Finance & Accounting; and Management Science. Our nine research groups correspond with one of the academic areas, as noted below.

MIT Sloan PhD Research Groups

Behavioral & policy sciences.

Economic Sociology

Institute for Work & Employment Research

Organization Studies

Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management

Economics, Finance & Accounting

Accounting  

Management Science

Information Technology

System Dynamics  

Those interested in a PhD in Operations Research should visit the Operations Research Center .  

PhD Program Structure

Additional information including coursework and thesis requirements.

MIT Sloan Predoctoral Opportunities

MIT Sloan is eager to provide a diverse group of talented students with early-career exposure to research techniques as well as support in considering research career paths.

Rising Scholars Conference

The fourth annual Rising Scholars Conference on October 25 and 26 gathers diverse PhD students from across the country to present their research.

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The goal of the MIT Sloan PhD Program's admissions process is to select a small number of people who are most likely to successfully complete our rigorous and demanding program and then thrive in academic research careers. The admission selection process is highly competitive; we aim for a class size of nineteen students, admitted from a pool of hundreds of applicants.

What We Seek

• Outstanding intellectual ability
• Excellent academic records
• Previous work in disciplines related to the intended area of concentration
• Strong commitment to a career in research

MIT Sloan PhD Program Admissions Requirements Common Questions

Dates and Deadlines

Admissions for 2024 is closed. The next opportunity to apply will be for 2025 admission. The 2025 application will open in September 2024. 

More information on program requirements and application components

Students in good academic standing in our program receive a funding package that includes tuition, medical insurance, and a fellowship stipend and/or TA/RA salary. We also provide a new laptop computer and a conference travel/research budget.

Funding Information

Throughout the year, we organize events that give you a chance to learn more about the program and determine if a PhD in Management is right for you.

PhD Program Events

May phd program overview.

During this webinar, you will hear from the PhD Program team and have the chance to ask questions about the application and admissions process.

June PhD Program Overview

July phd program overview, august phd program overview.

Complete PhD Admissions Event Calendar

Unlike formulaic approaches to training scholars, the PhD Program at MIT Sloan allows students to choose their own adventure and develop a unique scholarly identity. This can be daunting, but students are given a wide range of support along the way - most notably having access to world class faculty and coursework both at MIT and in the broader academic community around Boston.

Now Reading 3 of 4

Profiles of our current students

MIT Sloan produces top-notch PhDs in management. Immersed in MIT Sloan's distinctive culture, upcoming graduates are poised to innovate in management research and education.

Academic Job Market

Doctoral candidates on the current academic market

Academic Placements

Graduates of the MIT Sloan PhD Program are researching and teaching at top schools around the world.

view recent placements 

MIT Sloan Experience

Now Reading 4 of 4

The PhD Program is integral to the research of MIT Sloan's world-class faculty. With a reputation as risk-takers who are unafraid to embrace the unconventional, they are engaged in exciting disciplinary and interdisciplinary research that often includes PhD students as key team members.

Research centers across MIT Sloan and MIT provide a rich setting for collaboration and exploration. In addition to exposure to the faculty, PhD students also learn from one another in a creative, supportive research community.

Throughout MIT Sloan's history, our professors have devised theories and fields of study that have had a profound impact on management theory and practice.

From Douglas McGregor's Theory X/Theory Y distinction to Nobel-recognized breakthroughs in finance by Franco Modigliani and in option pricing by Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, MIT Sloan's faculty have been unmatched innovators.

This legacy of innovative thinking and dedication to research impacts every faculty member and filters down to the students who work beside them.

Faculty Links

• Accounting Faculty
• Economic Sociology Faculty
• Finance Faculty
• Information Technology Faculty
• Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) Faculty
• Marketing Faculty
• Organization Studies Faculty
• System Dynamics Faculty
• Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management (TIES) Faculty

Student Research

“MIT Sloan PhD training is a transformative experience. The heart of the process is the student’s transition from being a consumer of knowledge to being a producer of knowledge. This involves learning to ask precise, tractable questions and addressing them with creativity and rigor. Hard work is required, but the reward is the incomparable exhilaration one feels from having solved a puzzle that had bedeviled the sharpest minds in the world!” -Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship

Sample Dissertation Abstracts - These sample Dissertation Abstracts provide examples of the work that our students have chosen to study while in the MIT Sloan PhD Program.

We believe that our doctoral program is the heart of MIT Sloan's research community and that it develops some of the best management researchers in the world. At our annual Doctoral Research Forum, we celebrate the great research that our doctoral students do, and the research community that supports that development process.

The videos of their presentations below showcase the work of our students and will give you insight into the topics they choose to research in the program.

How Should We Measure the Digital Economy?

2020 PhD Doctoral Research Forum Winner - Avinash Collis

Watch more MIT Sloan PhD Program  Doctoral Forum Videos

• [email protected]

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Faculty Directory

Meet our faculty.

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You will work with a stellar faculty in the Department of History and neighboring departments as you acquire advanced skills in historical research, analysis, and writing, as well as teaching.

Nine research centers affiliated with the history program offer further programs in area studies, including The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. You also have access to the largest university library system in the world, consisting of 80 libraries and 17 million volumes.

Examples of dissertations students have worked on include “Cold War Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Military Spending from 1949 to 1989” and “Imperial Schemes: Empire and the Rise of the British Business-State, 1914–1939.”

Graduates of the program have gone on to teach at Yale University, Princeton University, NYU, and the University of Maryland. Others have gone on to positions outside academia as startup founders, lawyers, policy analysts, and museum curators.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of History and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

African History | Ancient History | Byzantine History | Early Modern European History | East Asian History | Environmental History | International and Global History | Latin American History | Medieval History | Middle Eastern History | Modern European History | Russian and Eastern European History | South Asian History | United States History

Admissions Requirements

Please review admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of History .

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required. While there is not a specific length requirement, most writing samples are around 20 to 25 pages. If you are submitting a sample that is part of a larger work (a chapter from a thesis, for instance) you may include a brief abstract situating the piece in the larger work.

Statement of Purpose

Your statement of purpose should include why you want to study history in graduate school, why you want to study at Harvard, and indicate your research interests and potential advisors. The required writing sample should be of remarkable quality and ask historical questions. Reading ability in two languages other than English is helpful. Most statements of purpose are around 3 to 5 pages.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Optional

In coordination with Harvard Law School, students may pursue both a PhD in history and a JD at Harvard Law School. To learn more about this course of study consult the Coordinated JD/PhD program overview.

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for History

See list of History faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

Graduate Students

Learn more about our  students' research interests and dissertation projects.

CURRENT STUDENTS

Ph.D. Program

Stanford Ph.D. Program in History aims to train world-class scholars.

Every year we admit 10-12 promising students  from a large pool of highly selective applicants. Our small cohort size allows more individual work with faculty than most graduate programs in the United States and also enables funding in one form or another available to members of each cohort.

Fields of Study

Our graduate students may specialize in 14 distinct subfields: Africa, Britain, Early Modern Europe, East Asia, Jewish History, Latin America, Medieval Europe, Modern Europe,  Ottoman Empire and Middle East, Russia/Eastern Europe, Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine, South Asia, Transnational, International, and Global History, and United States. Explore each field and their affiliates . 

The department expects most graduate students to spend no less than four and no more than six years completing the work for the Ph.D. degree. Individual students' time to degree will vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective Major fields.

Expectations and Degree Requirements

We expect that most graduate students will spend no less than four and no more than six years toward completing their Ph.D. Individual students' time-to-degree vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective subfield.

All History Ph.D. students are expected to satisfy the following degree requirements:

• Teaching: Students who enter on the Department Fellowship are required to complete 4 quarters of teaching experience by the end of their third year. Teaching experience includes teaching assistantships and teaching a Sources and Methods course on their own.
• Candidacy : Students apply for candidacy to the PhD program by the end of their second year in the program.
• Orals:  The University Orals Examination is typically taken at the beginning of the 3rd year in the program.
• Languages: Language requirements vary depending on the field of study.
• Residency Requirement : The University requi res  135 units of full-tuition residency  for PhD students. After that, students should have completed all course work and must request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status. 

Browse the Ph.D. Handbook to learn more .

The History Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for the co-terminal and terminal M.A. programs. A sample Ph.D. funding package is as follows:  

• 1st year: 3 quarters fellowship stipend and 1 summer stipend 
• 2nd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter RAship (pre-doc affiliate), and 1 summer stipend 
• 3rd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter RAship (pre-doc affiliate), and 1 summer stipend 
• 4th year: 3 quarters of RAships (pre-doc affiliate) and 1 summer stipend 
• 5th year: 3 quarters of RAships (pre-doc affiliate) and 1 summer stipend

Knight-Hennessy Scholars

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your studies at Stanford. candidates of any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years, and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford PhD students may also apply to KHS during their first year of PhD enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Admission to the History Graduate Programs are for Autumn quarter only.  Interested applicants can online at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/apply/apply-now and submit the following documents: 

• Statement of Purpose (included in Application)
• 3 Letters of Recommendation
•  Transcripts are required from all prior college level schools attended for at least one year.  A scanned copy of the official transcript is submitted as part of the online application.  Please do not mail transcripts to the department.   We will ask only the admitted students to submit actual copies of official transcripts.
• 1 Writing Sample on a historic topic (10-25 pages; sent via  Stanford's online application system  only)
• The GRE exam is not required for the autumn 2024 admission cycle
• TOEFL for all international applicants (whose primary language is not English) sent via ETS. Our University code is 4704.
• TOEFL Exemptions and Waiver information
• Application Fee Waiver
• The department is not able to provide fee waivers. Please see the link above for the available fee waivers and how to submit a request. Requests are due 2 weeks before the application deadline.

The Department of History welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. Review of applications is holistic and individualized, considering each applicant’s academic record and accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and admissions essays in order to understand how an applicant’s life experiences have shaped their past and potential contributions to their field.

The Department of History also recognizes that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June 2023 about the consideration of certain types of demographic information as part of an admission review. All applications submitted during upcoming application cycles will be reviewed in conformance with that decision.

Application deadline for Autumn 2024-25 is Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 11:59pm EST . This is a hard -not a postmark- deadline. 

All application material is available online. No information is sent via snail mail. Interested applicants are invited to view a Guide to Graduate Admissions at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/ . 

Questions? 

Please contact  Arthur Palmon  (Assistant Director of Student Services).

Department Bookshelf

Browse the most recent publications from our faculty members.

Uncertain Past Time: Empire, Republic, and Politics | Belirsiz Geçmiş Zaman: İmparatorluk, Cumhuriyet Ve Siyaset

Embodied Knowledge: Women and Science before Silicon Valley

Compton in My Soul

The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China

Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures

DPhil in History (Economic and Social History)

• Entry requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

The DPhil in History (Economic and Social History) is an advanced research degree, awarded on the basis of successful completion of an individual research thesis and an oral examination.

Economic and social history is the study of economic activities and social organization in the historical past. If you are thinking about applying for a DPhil researching economic and social history, you should consider whether your proposed topic falls within the remit of economic and social history or whether it would be more appropriate to apply for the DPhil in History.

If studying full-time, you will be expected to submit your dissertation three, or at most four, years from the date of admission. If studying part-time, you will be expected to submit your dissertation six, or at most eight, years from the date of admission. You will be expected to attend and to contribute to two weekly research seminars: the Tuesday Evening Research Seminar and the Wednesday Lunchtime Graduate Student Seminar. You will also be expected to attend the Annual Graduate Workshop in Economic and Social History in the first week of Trinity term, at which MSc and MPhil students present their dissertation projects. You are strongly encouraged to participate in the wide range of other research seminars, conferences and workshops organised by the faculty and the division. Your supervisor will advise you on which seminars will be most beneficial for your chosen research area. You will also have access to specialist training courses offered by the Bodleian Libraries and IT Services. You can attend any lectures, across the University, that you wish to (subject to any specific restrictions), and we encourage students to take advantage of this and explore areas outside their specific research topic.

Further information about studying part time

The faculty is able to offer the DPhil in full-time as well as part-time mode of attendance. Please note that any published statistics as regards acceptance rates are not an indication of applicants having a better chance of acceptance in part-time mode. All DPhil applications are assessed together and compared with each other, irrespective of the mode of study.

The faculty's research degrees are not available by distance learning. Although there will be no requirement to reside in Oxford, part-time research students must attend the University on a regular basis (particularly in term-time: October and November, mid-January to mid-March, and late April to mid-June) for supervision, study, research seminars and skills training. The dates of attendance will be determined by mutual agreement with your supervisor.

We cannot sponsor student visas for part-time study as the study patterns are not compatible with Home Office regulations on attendance monitoring. However, other options may be available and you should contact the  admissions  office to discuss.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of History and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Offers will only be made if appropriate supervision is available. Offers will only be made if appropriate supervision is available.

It is usual practice that DPhil students have one supervisor, but a co-supervisor will be appointed if additional specialist knowledge is required. For the DPhil in Economic and Social History, a sole supervisor outside the Faculty of History (eg the Department of Economics) may be nominated. In exceptional circumstances, a co-supervisor from outside the university may be appointed. 

Your supervisor(s) is there to provide advice, guidance, and support throughout your DPhil. You should meet your supervisor(s) early in your first term to establish a clear framework for your research and writing, and identify any skills training needed to undertake your research. It is up to you and your supervisor to decide on the frequency of future meetings. In the first year, you should meet your supervisor at least twice a term, and keep in frequent contact. As you become more engaged with your research, you may meet your supervisor less frequently, but you should maintain regular contact with them.

Your supervisor or supervisors will help you develop a programme of research and writing. You will also benefit from the advice and support of other members of the faculty who will be involved in your progression through the transfer and confirmation stages of the degree, and you will be able to draw on the expertise of scholars and colleagues throughout the faculty and University.

Please note that if you have contacted a potential supervisor prior to submitting your application, any indication made by an academic that they may be willing to supervise a potential project, is not a guarantee that you will be offered a place, or that the supervisor in question has capacity to supervise you in that particular year.

All students will be initially admitted to the status of Probationer Research Student (PRS). Within a maximum of four terms as a full-time PRS student, or eight terms as a part-time PRS student, you will be expected to apply for transfer of status from Probationer Research Student to DPhil status. This application is normally made by the second term for full-time students and by the fifth term for part-time students.

A successful transfer of status from PRS to DPhil status will require the submission of a thesis outline and a piece of written work. Students who are successful at transfer will also be expected to apply for and gain confirmation of DPhil status to show that your work continues to be on track. This will need to done within nine terms of admission for full-time students and eighteen terms of admission for part-time students.

Both milestones normally involve an interview with one or two assessors (other than your supervisor) and therefore provide and important experience for the final oral examination.

Full-time students will be expected to submit a substantial thesis of not more than 100,000 words after three or, at most, four years from the date of admission. If you are studying part-time, you will be required to submit your thesis after six or, at most, eight years from the date of admission. To be successfully awarded a DPhil in History (Economic and Social History) you will need to defend your thesis orally ( viva voce ) in front of two appointed examiners.

Graduate destinations

Approximately half of students who complete their doctoral thesis go on to further academic posts worldwide. Some work as freelance historians, others are in professional administrative positions in areas such as finance, the civil service, university administration, banking, and publishing. Approximately half of students who complete their doctoral thesis go on to further academic posts worldwide. Some work as freelance historians, others are in professional administrative positions in areas such as finance, the civil service, university administration, banking, and publishing.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Other courses you may wish to consider

If you're thinking about applying for this course, you may also wish to consider the courses listed below. These courses may have been suggested due to their similarity with this course, or because they are offered by the same department or faculty.

All graduate courses offered by the Faculty of History

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25, proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a master's degree with distinction or a high pass (a minimum of 68% overall and 68% for the dissertation);   and
• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours  (a minimum of 68% overall and 68% for the dissertation) in history or cognate disciplines.

However, entrance is very competitive and most successful applicants have a first-class degree or equivalent.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.75 out of 4.0. However, most successful applicants have a cumulative GPA of 3.8.

Applicants without a prior degree in history, economic history or economics should be aware that competition for a place on the DPhil is extremely tough and that even some of Oxford's own master's students are not able to secure a place on the DPhil. You should consider that most of your competitors will have a solid background in the discipline and the appropriate training for academic research in a historical context, with a first class or distinction grade. If you decide to apply without a prior master's degree in history, please ensure that you link your proposed thesis topic with your previous expertise when you present it in your application. You should also show that you have already done a considerable amount of background research into the topic. Your submitted written work should show your writing and research skills in their best light as it will be important to show that you have the necessary skills for historical research and writing.

Professional experience in research, such as holding a research assistantship with an individual researcher or on a research project, may be an appropriate substitute for a master's degree.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

• In the case of mature students/intended career changes, professional experience in cognate areas may compensate for shortcomings in the formal academic record. 
• Publications are not required.

Further guidance

When assessors judge that a formally qualified and otherwise promising applicant requires strictly limited further training to embark on a doctoral programme, a doctoral place may be offered but only on the stipulation that the student successfully complete relevant elements of one of the faculty's master's courses before attempting 'transfer' to full doctoral status, meaning that the student may be asked to attend seminars or classes intended for master’s students.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews are not normally held as part of the admissions process.

Assessors may get in touch with an applicant by email in case of any queries, but this is very rare.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

References  and  supporting documents  submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide  more information about how applications are assessed . 

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

• socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of  the University’s pilot selection procedure  and for  scholarships aimed at under-represented groups ;
• country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
• protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Initiatives to improve access to graduate study

This course is taking part in  the 'Close the Gap' project  which aims to improve access to doctoral study.

For this course, socio-economic data (where it has been provided in the application form) will be used to contextualise applications at the different stages of the selection process.  Further information about how we use your socio-economic data  can be found in our page about initiatives to improve access to graduate study.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about  processing special category data for the purposes of positive action  and  using your data to assess your eligibility for funding , can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the  About  section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

Intellectual life and community

The explicitly interdisciplinary nature of this DPhil means that the History Faculty collaborates with other divisions and departments within the University, predominantly with the Departments of Economics, Politics and International Relations, Sociology and Management Studies within the Social Sciences Division.

More generally, working as an Oxford graduate student is an exhilarating experience. History in Oxford stretches from around c. 300 to the present, and embraces an exceptionally broad geographical range. It comprises an active research community of up to 800 academics and graduate students. The faculty’s research is organised around  historical periods, research centres, or in collaborative and individual research projects , and graduates are key participants in the wide range of seminars, workshops and conferences run by the History Faculty. Further opportunities for exchange are provided by the interdisciplinary communities fostered within individual colleges, which also offer dedicated support for graduates by means of personal advisors. The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities (TORCH) offers a stimulating range of interdisciplinary activities, as does the Oxford Martin School and the new Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. History graduates are also encouraged to join the Oxford History Graduate Network (OHGN) , which fosters friendships, conversations and collaboration.

The Oxford environment provides a unique opportunity to develop intellectual curiosity whilst remaining focused on your own work without becoming blinkered - an integral part of a successful graduate career.

Libraries and Archives

Graduates in Oxford are fortunate in having access to over a hundred libraries. The University's core research resource in the Humanities are the Bodleian Libraries, whose combined collections contain more than eleven million printed items, in addition to more than 50,000 e-journals and a vast quantity of manuscripts, maps, music and other materials.

The  Bodleian  has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years. The Bodleian Libraries’  Special Collections Department attracts scholars from all over the world.  Further strengths include the countless databases and digital resources currently offered by the Bodleian and being developed through Oxford’s  Digital Humanities programme .

You are also able to draw on the specialist resources offered by the Bodleian  History Faculty Library which provides dedicated  support and training courses for all graduates. You also have access to the many college libraries and to college archives which can house significant collections of personal papers as well as institutional records dating back to the middle ages.

History in Oxford stretches from c 300 to the present, and embraces in addition to its British and European heritage an exceptionally broad range of World history. It comprises an active research community of up to 800 senior academics and graduate students, all contributing to a range of research seminars, lectures, academic societies, and personal contacts.

Research in the faculty is organised around historical periods and research centres, or in collaborative and individual research projects, and you will always be welcome at seminars, workshops and conferences across all periods and themes.

You will be encouraged to make use of these opportunities as widely as possible without endangering your own degree work. Striking the right balance between intellectual curiosity and temptation and intellectual discipline, and remaining focused without becoming blinkered, should be an integral part of a successful graduate career. The Oxford environment provides all the ingredients for this.

View all courses   View taught courses View research courses

The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships , if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential. 

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the faculty's website.

Annual fees for entry in 2024-25

Full-time study.

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Part-time study

Information about course fees.

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges .

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Continuation charges

Following the period of fee liability , you may also be required to pay a University continuation charge and a college continuation charge. The University and college continuation charges are shown on the Continuation charges page.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding  section of this website provides further information about course fees , including information about fee status and eligibility  and your length of fee liability .

Additional information

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees (or, after fee liability ends, continuation charges) and living costs. However, please note that, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Please note that you are required to attend in Oxford for a minimum of 30 days each year, and you may incur additional travel and accommodation expenses for this. Also, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur further additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

If you are studying part-time your living costs may vary depending on your personal circumstances but you must still ensure that you will have sufficient funding to meet these costs for the duration of your course.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students for full-time study on this course:

• Balliol College
• Blackfriars
• Brasenose College
• Campion Hall
• Christ Church
• Corpus Christi College
• Exeter College
• Green Templeton College
• Hertford College
• Jesus College
• Keble College
• Kellogg College
• Lady Margaret Hall
• Linacre College
• Lincoln College
• Magdalen College
• Mansfield College
• Merton College
• New College
• Nuffield College
• Oriel College
• Pembroke College
• Regent's Park College
• Reuben College
• St Anne's College
• St Antony's College
• St Catherine's College
• St Cross College
• St Edmund Hall
• St Hilda's College
• St Hugh's College
• St John's College
• St Peter's College
• Somerville College
• Trinity College
• University College
• Wadham College
• Wolfson College
• Worcester College
• Wycliffe Hall

The following colleges accept students for part-time study on this course:

Before you apply

Our  guide to getting started  provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance . Check the deadlines on this page and the  information about deadlines  in our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

• applicants from low-income countries;
• refugees and displaced persons; 
• UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and 
• applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to  check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver  before you apply.

Readmission for current Oxford graduate taught students

If you're currently studying for an Oxford graduate taught course and apply to this course with no break in your studies, you may be eligible to apply to this course as a readmission applicant. The application fee will be waived for an eligible application of this type. Check whether you're eligible to apply for readmission .

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You do not need to contact anyone in the faculty before you apply. You are not responsible for finding your own supervisor. However, you are strongly encouraged to familiarise yourself with the  research expertise within the faculty  when preparing your research proposal, to make sure that there is a supervisor available in the same area as your proposed project. Offers will only be made if appropriate supervision is available. The faculty determines supervision arrangements, taking due account of the workload and commitments of its academics. If you are made an offer, a supervisor will be assigned to you, and identified in the offer letter.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Proposed field and title of research project

Under the 'Field and title of research project' please enter your proposed field or area of research if this is known. If the department has advertised a specific research project that you would like to be considered for, please enter the project title here instead.

You should not use this field to type out a full research proposal. You will be able to upload your research supporting materials separately if they are required (as described below).

Proposed supervisor

It is not necessary for you to identify a potential supervisor in your application.

However, please check that a supervisor with expertise in your proposed area of research is available before applying. Details can be found on the faculty website. You are free to consult a specialist in your field for advice on your project, if you think that would be helpful.

Referees: Three overall, academic preferred

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

References should generally be academic, though if you are returning to study after extended periods of non-academic employment then you are welcome to nominate professional referees where it would be impractical to call on your previous university tutors.

Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation, ability to work in both a group environment and sustained individual and self-motivated investigation.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Research proposal: A minimum of 500 words to a maximum of 1,000 words

Your research proposal must be written in English. A bibliography may also be provided and is not included in the word count, though any footnotes should be included.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

This should be a developed proposal of your individual research project. It will provide crucial evidence of your readiness for doctoral research. Your proposal should cover all of the following:

• a research question: the central issue or problem with which you intend to grapple, and a working title;
• historiography: some account of the current state of scholarship in this area. You may want to explain why you are dissatisfied with existing scholarship: is it limited, dated or unconvincing? What kind of contribution will your work make?
• sources: an indication of the sources you expect to use, where these can be found, how they will contribute to your research, what if any technical skills you will need to work with them (eg language, quantitative, use of specialist software), and whether you already have, or will need to acquire, those skills; and
• method: some discussion of your approach to dealing with sources and constructing your thesis. Some of the following considerations may apply. At what level is your inquiry: micro or local, regional or national, comparative or transnational? Will you be using qualitative or quantitative techniques? Samples or case studies? Will your research draw on a body of theory? Does your approach draw on the agenda or methods of related disciplines such as anthropology, or literary studies?

This will be assessed for:

• your reasons for applying
• the coherence of the proposal
• the originality of the project
• evidence of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study
• the ability to present a reasoned case in English
• the feasibility of successfully completing the project within three years
• preliminary knowledge of research techniques
• capacity for sustained and intense work
• the ability to contextualise, and analyse the evidence.

It will be normal for your ideas subsequently to change in some ways as you investigate the evidence and develop your project. You should nevertheless make the best effort you can to demonstrate the extent of your research question, sources and method at this moment.

Written work: An academic writing sample of no more than 4,000 words in total length

Written work should be from your most recent completed qualification, but does not need to relate closely to your proposed area of study. Extracts from a longer piece of work are welcome, but please include a preface which puts the work in context.

The work will be assessed for your:

• understanding of problems in the area
• ability to construct and defend an argument
• powers of analysis
• powers of expression.

It must be submitted in English (if this work has been translated, you must indicate if the translations are your own, or what assistance you had in producing the English text).

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document. Any footnotes should be included in the word count. A bibliography may also be provided and is not included in the word count.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please  refer to the requirements above  and  consult our Application Guide for advice . You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application Guide   Apply - Full time Apply - Part time

ADMISSION STATUS

Closed to applications for entry in 2024-25

Register to be notified via email when the next application cycle opens (for entry in 2025-26)

12:00 midday UK time on:

Friday 5 January 2024 Latest deadline for most Oxford scholarships Final application deadline for entry in 2024-25

*One-year of applications (2023-24)

This course has replaced the DPhil in History (History of Science and Economic and Social History)

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered by the Faculty of History

• Course page on the faculty's website
• Funding information from the faculty
• Academic and research staff
• Faculty research
• Humanities Division
• Residence requirements for full-time courses
• Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [email protected] ☎ +44 (0) 1865 615000

Application-process enquiries

See the application guide

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New Ideas for a Changing World

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“ Doctoral students are vital members of our intellectual community. They challenge existing ideas, develop new theories and techniques, and serve broadly as catalysts for innovation. ”

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Video Transcript

Baris Ata (00:00): When I came here, it felt like, "Now I'm in the major leagues." I realized how high the standards are.

Jane L. Risen (00:09): We're the oldest PhD program within a business school, which is pretty extraordinary to think of sort of how long ago the recognition was there that we wanted to be training not just business leaders in practice, but to be training the future leaders of academic discipline.

Ray Ball (00:26): So I arrived in 1966. Oh, it was marvelous. The place just crackled with ideas and open discussion, and I ended up throwing out all the ideas I came with.

Ann L. McGill (00:35): What I especially liked about learning things here is this is an interdisciplinary school, so you didn't have to dive in a silo. You can wrap your arms around huge areas.

Marianne Bertrand (00:46): What is special is that we are part of a business school, training PhD students across a range of disciplines, not just economics or finance, which we deploy in the Economics Department, but also students are doing psychology, operation research.

Ray Ball (00:59): At Chicago, the ideas were the authorities, not the people, and they were all up for grabs.

Amir Sufi (01:06): What we're trying to create here is people who produce knowledge, not just consume it. And that's the real challenge I think of PhD education.

Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva (01:15): I was never told at any point that, "Oh, this is not real finance. This question is too outside of the box." On the contrary, it was always, "You should do what you want to do, and we're going to think about placement once the paper is ready."

Jane L. Risen (01:32): You don't make any assumptions. You question everything.

Pradeep K. Chintagunta (01:35): It's not enough just to know what other people have done. It's also important to know what needs to be done next. To be able to do that, you need to be able to ask questions beyond the questions that have been asked in the previous literature or in the previous knowledge that's already out there.

Jeffrey R. Russell (01:53): When you're going to seminars here, or watching my colleagues talk in the hallways, you'll often see them in what look like very contentious battles. But really, they're just after, "What's the right answer?" When PhD students come here, they are able to sort of bring that into their own souls, and I think that really pushes them then to sort of be the best possible researcher that they can.

Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva (02:12): Chicago Booth is known for its quite aggressive questioning style. I think that we get a little bit of a bad rap. There is a point to the aggressive questioning, and it is to clarify the idea. In Chicago Booth the spirit is be tough on the idea, not on the person.

Amir Sufi (02:30): Throughout the world, we're appreciating more and more how influential research can be. I think our PhD students going forward will increasingly be placed in positions, both in scholarship and in government and in business, where they can have major influence.

Ray Ball (02:48): So the fact that this is the oldest doctoral program in business, that it has been going for 100 years, gives some indication of the commitment of this school to training people. We still have those same values, and so it's always going to generate people who change the world, who change the way we think. I can't tell you at this point how that will happen. That's exactly the idea. New people come in with new ideas, and they learn how to implement them in the school, and they change the way we think about the world. And that's going to keep going.

The nation’s first doctoral business program was born at the University of Chicago in 1920.

Since then, the faculty, alumni, and students of this preeminent PhD program have been driving the evolution of modern research in a wide range of disciplines, from accounting to behavioral science to finance. This research continues to make a lasting, real-world impact on the way scholars, government leaders, and industry professionals think about and conduct business.

Chicago Booth’s PhD Program Receives $100 Million Gift in Celebration of Its 100th Anniversary

On May 12, we celebrated the PhD program's centennial milestone and reflect on the tremendous impact PhD faculty, students, and alumni have made on research and business education throughout the decades. In this spirit, we were excited to announce that notable entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ross Stevens, PhD ’96, made a gift of $100 million to our program. Stevens spoke with conference attendees in a conversation moderated by Dean Madhav Rajan during the celebration’s Gala Dinner. Please find the event details below.

A Centennial Celebration

Our 100th anniversary celebration took place on Friday, May 12 and Saturday, May 13, 2023. The centennial celebration included an academic conference with plenary speakers and breakout sessions by discipline, as well as social events. It was a wonderful opportunity for alumni to reconnect with former classmates and Chicago Booth colleagues. Learn more about Chicago Booth's history and far-reaching contributions to business practice here .

See the 2023 Agenda  

Our History by the Numbers

PhDs Awarded Since 1920

PhD Alumni Living Across the Globe

PhD Alumni Working in Higher Education

PhD through the Years

1920 - Program Launches

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, known then as the College of Commerce and Administration, offers the nation’s first doctoral program in business.

The program is established by the school’s fourth dean, Leon Carroll Marshall, to support his vision of a community of scholars dedicated to the scientific study of business.

1922 - First PhD Graduates The doctoral program graduates its first PhD students: Albert Claire Hodge and Waldo Mitchell. Mitchell, the son of a Civil War veteran, was an Indiana native who grew up on his family’s farm. He taught classes in industrial society and business administration at Booth while pursuing his doctorate. During the program, Hodge wrote Principles of Accounting (1920), coauthored with James O. McKinsey, MA ’19,the future founder of consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Then-dean Leon C. Marshall provided the editor’s preface, describing his vision for the text to become part of a unified and coherent business curriculum, which was lacking at the collegiate level at the time.

1929 - First Woman PhD

The College of Commerce and Administration is the first American business school to grant a PhD in business to a woman, Ursula Batchelder Stone.

Stone devoted her life to teaching future generations of business leaders at George Williams College and improving her community. She served as president of the Hyde Park League of Women Voters and as executive director of the South East Chicago Commission, which sought to preserve Hyde Park.

1951 - PhD Alumnus Becomes Dean

John Jeuck, AB ’37, MBA ’38, PhD ’49, becomes dean of the business school. He streamlined the school’s curriculum, focused on faculty recruitment, opened a new downtown Chicago campus, and founded the Distinguished Fellows scholarship program for students.

Photo: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf1-05432], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

1960 - Alumnus Establishes CRSP

Professor James H. Lorie, PhD ’47, leads the establishment of Chicago Booth’s Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), a complete and accurate stock database to support financial and economic research. Lorie helped collect and research the accuracy on each piece of stock data, including prices, dividends, and rates of return on all stocks listed and trading on the New York Stock Exchange since 1929. The project allowed the average rate of return to be measured for the first time. Today, nearly 500 academic institutions in 35 countries rely on CRSP data to support academic research and classroom instruction.

1962 - Accounting Research Center Established

The PhD Program establishes the Institute of Professional Accounting, today called the Accounting Research Center, to advance accounting research and teaching among PhD students and faculty, who have played a central role in the evolution of modern accounting research. The Journal of Accounting Research was established the following year, and remains a leading academic business journal today.

1965 - Birth of Efficient Markets Theory

PhD alumnus and professor Eugene Fama, MBA ’63, PhD ’64, publishes the now-renowned efficient markets theory in an article, “The Behavior of Stock-Market Prices,” in the Journal of Business .

Fama defined a market to be efficient if prices incorporate all available information about future values. His theory led to efficient markets becoming the organizing principle for decades of empirical work in financial economics.

1966 - Building Community

Eight candidates in the incoming class of 24 are international students, an all-time high. To build community, the program increases the variety of student activities available, with plans to add a weekly coffee chat with faculty, seminars on teaching and communication, and a spring dinner honoring fellowship winners.

1971 - Homegrown Academics

By 1971, 11 of the school’s PhD alumni are senior faculty at the school.

1973 - Black-Scholes Model

A month after the Chicago Board Options Exchange introduced trade in options, finance professors Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, MBA ’64, PhD ’70, publish the Black-Scholes model, the first sound mathematical formula for valuing stock options, in the Journal of Political Economy . Traders on the exchange floor adopt the model almost immediately.

1977 - Yntema Wins Alumni Award Theodore O. Yntema, AM ’25, PhD ’29, wins the Distinguished Alumni Award. From the 1920s through the 1940s, Yntema was a pioneer contributor to the school of business and the field of quantitative analysis and finance. His career furnished a strong bond between the theoretical and analytical facets of finance and its application to modern corporate management. Photo: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf1-05432], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

1983 - Second PhD Alumnus Named Dean

John P. “Jack” Gould, MBA ’63, PhD ’66, becomes dean of Chicago Booth. He launched Booth’s first capital campaign, led the school’s international expansion to Europe, and paved the way for Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago. Photo: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, [apf1-07749], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

1986 - Sprinkel Wins Alumni Award

Beryl W. Sprinkel, MBA ’48, PhD ’52, wins the Distinguished Alumni Award. Sprinkel served as executive vice president and economist for the Harris Trust and Savings Bank in Chicago for 28 years. He later brought his expertise in business and academia to government as undersecretary of the Treasury for monetary affairs and chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers.

1994 - Pichler Wins Alumni Award

Alumnus Joseph A. Pichler, MBA ’63, PhD ’66, wins the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award. While president of the Kroger Company, Pichler was instrumental in saving Kroger from a hostile buyout in 1989. Because of his efforts, the company was able to retain its shareholders and keep all of its employees in place. Pichler was later named chairman and CEO of the company. Prior to joining Kroger, Pichler served as a faculty member and then dean of the University of Kansas School of Business.

1997 - Scholes Wins Nobel

Alumnus and professor Myron Scholes, MBA ’64, PhD ’70, wins the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for helping develop the formula used to value stock options, the Black-Scholes model.

2004 - Harper Center Opens

The Charles M. Harper Center opens. The new building houses Booth’s programs on the Hyde Park campus and provides dedicated space for PhD students.

2006 - Joint Program in Financial Economics Established

The program is run jointly by the finance dissertation area of the Chicago Booth PhD Program and the Department of Economics in UChicago’s Division of the Social Sciences. Students benefit from broad sets of instructors and classmates in both areas, and graduate with a doctor of philosophy degree in economics and finance.

2007 - Alumnus Wins Young Alumni Award

Clifford Asness, MBA ’91, PhD ’94, wins the Distinguished Young Alumni Award. At Goldman Sachs, Asness helped develop a computer model to identify the cheapest value stocks that started on an upward swing. The model also worked with currencies, commodities, and entire economies. Asness went on to form the prestigious investment management firm Applied Quantitative Research Capital Management LLC with former PhD classmates John Liew, AB ’89, PhD ’94, and Robert Krail.

2007 - Pichler Donation Furthers Professional Development

Joseph Pichler, MBA ’63, PhD ’66, and Susan Pichler make a generous gift to create the Pichler Initiative on Professional Development for PhD students. Led by Harry Davis, the Pichler Initiative supports ongoing activities that promote professional development and success for students in the PhD Program, focusing on writing, presentation, and job market skills. In recent years, the initiative has also developed cohort-based and cross-cohort programs to build community and foster peer support at all levels, and across all levels, of the PhD Program.

2007 - Katherine Dusak Miller, AB ’65, MBA ’68, PhD ’71, Leaves a Generous Gift from her Estate to the Booth School of Business

Katherine Dusak Miller, AB ’65, MBA ’68, PhD ’71, leaves a significant gift to the Booth School of Business through her estate. The majority of this gift is directed to the PhD Program and creates the Katherine Dusak Miller PhD Fellowship. Since its creation, this fellowship has provided many PhD students with invaluable stipend support.

2009 - Joint Program in Psychology and Business Established

Run jointly by the PhD Program’s behavioral science dissertation area and the Department of Psychology in the Division of Social Sciences, this program connects the large number of social, cognitive, and organizational psychologists at Chicago Booth and UChicago.

2013 - Fama and Hansen Win Nobel

Eugene Fama, MBA ’63, PhD ’64, and Lars Peter Hansen, David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, Statistics, the College and the Booth School of Business, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their groundbreaking research on efficient markets and their model for calculating stock returns.

2018 - McGiffert House PhD Floor Opens

With more than 100 carrels, several study rooms, a seminar room, and a kitchen and lounge, the third floor space at McGiffert allows the PhD Program to provide space to all PhD students. Advanced students retain space in Harper Center.

2019 - Ray Ball Wins Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize

Ray Ball, MBA ’68, PhD ’72, Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting, was awarded the 2019 Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for Quantitative Financial Innovation by the University of Pennsylvania’s Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center. Recognized for his article “An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers,” published in the Journal of Accounting Research in 1968, he conducts research that has revolutionized the understanding of the impact of corporate disclosure on share prices, and of earnings releases in particular; it laid the foundation for much of the modern accounting literature.

2019 - Homegrown Scholarship Continues Today, five PhD graduates serve as tenured or tenure-track faculty members at Chicago Booth: Ray Ball, Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting; Philip G. Berger, Wallman Family Professor of Accounting; Eugene Fama, Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance; João Granja, assistant professor of accounting; and Ann McGill, Sears Roebuck Professor of General Management, Marketing and Behavioral Science. Three additional PhD graduates also teach at Booth: Kevin Rock, clinical professor of finance; James Schrager, clinical professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management; and Ira Weiss, clinical professor of accounting and entrepreneurship.

2020 - Looking to the Future

Chicago Booth remains a proven training ground for scholars. Booth PhD graduates have secured professorships, fellowships, and professional jobs with some of the most elite institutions around the world. Their capacity for free thinking and their ability to conduct original, innovative research continue to advance the theory and practice of business.

An Early Trailblazer

Learn about the many accomplishments of Ursula Batchelder Stone, PhD ’29, the first woman to earn a PhD in business from an American university.

(Voiceover) Almost a century ago, in 1929, Booth alumna Ursula Batchelder Stone blazed trails when she became the first woman in the US to earn a PhD in business. At school, Stone specialized in consumer economics, arming her with the knowledge and skills to launch a consulting firm with close friend Rachel Marshall Goetz. Companies all across Chicago hired Stone's firm to analyze data to advance their business strategies. Stone went on to fight for women's suffrage and her community's safety. As president of the Hyde Park League of Women Voters, she galvanized women to improve their local government. As executive director of the Southeast Chicago Commission to Preserve Hyde Park, she helped revitalize the neighborhood with new housing and businesses. Stone later passed on her wisdom and experience to future generations as a professor at George Williams College in Hyde Park. She served as an inspiration to her students, who frequently wrote her letters of gratitude. A colleague once wrote, "Stone feels a successful dreaming towards a better world must be rooted in knowledge of the past, love for the scientific method, and a large sense of patience. She wants students to learn to trust themselves. To dream boldly ahead of where they are."

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What Can You Do with a PhD in History?

You’re a history buff — the person everyone wants on their trivia team. You can rattle off the dates, facts, and names of the world’s most significant events and periods. If you’re considering using your powers for good, getting a PhD in history is a great option. 

People with a passion for being stuck in the past have options once they’ve completed their history doctoral program. Beyond history jobs in academia, there’s a spot for a historian around the table in nearly every industry. The skill set required to complete a PhD opens up a variety of doors in whichever direction you choose to pursue. Here’s an idea of some things you can do with a PhD in History . 

If you see yourself leading the nation’s young people through their own historical journeys, a PhD prepares you to teach at almost any level, though going the professor route could be more lucrative than teaching high school. On average history professors make between $80,000-$164,000 per year. 

You’ll select your focus and spend your days sharing your passion with undergraduate and master’s level students. Along with teaching, if you pursue a history career in academia, you’ll likely spend some time researching topics within your wheelhouse. Re: your passion! 

If spending your days in front of the class, hosting debates, and leading young minds excites you, there might be even more time on a college campus in your future. However, tenured history professor roles may take some time to find and the salaries can range based on the type of university and location.  

Future Planning

Those studying the past usually have some insights into the future. If you’re looking to explore the world outside of strictly history, you might use your skills to find a career in future planning. No, not retirement planning (though that’s an option too).

Historians have a knack for identifying themes and patterns in culture, politics, and the world. A history PhD program allows you to use your historical knowledge to contribute to the modern world by making an impact on the community around you. Many politicians, inclusion officers, grant writers, and even human resource managers use their history PhDs to influence their worlds. 

Your ability to think critically about the past and lend your knowledge to the future makes you an asset to any organization looking to excel into the modern world. Be prepared to market yourself as someone who can best set the organization up for success in an ever-changing world. 

Business/Technology

In the business and technology world, it’s all about understanding the customer. Who are you selling to? What is their day-to-day life like? How do you best understand their needs and wants? 

As a historian, your ability to communicate with a diverse population and understand the context of their lives makes you especially valuable on a sales, marketing, development, or innovation team. As a PhD, employers know you are well-read, have strong research skills and have spent many, many, many hours writing. It’s no surprise that Historians make excellent copywriters, marketers, and editors. 

We won’t lie to you, there aren’t many Fortune 500 CEOs that can claim a doctorate in history. Most CEOs have MBAs or degrees in engineering. But there should be more historians up at the top — maybe you have what it takes. 

Intelligence Analysis

You may not be the next Indiana Jones, but you might cut it as a secret agent. The ability to analyze and synthesize information from various sources is crucial for intelligence analysts — and history PhDs have that in spades. 

Skilled at recognizing biases, evaluating the reliability of sources, and making informed judgments based on incomplete or uncertain information, historians have a strong ability to think critically and evaluate evidence. 

Additionally, historians have a deep understanding of the historical, cultural and social context in which events occur. This understanding can help you identify underlying factors and motivations that may not be immediately apparent to others. 

Archivist/Historian

If you’ve always dreamed about a career in history, this is likely what you’ve pictured. Spending days dusting off old newspapers and curating the perfect collection of artifacts — historians and archivists are often hired by governments or organizations to collect, analyze, organize, and preserve important documents and artifacts. 

Companies may hire a historian to reflect on the organization’s past in order to better inform their future choices or to maintain an existing collection of artifacts. We get it. We saw National Treasure, too. This would be a pretty amazing career.

The salary for historian jobs   can vary based on size of the organization and unfortunately, the importance they place on preserving their history. For reference, the average PhD in history salary is $75,000 in the U.S.

Become a Historian at SMU

So, what can you do with a PhD in history? You can make sense of the past to inform the future, you can write exceptionally well, and you can excel in nearly any industry. Simply holding your doctoral degree in history shows employers the determination you have. There should be a seat saved for you at every company, college, and organization looking to succeed.

Ready to get started?

Explore what you can do with a PhD in History, read the guide Reanalyzing Our World, PhDs in The Humanities at SMU !

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The Geography of History PhDs

Dylan Ruediger | May 7, 2018

The AHA’s “ Where Historians Work ” is an ambitious research project designed to track the career outcomes of everyone who earned a PhD in history from 2004–13 in the United States. Last year, we launched a beta version of “Where Historians Work” showing initial results from 34 PhD programs. Since then, we have gathered information on the remaining 127 PhD programs, locating some 8,000 individuals using publicly available information. We are now in a position to truly understand the national landscape of employment for history PhDs. 

Later this spring we’ll publish a series of interactive visualizations that highlight what we have learned about historians and their careers, while allowing users to ask research questions about the data. As we’ve gathered data, we’ve published several blog posts on our findings, focused on describing the incredible range of careers we have discovered in the data. This post focuses on the geography of historians with a PhD, bringing a new and more literal sense of where historians work into the mix.

Fig. 1. Geographical dispersal of history PhDs, 2004–13

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the geography of history PhDs closely replicates population patterns in the United States, making “the same places everyone else does” the most straightforward answer to the question of where historians work. History PhDs congregate in high population states: of the 15 most populous states, only Washington and Arizona are not also among the top 15 for employing PhDs from our cohort. (For state population, visit census.gov .)

Another clear pattern is that states that award the largest numbers of history PhDs, many of which have high populations overall, tend to also employ them in the largest numbers. Fifteen states and 98 PhD programs account for 72 percent of all history PhDs earned from 2004–13. These 15 states also employed 50 percent of those historians, a big number to be sure, but one that left room for them to “export” large numbers of PhDs to other states. California, for example, is home to over 600 historians, but awarded over 1,100 PhDs in the discipline. The states that “export” PhDs appear to send them to the Southeast and West, both regions that are home to more PhDs than were trained within their borders.

Fig. 2. States home to the largest number of history PhDs

As you might expect, the careers historians build differ depending on where they live. Sometimes, it seems possible to speculate about why this might be. In California, for instance, only 38 percent of historians work in four-year tenure-track positions, while in South Dakota, over 80 percent do. South Dakota is one of the few states that does not host a PhD program, and it seems that few historians move there except for those who land tenure-track positions. In contrast, California’s high quality of life and diversified economy seem to attract them in large numbers. However, numbers at the state level vary significantly and often are complicated by small samples (as in the case of South Dakota, home to only 12 history PhDs in our cohort), making it difficult to draw firm conclusions.

Fig. 3. Employment categories by region

Seen regionally, PhD employment patterns begin to even out, though not without suggesting subtle variations in the regional economies. Tenure-track employment is most common in the Southeast, Great Plains, and Great Lakes, and least common in the far West. In contrast, non-tenure-track rates are relatively stable across regions, except in the West and Southwest, where over a quarter of history PhDs are employed in contingent positions. Outside the professoriate, historians disperse in slightly different directions as they take advantage of regional economic opportunities. In New England, PhDs find more opportunities in academic administration, while those out West are most likely to be employed in the private sector.

In general, PhDs working in large urban areas seem to be employed in more diverse jobs than those living in rural areas and college towns. Large cities tend to have lower rates of employment on the tenure track and are hubs for those working in the nonprofit and business sector. Cities also tend to have high rates of historians teaching off the tenure track.

No major city is more distinctive, though, than the District of Columbia. DC is home to only 700,000 residents and is a mere 68 square miles, but only five states employ more historians than the city. The 295 history PhDs we have located working here are remarkable not only for their density, but for their employment patterns, which look like nowhere else in the country. Over 75 percent of all historians employed by the federal government work in the District. Even so, fewer than half of DC’s history PhDs work for the federal government because the District is also a national hub for historians in the nonprofit and business sectors. Nine percent of all history PhDs employed by nonprofits work in in DC; only the State of New York employs more. Likewise, only California and New York employ more historians in the private sector than DC. In another dramatic departure from national averages, only 18 percent of DC historians work as postsecondary teachers compared to 75 percent who do so nationally.

Knowing where historians live raises important questions about the relationship between mobility and careers, a perennial, controversial, and poorly understood aspect of PhD culture. PhD candidates have long been told that their ability to find employment rests on their willingness to move anywhere in pursuit of a tenure-track job. Without question, many history PhDs appear to follow this path. However, department-level data (available in the forthcoming version of Where Historians Work) shows that in many departments, graduates cluster in the cities and regions where they receive their degrees. These geographies no doubt reflect hierarchies of prestige within the discipline: earlier studies of historical careers done by the AHA have found that graduates from high-prestige programs scatter more widely than those from ones with regional reputations, a pattern that seems to still hold true. The geographical data also highlights the existence of regional employment patterns that complicate our sense of a single national academic job market. More importantly, they suggest that many PhDs have ties of family, friendship, and circumstance in the regions where they earn their degrees, and build careers that reflect those roots. Our data speak to outcomes rather than motivations, but knowing more about where historians live is a crucial step towards untangling the question of why.

This post first appeared on AHA Today .

Tags: AHA Today Career Diversity for Historians Graduate Education

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U.S. News & World Report ranks UNI among 2024 Best Graduate Schools

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa –  U.S. News & World Report has once again ranked the University of Northern Iowa among its list of 2024 Best Graduate Schools. Designed for prospective students looking to further their education beyond an undergraduate degree, the  Best Graduate Schools rankings evaluate programs in a variety of disciplines, including business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing. 

UNI’s honored programs for graduate education are a combination of face-to-face, entirely online and hybrid degrees offered in partnership with all UNI colleges,  Online and Distance Education , and the  College of Graduate, Research and Online Education where more than 80 degree, certificate and endorsement programs are housed. 

“It’s incredibly gratifying to have UNI recognized as a national leader in graduate education,” said Steph Huffman, associate vice president for strategic initiatives and dean of the College of Graduate, Research and Online Education. “UNI has a strong, long-standing history of developing educators, innovators, strategic leaders and other professionals who serve our schools, businesses and organizations, and communities. This ranking reflects our commitment to providing high-quality, impactful graduate educational opportunities.”

By collecting graduate school data annually, U.S. News is able to present the most current figures on enrollment, job placement, faculty and other critical quality indicators that help prospective students make informed decisions.

UNI’s  College of Education offers 10 master's programs and a doctoral program which are represented within the graduate rankings of Best Education Schools. These range from advanced degrees like elementary and early childhood education to programs that prepare school administrators, school psychologists and teacher librarians.

"The ranking continues to represent our outstanding faculty, innovative curriculum, and our ability to meet students where they are to deliver an experience that is individualized, relevant and meaningful,” said Amy Nielsen, the College of Education’s interim associate dean of graduate studies.

UNI also ranks among the top in the country for its  part-time MBA in the Wilson College of Business. 

"I am proud to see our MBA program recognized again as one of the top programs in the nation," said Leslie Wilson, dean of the Wilson College. "I know our faculty are working diligently to ensure our curriculum meets the needs of students preparing to be global business leaders. From the use of AI, addressing supply chain disruptions, and managing a remote workforce, we seek to provide our students with the necessary skills and knowledge to address the changing landscape and excel in their careers. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff and students, who have helped make our program successful."

UNI’s  Speech-Language Pathology M.A. is among the top 100 speech pathology programs in the rankings. Students benefit from valuable clinical experience at the Roy Eblen Speech and Hearing Clinic located conveniently on campus.

“We take pride in offering students a comprehensive educational experience that combines hands-on clinical exposure, rigorous coursework, and valuable research opportunities with faculty members,” said Jennifer Garrett, head of the UNI Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “This recognition reaffirms our department's commitment to excellence in training future speech-language pathologists. With the experiences they gain here, our students graduate as highly competent professionals, ready to make meaningful contributions to improving the lives of individuals with communication disorders.”

UNI’s  Master of Public Policy Program is recognized as one of the Best Public Affairs Programs by U.S. News & World Report. With its fully online format, the program is ideal for those seeking career advancement within public service and nonprofit organizations in the field of public policy. 

“As the only nationally accredited program in the state, earning this recognition reflects our commitment to excellence and innovation in preparing future leaders for impactful public policy careers,” said Chris Larimer, MPP program coordinator and professor in the Department of Political Science. 

The University of Northern Iowa ranks highly in a number of U.S. News categories, including ranking  second best among regional public universities in the Midwest . It also ranks among the best value schools, best colleges for veterans and most innovative schools.

Media Contact: Adam Amdor

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