Current PhD Degree Requirements (Since Fall 2018) 

If you are looking for information about the old PhD degree requirements (prior to Fall 2018), you can find it hereA summary flowchart

1. Language/Linguistics

1.1 Course work

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students must:
  • complete 24 credits
    • all 24 credits must be earned in courses numbered 400 or higher, with at least 18 credits earned in courses numbered 600 or higher (not including 699).
• Note that:
  • the minimum grade required for a course to count towards a graduate degree is a grade of C.
  • any courses that are officially audited do not count toward the degree and full-time/part-time enrollment status and are not included in your financial aid eligibility.
  • incomplete grades must be cleared before the following deadlines: April 1 for Fall semester incompletes and November 1 for Spring or Summer session incompletes

1.2  Second East Asian Language Requirement

• The second East Asian language requirement must be satisfied before students advance to candidacy.
• There are several ways in which the second East Asian language requirement may be satisfied:
  • successfully complete (with a letter grade or credit/no credit) the first two-year courses in the language (101-202)
  • take the appropriate placement test and be placed in 301 or higher.
  • students may choose a non-East Asian language to satisfy the requirement provided that (i) the language is relevant to their research, (ii) students’ proficiency in the language can be assessed by an appropriate expert, and (iii) students receive their faculty advisor’s approval.

1.3 Qualifying exam

• Students must schedule and complete the qualifying exam by the end of their third semester by first informing their faculty advisor and the Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) when they plan to take their exam.
• The exam covers three areas that are chosen by students with consultation with their academic advisors.
• Questions are provided by appropriate EALL/non-EALL graduate faculty members.
• The exam is administered in a designated room with a proctor over three days (one area per day)
• Students type their answers using a designated computer.
• Students’ answers are evaluated by appropriate EALL/non-EALL graduate faculty members.
• Students may fail the exam once. Failing to pass the exam for more than once may result in students’ dismissal from the program.

1.4 Comprehensive exam

• In lieu of exams, EALL language/linguistics PhD students must:
  1. submit two scholarly papers and receive passing evaluations for both of them, and
  2. give a presentation based on one of the scholarly papers and submit proof of the presentation, in order to pass the comprehensive exam.
• Students are expected to closely work with their academic advisors throughout the process of developing research projects and writing up their scholarly papers.
• The two scholarly papers should be about two substantially different research topics, ideally from two different sub-fields of East Asian Linguistics, such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, first language acquisition, second language acquisition, language pedagogy, curriculum assessment, etc.
• A scholarly paper is evaluated by two reviewers
  1. The main reviewer must be an EALL graduate faculty.
  2. The main reviewer should be a faculty whose specializations are relevant to the topic of a scholarly paper. Therefore, the main reviewer does not have to be the academic advisor. 
  3. Even when the academic advisor is not the main reviewer of a scholarly paper, the academic advisor is still responsible for finding and contacting an appropriate second reviewer in consultation with the main reviewer.
  4. The second reviewer may be a graduate faculty in another department or another institution.   
• If a student has a manuscript that has officially been accepted by a reputable journal (i.e., a journal that uses a double-blind review process) the manuscript can be accepted as a scholarly paper without the usual evaluation process as long as (i) the research based on which the manuscript was written was conducted after s/he joined our PhD program, (ii) the advisor attests to the journal’s status in the relevant field (in consultation with another faculty, if needed), and (iii) the topic of the manuscript is substantially different from the topic of the other scholarly paper.
• Students should submit their scholarly papers to their academic advisor and to the Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina)
• In order to satisfy the presentation requirement, students must:
  1. give a presentation that is based on the research project whose findings are reported in one of the two scholarly papers.
  2. give a presentation in English at a formal venue, such as a conference and workshop (e.g., LLL graduate student conference), or departmental colloquium (e.g.,  EALL talk)
• The reviewers complete the PhD Comprehensive Exam Evaluation Form and submit it to the Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina).  

1.5 Dissertation committee 

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students should form a dissertation committee.
• Students are strongly encouraged to study Graduate Division’s requirements for dissertation committees.
• A dissertation committee should satisfy the following criteria:
  1. a dissertation committee must have five members or more.
  2. the majority of the dissertation committee should be EALL graduate faculty, although exceptions are possible.
  3. emeriti faculty may serve on a committee at the request of the student and the graduate program. Non-graduate faculty may serve on a committee under special circumstances.
  4. a dissertation must have a university representative (UR) from a different graduate program. UR serves as a liaison between Graduate Division and the student’s committee.

1.6 Dissertation proposal

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students should prepare a dissertation proposal that describes the scope of the planned dissertation and a concrete plan for the dissertation.
• The dissertation proposal must be presented to the members of their dissertation committee members and be approved by them (by signing the dissertation proposal approval form and completing the Form II via Kuali Build).
• If students plan to conduct research involving the use of human subjects, they must obtain approval from the Office of Research Compliance Human Studies Program.

1.7 Advancement to candidacy

• Once students complete the course requirements, the qualifying and comprehensive exams, the second East Asian language requirement, and have their dissertation proposal approved by their dissertation committee, and Form II is approved by Graduate Division, students are advanced to candidacy (i.e., they are A(ll)B(ut)D(issertation)).
• Students who have advanced to ABD status should be registered for EALL 800 while they work on writing their dissertation.
  • If you are a non-resident student, you will need to inform the UH Cashier’s Office that you are a non-resident taking EALL 800, so they can adjust your tuition to the resident tuition rate before you pay your tuition.
  • Please note that if you are taking other courses, you will still be charged the non-resident tuition rate for these courses.
  • ABD students still need to complete the academic advising form and submit a dissertation progress report every semester.

1.8 Dissertation defense 

• The dissertation defense is an oral examination open to the public, during which the author of a dissertation demonstrates to his or her committee satisfactory command of all aspects of the work presented in the dissertation. Students are strongly encouraged to study Graduate Division’s description of dissertation defenses.
• Once their dissertation is ready to be defended, in consultation with their academic advisors, students should make arrangements for their dissertation defense.
  1. The defense must be two hours in length. It should be scheduled between 8:00 am to 4:30 pm on any work day, during both instructional and non-instructional periods.
  2. Contact the members of their dissertation committee and find out a mutually agreeable time for the dissertation defense and make a reservation for an appropriate venue for the defense (e.g., Moore 258, Moore 155A)
  3. Contact Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) and Graduate Chair (Shin Fukuda) and inform your plan to them.

Given the current restrictions due to the pandemic,​ ​PhD dissertation defenses must be carried out as a videoconference or a teleconference.​ ​For the time being, students are not required to complete and submit Petition for Remote Committee Participation. 

​Scheduling a virtual defense​

• The defense must be two hours in length. It should be scheduled between 8:00 am to 4:30 pm (HST) on any work day, to the extent practically possible, during both instructional and non-instructional periods.
• ​Students will ​contact the members of their dissertation committee and find a mutually agreeable time for the dissertation defense​.
• Students should make sure that the​ committee members​ have access to the videoconferencing software that will be used for the defense (e.g., Zoom) and provide sufficient information about the video-conferencing software in case the committee members are not familiar with it.
  • Use of Zoom is strongly recommended because UH has a license with Zoom and ITS can provide technical support if needed. If you need information about using Zoom, please visit this link.
  • If students plan to use Zoom, their Dissertation Chair should create the zoom link using their hawaii.edu email to be the host of the event. S/he should also create a breakout room for the committee members to go to after the defense to discuss the defense privately. 
  • For any technical issues on the day of your conference please contact the Video Operations Center at (808) 956-5191. For assistance after hours, weekends, or holidays, you may contact the ITS Help Desk at (808) 956-8883 / toll free: (800) 558-2669, or email: help@hawaii.edu.
• Videoconference or teleconference must be of sufficient and consistent quality such that the participants are at minimum able to hear any presentation being made and any discussions as appropriate, and preferably to see any such presentation and discussion.
• ​Contact Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) and Graduate Chair (Shin Fukuda) and inform your plan to them

​Before and during the defense:​

• All materials including powerpoint slides, a handout, any other visual aids​, that will be used during the defense​ should be distributed in advance to the committee members no later than 48 hours prior to the scheduled defense.
• Audio/video recording of a dissertation defense will not be permitted unless students obtain the written consent of all committee members prior to the event (e-mail messages will be acceptable).
• If the defense will be video-recorded, that information must be included in an announcement of the defense so that public attendees would be aware.
• Public attendees must be able to hear and see the defense presentation and at a minimum hear the committee members’ interventions/discussions.

• Audio/video recording of a dissertation defense will not be permitted unless the student obtains the written consent of all committee members prior to the event (e-mail messages will be acceptable).
• Submit the final oral form to the Graduate Division; flyer for dissertation defense; need student’s abstract for the flyer
• A draft of the dissertation should be distributed among the dissertation committee members by the deadline previously agreed on by the dissertation committee members, but no later than two weeks prior to the defense.
• It is preferable that all members of the dissertation committees be physically present at the dissertation. However, if necessary, any member of the dissertation committee may participate remotely, as long as the petition for remote committee participation is submitted and approved in advance.
  • A proxy member may be used as a last resort but it cannot be used for the chair or university representative. To use a proxy member, a written request must be submitted to Graduate Division via the Graduate Chair. For more information, please see this link.
• A majority of the committee, including the chair and university representative, must approve of the defense in order for the student to pass (by completing Form III via Kuali Build).

1.9 Graduation 

• The submission deadline for the revised dissertation is due to the students’ advisors by April 1 in the Spring semester and November 1 in the Fall semester.
• Once the final version of the dissertation is approved, Form IV should be completed and submitted via Kuali Build.
• Students are expected to complete all the degree requirements in 7 years. After they have reached their 7th year, students are placed on academic probation and required to Graduate Division’s approval for a petition to extend graduation in order to register for the following semester.
• Records of academic probation will be removed once all the degree requirements are completed,
• Before graduation, students must
  • apply for graduation by submitting the Graduate Application for Degree form by the posted deadlines in the UHM Academic Calendar.
  • complete a mandatory survey (SED)
  • Finalized dissertation must be submitted to Graduate Division through ProQuest ETD by the graduating student himself/herself before May 1 in the Spring semester and December 1 in the Fall semester. For more information: http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/content/proquest-etd-submission-publication
  • e-mail a pdf copy of their final dissertation to EALL Graduate Advisor, Cherry Lacsina
  • Students who plan to attend the commencement should register online and make sure that the academic advisor (or a member of the dissertation committee) is available to hood them at the commencement. Students should also inform Cherry Lacsina if you plan to attend commencement.

2. Literature

2.1 Course work

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students must:
  • complete 24 credits
    • All 24 credits must be earned in courses numbered 400 or higher, with at least 18 credits earned in courses numbered 600 or higher (not including 699)
       
• Note that:
  • the minimum grade required for a course to count towards a graduate degree is a grade of C.
  • any courses that are officially audited do not count toward the degree and full-time/part-time enrollment status and are not included in your financial aid eligibility.
  • incomplete grades must be cleared before the following deadlines: April 1 for Fall semester incompletes and November 1 for Spring or Summer session incompletes

2.2  Second East Asian Language Requirement

• The second East Asian language requirement must be satisfied before students advance to candidacy.
• There are several ways in which the second East Asian language requirement may be satisfied:
  • successfully complete (with a letter grade or credit/no credit) the first two-year courses in the language (101-201)
  • take the appropriate placement test and be placed in 202 or higher.
  • students may choose a non-East Asian language to satisfy the requirement provided that (i) the language is relevant to their research and (ii) students’ proficiency in the language can be assessed by an appropriate expert.

2.3 Qualifying exam

• The student must schedule the qualifying exam by the end of their third semester.
• In consultation with their academic advisor, the student will prepare a research statement that describes the broad research area/topic that they intend to pursue and demonstrates evidence of students’ knowledge and training in the relevant area/topic.
• The qualifying exam should be administered by at least two faculty members from the student’s section (subject to availability of relevant faculty members). 
• If there is a compelling reason, a third member could be included from other sections in EALL or other programs, in consultation with the graduate chair. 
• The evaluation of the research statement will be followed by an interview with the same faculty members who evaluated the written statement.
• Students may fail the exam once. Failing to pass the exam for more than once may result in students’ dismissal from the program.

2.4 Comprehensive exam

• Comprehensive exam for EALL literature PhD students consists of written exams in three areas followed by an oral exam.
• In consultation with their academic advisor and the other faculty members on the committee, students will choose three areas that should aim to strike a sound balance between contributions to students’ specific research toward the planned dissertation project and the development of an extensive grasp of the current state of the major field of study. (Revised June 2021)
• Students should form a comprehensive exam committee with at least three members, who provide the exam questions and evaluate students’ answers in both written and oral exams (Note that the members of the comprehensive exam committee do not have to constitute a subset of the dissertation committee).(Revised June 2021)
• The written exams are take-home, and students are given one week per question to complete and submit their answers.
• The exam questions are submitted to the Graduate Advisor, who in turn sends them to students on a predetermined date.(Revised 2021)
• Students must type their answers for written exam questions.
• Students’ answers to the questions are submitted to the Graduate Advisor before a predetermined deadline, and the Graduate Advisor distributes them to the appropriate committee members.(Revised June 2021)
• An oral exam should be scheduled following the end of a three-week written-exam period.
• Students and their academic advisors should make sure that there is sufficient time between the end of the written exam period and the oral exam so that the comprehensive exam committee members can evaluate the exam answers.
• Students may fail the exam once. Failing to pass the exam for more than once may result in students’ dismissal from the program.

2.5 Dissertation committee 

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students should form a dissertation committee.
• Students are strongly encouraged to study Graduate Division’s requirements for dissertation committees.
• A dissertation committee should satisfy the following criteria:
  1. a dissertation committee must have five members or more.
  2. the majority of the dissertation committee should be EALL graduate faculty, although exceptions are possible.
  3. emeriti faculty may serve on a committee at the request of the student and the graduate program. Non-graduate faculty may serve on a committee under special circumstances.
  4. a dissertation must have a university representative (UR) from a different graduate program. UR serves as a liaison between Graduate Division and the student’s committee.

2.6 Dissertation proposal

• In consultation with their academic advisors, students should prepare a dissertation proposal that describes the scope of the planned dissertation and a concrete plan for the dissertation.
• The dissertation proposal must be presented to the members of their dissertation committee members and be approved by them (by signing the dissertation proposal approval form and completing the Form II via Kuali Build).

2.7 Advancement to candidacy

• Once students complete the course requirements, the qualifying and comprehensive exams, the second East Asian language requirement, and have their dissertation proposal approved by their dissertation committee, and Form II is approved by Graduate Division, students are advanced to candidacy (i.e., they are A(ll)B(ut)D(issertation)).
• Students who have advanced to ABD status should be registered for EALL 800 while they work on writing their dissertation.
  • If you are a non-resident student, you will need to inform the UH Cashier’s Office that you are a non-resident taking EALL 800, so they can adjust your tuition to the resident tuition rate before you pay your tuition.
  • Please note that if you are taking other courses, you will still be charged the non-resident tuition rate for these courses.
  • ABD students still need to complete the academic advising form and submit a dissertation progress report every semester.

2.8 Dissertation defense 

• The dissertation defense is an oral examination open to the public, during which the author of a dissertation demonstrates to his or her committee satisfactory command of all aspects of the work presented in the dissertation. Students are strongly encouraged to study Graduate Division’s description of dissertation defenses.
• Once their dissertation is ready to be defended, with the consultation of their academic advisors, students should make arrangements for their dissertation defense.
  1. The defense must be two hours in length. It should be scheduled between 8:00 am to 4:30 pm on any work day, during both instructional and non-instructional periods.
  2. Contact the members of their dissertation committee and find out a mutually agreeable time for the dissertation defense and make a reservation for an appropriate venue for the defense (e.g., Moore 258, Moore 155A)
  3. Contact Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) and Graduate Chair (Shin Fukuda)  and inform your plan to them.

Given the current restrictions due to the pandemic,​ ​PhD dissertation defenses must be carried out as a videoconference or a teleconference.​ ​For the time being, students are not required to complete and submit Petition for Remote Committee Participation. 

​Scheduling a virtual defense​

• The defense must be two hours in length. It should be scheduled between 8:00 am to 4:30 pm (HST) on any work day, to the extent practically possible, during both instructional and non-instructional periods.
• ​Students will ​contact the members of their dissertation committee and find a mutually agreeable time for the dissertation defense​.
• Students should make sure that the​ committee members​ have access to the videoconferencing software that will be used for the defense (e.g., Zoom) and provide sufficient information about the video-conferencing software in case the committee members are not familiar with it.
  • Use of Zoom is strongly recommended because UH has a license with Zoom and ITS can provide technical support if needed. If you need information about using Zoom, please visit this link.
  • If students plan to use Zoom, their Dissertation Chair should create the zoom link using their hawaii.edu email to be the host of the event. S/he should also create a breakout room for the committee members to go to after the defense to discuss the defense privately. 
  • For any technical issues on the day of your conference please contact the Video Operations Center at (808) 956-5191. For assistance after hours, weekends, or holidays, you may contact the ITS Help Desk at (808) 956-8883 / toll free: (800) 558-2669, or email: help@hawaii.edu.
• Videoconference or teleconference must be of sufficient and consistent quality such that the participants are at minimum able to hear any presentation being made and any discussions as appropriate, and preferably to see any such presentation and discussion.
• ​Contact Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) and Graduate Chair (Shin Fukuda) and inform your plan to them

​Before and during the defense:​

• All materials including powerpoint slides, a handout, any other visual aids​, that will be used during the defense​ should be distributed in advance to the committee members no later than 48 hours prior to the scheduled defense.
• Audio/video recording of a dissertation defense will not be permitted unless students obtain the written consent of all committee members prior to the event (e-mail messages will be acceptable).
• If the defense will be video-recorded, that information must be included in an announcement of the defense so that public attendees would be aware.
• Public attendees must be able to hear and see the defense presentation and at a minimum hear the committee members’ interventions/discussions.

• Audio/video recording of a dissertation defense will not be permitted unless the student obtains the written consent of all committee members prior to the event (e-mail messages will be acceptable).
• Submit the final oral form to the Graduate Division
• Provide the title of your dissertation, an abstract of your dissertation, and the information about your defense to Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) so that she can make a flyer for dissertation defense
• A draft of the dissertation should be distributed among the dissertation committee members by the deadline previously agreed on by the dissertation committee members, but no later than two weeks prior to the defense.
• It is preferable that all members of the dissertation committees be physically present at the dissertation. However, if necessary, any member of the dissertation committee may participate remotely, as long as the petition for remote committee participation is submitted and approved in advance.
  • A proxy member may be used as a last resort but it cannot be used for the chair or university representative. To use a proxy member, a written request must be submitted to Graduate Division via the Graduate Chair. For more information, please see this link.
• A majority of the committee, including the chair and university representative, must approve of the defense in order for the student to pass (by completing Form III via Kuali Build).

2.9 Graduation 

• The submission deadline for the revised dissertation is due to the students’ advisors by April 1 in the Spring semester and November 1 in the Fall semester.
• Once the final version of the dissertation is approved, Form IV should be completed and submitted via Kuali Build.
• Students are expected to complete all the degree requirements in 7 years. After they have reached their 7th year, students are placed on academic probation and required to Graduate Division’s approval for a petition to extend graduation in order to register for the following semester.
• Records of academic probation will be removed once all the degree requirements are completed,
• Before graduation, students must
  • apply for graduation by submitting the Graduate Application for Degree form by the posted deadlines in the UHM Academic Calendar.
  • complete a mandatory survey (SED)
  • Finalized dissertation must be submitted to Graduate Division through ProQuest ETD by the graduating student himself/herself before May 1 in the Spring semester and December 1 in the Fall semester. For more information: http://www.manoa.hawaii.edu/graduate/content/proquest-etd-submission-publication
  • e-mail a pdf copy of their final dissertation to EALL Graduate Advisor, Cherry Lacsina
  • Students who plan to attend the commencement should inform Graduate Advisor (Cherry Lacsina) their intention to attend commencement, register online, and make sure that the academic advisor (or a member of the dissertation committee) is available to hood them at the commencement.