CGSE | University at Buffalo

Comparative and Global Studies in Education Programs of Study

Doctoral and Masters degrees in Comparative and Global Studies in Education at the State University of New York at Buffalo are concentrations within either the Ph.D. in the Social and Philosophical Foundations in Education or the General Masters in Education. Policies for these Comparative and Global Studies program concentrations are effective at the start of the 2002-2003 academic year. They eliminate some courses previously required, and give more curricular discretion to the student and his or her advisor and committee. Students admitted prior to September 2001 are no longer held to the previous core requirements.

Introduction

The Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo provides Ph.D. and Masters degrees in Comparative and Global Studies in Education as concentrations within the registered Ph.D. Program in the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education or the General Masters in Education. In addition, students in the other SPF concentration, Sociology of Education, other programs within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP) such as Educational Administration or Higher Education, or programs housed in other departments of the Graduate School of Education such as science, mathematics, or social studies education or foreign language instruction, may take courses in the Comparative and Global Studies in Education and/or may participate in the research of the faculty associated with the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education.

Students within the Comparative and Global Studies in Education concentration have come in recent years from the US and more than 20 countries, including China, Turkey, Romania, Japan, El Salvador, Morocco, Taiwan, Tanzania, West Indies, Burma, Vietnam, Burkina Faso and Kenya, with Asia and Africa especially well represented. Some come initially for another program or concentration within the Graduate School of Education, but find they wish to shift their advanced studies and research to an international or comparative or global context. Others come for the masters in comparative education and stay on to complete the Ph.D.

Those who receive a University at Buffalo Masters or Ph.D. Degree with a Comparative and Global Studies concentration typically take jobs in:

universities--as faculty/scholars of comparative education or other fields;
schools--often as supervisors or school or system administrators;
ministries--as policy makers and analysts;
universities--as administrators or in international or “study abroad” programs;
international development or human service agencies--as analysts, program officers, and administrators;
non-governmental agencies—as researchers, analysts, and program officers or administrators.

The academic concentrations in Comparative and Global Studies in Education are designed with a maximum of flexibility to complement both the academic and practical experiences of the students as well as his or her career aspirations. There is a required comparative and global studies core, applicable to both the Master’s and Ph.D. concentrations, which exposes a student to the essential theoretical approaches to, and purposes of, the comparative study of education. (This core may be modified with approval of the advisor and the program coordinator.) Doctoral students are expected to complete a minor field outside of comparative education (sometimes outside of the ELP Department, or even outside of the Graduate School of Education). Doctoral students are also expected to acquire early in their studies a solid grounding in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and then to complete a substantial piece of original research in the Ph.D. dissertation. The balance of the required coursework is composed of electives, chosen from other courses in the Comparative and Global Studies of Education, from elsewhere in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy or other departments in the Graduate School of Education, from elsewhere in the University, or from approved transfer credits from graduate coursework done at other universities.

The Program of Study: The program of study is worked out with the student’s advisor and committee. Students take courses from the following clusters:

A. Core courses in comparative and global studies in education (12 credits)

ELP 566: Comparative and Global Studies Education,
ELP 530: Structure and Reform of Education,
ELP 511: Comparative Higher Education,
ELP 685: Education and Globalization,
ELP xxx: At least one additional course in the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education (i.e. other than the Comparative and Global Studies sequence or research methods).

B. Research courses (a minimum of three courses, including both quantitative and qualitative methodologies).

C. A minor program (three or four [a maximum of five] courses constituting a coherent set of educational experiences, frequently from outside the department or even out-side the Graduate School of Education (sometimes taken from prior graduate masters program).

D. Elective courses in comparative and global studies in education — including (but not limited to):

ELP 525: American Education for International Students,
ELP 525: International Comparative Higher Education Finance,
ELP 540: Culture and Schools,
LAI: xxx: Comparative Curriculum Studies,
ELP 689: The Post Secondary Student in International Comparative Perspective,
ELP 574: Education in Asia,
ELP 571: Women in Educational Comparative Perspective.

E. Other Elective Courses (e.g. in the sociology of education, education and technology, school curriculum, school management, higher education, -- or courses outside the Graduate School of Education altogether, such as from the departments of economics or regional studies).

F. Independent Study (under the supervision of a professor, known in GSE as informal courses).

G. The Dissertation (a substantial work of original research constituting a minimum of 9 credits of supervised dissertation research.

Total Credits: must total 63 credits in course work plus a minimum of 9 credits for the dissertation for a minimum of 72 credits, but there may be more credits required by the advisor and committee.

Advisement: Each student is assigned an initial advisor upon admission to the program. By the time the student applies for candidacy status, he or she must have a permanent advisor, who is most frequently (but does not have to be) the same as the initial advisor. A change in advisors requires the signature of the student, the initial advisor, and the new advisor. In addition, at the time of advancement to candidacy, the student and his or her permanent advisor must also secure a doctoral committee: at least two other members of the faculty who agree to work with the candidate on the dissertation.

Transfer Credits: The UB Graduate School permits the transfer of some credits from prior graduate work, including from universities outside the US. The maximum credits transferable are six in a masters program and 31 in a Ph.D. Program--although the number of transfer credits allowed for the Ph.D. is generally much less than the maximum. (Transfer courses more than ten years old at time of entry are acceptable only by petition to the Graduate School through the GSE Graduate Degrees Committee.) The maximum transfer credits might be approached only in the case of a very recent masters program in essentially the same field.

The policy of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy is to inform an entering Ph.D. student with potential transfer credits what courses and at what level of credits are acceptable for transfer credit, as well as “to where”—e.g.. to core, elective, methodological, or minor requirements--by the end of the second semester. The student should work with his or her initial advisor to complete the necessary forms for transfer credit approval. (The minor requirement is a good location for appropriately graduate level, but programmatically less related, transfer credits.)

Qualifying Examination. Both Masters and doctoral Students in the Comparative and Global Studies in Education Concentrations take Qualifying Examinations, generally after completion of all or most of the required core and most of the other Comparative and Global studies electives. Qualifying examinations are given as needed, generally offered twice a year in January and May.

Candidacy: Ph.D. students who have finished (or very nearly finished) their coursework and passed the qualifying examinations may apply for Ph.D. Candidacy Status, which marks the end or near end of their formal coursework and the beginning of the process of writing an acceptable dissertation proposal and then a successful Ph.D. dissertation.