What is the difference between the Ph.D. program and the Professional Doctorate program?
The Ph.D., or Doctor of Philosophy degree is for future academics who are making a career commitment to the tenure track, academic research/teaching/service path. Students in this program earn a Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology, a multidisciplinary area that includes systems, libraries, and policy. The Ph.D. is a research degree and this program is focused on training future academics for tenure track jobs and generally takes five or more years to complete. Our Ph.D. program requires a dissertation, which is a large-scale multiyear project for most students. The dissertation must advance theory and create new knowledge in the student’s chosen focus area. The Doctor of Professional Studies (DPS) degree is a scientist-practitioner degree, focused on training future leaders in applied areas of the information professions. The DPS program is for current working professionals entering the ranks of leadership in their respective organizations. DPS students may choose to teach as p
