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    Degree Requirements


    Scholarships

    Qatar University provides competitive Graduate Assistantships (GA) that admitted graduate students can apply for.

    Degree Requirements

    Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Health Sciences

    • Doctoral students must complete a minimum of 60 credit hours including 16 credit hours of course work.
    • No more than 9 credit hours with grade B or higher can be transferred from outside Qatar University. Dissertation research work must be supervised by a Qatar University faculty.
    • Doctoral students must sit a qualifying (comprehensive) exam at the end of the first year, i.e. upon conclusion of all 1st and 2nd layer courses (4 in total over the first 2 semesters), and thus prior to enrolment in the second year.
    • Doctoral students are allowed up to two times to pass the qualifying (comprehensive) exam. The second chance for sitting the comprehensive exam shall be no later than the beginning of the fourth semester since enrollment in the PhD program.
    • Students who fail the second attempt in the comprehensive exam will be allowed to complete the requirement for a Master’s degree if the Master’s degree is offered by the student home program/department. All Master’s degree policies shall apply.
    • Doctoral Students must complete a dissertation proposal (candidacy) exam at the end of the third semester. Students failing this exam shall be allowed a second attempt in the following semester. Students failing the second attempt are allowed to complete the requirements for Master’s degree, if the Master’s degree is offered by the student home program/department. All Master’s degree policies shall apply.
    • Students passing the qualifying exam are advancing to candidacy stage. PhD candidates are allowed to register dissertation hours. No more than 44 credits of dissertation hours may be applied toward the PhD degree.
    • Doctoral students must file a dissertation within four years of first registering in the graduate program. Exemptions, for justifiable cases, may be granted by the Office of Graduate Studies.
    • Students, who successfully completed the dissertation hours, may register for 0 Cr Hr Dissertation Defense in their terminal semester. Students who fail to complete the requirement for Dissertation Defense must continue to register 0 CHs to maintain residency. Students will be charged for 1 CH tuition fee.
    • Deadlines for submission of the final version of the dissertation must be at least six weeks prior to the end of graduation semester.
    • Students must defend their dissertation to the public.
    • Students are required to publish three research articles out of their PhD work, of which at least 2 articles as a first author.
    • Admission to the PhD Program takes place usually in the fall semester except in special cases that will be announced by the program.