Dual Doctoral Major Request

Michigan State University offers doctoral students the exceptional opportunity to work in conjunction with faculty mentors to develop a dual major doctoral program. Such a program will reflect the required courses and standards for both programs with a single dissertation, resulting in a single degree.

Policy

All dual major doctoral degrees must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. A request for the dual major degree must be submitted via GradPlan within one semester following its development and within the first two years of the student’s enrollment at Michigan State University.

In order to receive a dual major, the following conditions must be met:

The intent to receive the degree in two areas must be outlined in the guidance committee report.
The guidance committee will include members from both doctoral programs.
The Ph.D. Degree Plan must reflect the required standards for both doctoral programs.
The integrated course work must be satisfactory to both graduate programs and meet the requirements for awarding a degree in that program.
The comprehensive examination must be passed to the satisfaction of both departments.
Responsible Conduct of Research requirements will be approved by the guidance committee; they should meet the RECR requirements in both programs.
There must be a single dissertation that represents an integration of the two disciplinary areas.
Guidance committee members from both departments must be satisfied that the dissertation represents a contribution meeting the usual standards in both areas.

Procedure

The student should work with the graduate program administrators in both of their programs to initiate a dual major request form. Once approved by all parties, this form becomes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two programs and colleges. The Graduate School does not have a standard form to use. Some programs/colleges have their own forms. If there is no form, a simple document with the required information will suffice.

The form must be approved by both graduate programs and the college(s) before being sent to the Graduate School for approval. To send to the Graduate School, the student must upload their MOU, including all approval signatures/emails, to GradPlan under “Requests.” If the Graduate School approves, the dual major will be applied in Campus Solutions by the student’s college. If it is denied, the student will receive a notification with comments.

Process Map

View a map of this process here.

Required Information

The student must complete a dual degree request form that includes at a minimum:

Name of primary degree program
Name of secondary degree program
List of guidance committee members, including their departmental/programmatic affiliation
Coursework that fulfills the requirements of the primary major
Coursework that fulfills the requirements of the secondary major
RECR requirements
Examination areas and an explanation of their relation to both areas and to examination requirements in each program
Proposed dissertation area, with an explanation of how the research incorporates aspects of both fields
Signatures from the guidance committee chair, grad programs directors from each program, and the college associate deans from the appropriate areas

Additional information may be required by the participating programs.

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Dual Doctoral Major Request