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Registrar's Web Team
19 August 1997
Degrees Offered
Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy
With nearly fifty full-time or jointly appointed members, the Department of Government is one of the largest political science faculties in the country. The department houses three research centers: the Center for Deliberative Polling; the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, an independent organization; and the Public Policy Clinic. The department's research resources include excellent computer facilities and an extensive collection of machine-readable social science data.
Students in the department also take advantage of many of the University's research facilities and programs, including the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Centers for Asian Studies; Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; and Middle Eastern Studies. Many other units provide institutional support for political scientists, including the Brazil Center, the Clark Center for Australian Studies, and the Center for African and African American Studies.
The University has one of the largest academic libraries in the United States, with many collections of value for research in government and politics; these include the Benson Latin American Collection, the Grattan collection on Australia, the Woodrow Wilson collection, the Tobenken collection on the Russian Revolution, the Jaffe collection on political radicalism, and a variety of special materials on southern and western Americana, Southwestern history and politics, India, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the British Commonwealth. The library system also includes the Center for American History, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Tarlton Law Library. The Edie and Lew Wasserman Public Affairs Library contains a wide range of publications concerning public policy. The campus is the site of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, an invaluable resource for the study of twentieth-century politics.
All candidates for graduate degrees are expected to develop a broad competence in the discipline as a whole as well as expertise in specific areas. The program offers specialized instruction in the following fields: American politics, comparative politics, formal theory, international relations, methodology, political behavior, political economy, political theory, public law, and public policy.
Master of Arts. Students pursuing this degree take at least thirty semester hours of coursework. The program requires at least twenty-one hours of graduate coursework, including the thesis, and six hours of supporting coursework outside the department. Most students complete the degree in four semesters. Working full-time on the degree, it is possible to finish the program in two semesters and one summer session, or twelve months.
Doctor of Philosophy. A doctoral degree candidate must fulfill the following general requirements: (1) complete three foundation courses in political science and more specialized coursework in three fields of study; (2) demonstrate language proficiency or competence in quantitative research methods; (3) pass written examinations in two fields and demonstrate competence in a third field through coursework; (4) prepare and defend a dissertation proposal; and (5) write an original dissertation and successfully defend it in oral examination. Additional information on specific requirements and procedures is available from the department.
Campus address: Burdine Hall (BUR) 536, Phone (512) 471-5121, Fax
(512) 471-1061
Mailing address: Graduate Program, Department of Government, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1087
E-mail: govgrad@jeeves.la.utexas.edu
URL: http://www.la.utexas.edu/depts/gov/home.htm
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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