Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies (PhD)

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Overview

The PhD in Educational Studies is a research-oriented doctoral program for students interested in any of the study areas offered in the department, such as adult and community education and social movements; citizenship and human rights; continuing professional education; cultural politics, critical multiculturalism and feminist studies; educational leadership and policy; epistemology (the study of knowledge and knowing), ethics, and political philosophy; equity in education (on the axes of race, disability, gender, class, and sexuality); indigenous education; international and comparative education; media, popular culture and representation or youth and children in schools, families, and communities.

Students are required to take two first-year doctoral seminars and a second-year doctoral seminar. All other courses in a student's program are determined in consultation with faculty. Students in the PhD program typically devote two years to coursework, and two to four years to developing and carrying out a research project designed to make an original contribution to knowledge in the study area.

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Quick Facts

Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Subject
Education
Mode of delivery
On campus
Registration options
Full-time
Specialization
Educational Studies
Program Components
Dissertation
Faculty
Faculty of Education

Requirements

TOEFL (ibT) Overall Score Requirement

92
22
22
22
22

IELTS Overall Score Requirement

6.5
6.0
6.0
6.0
6.0

Deadline Details

Application Deadline

Deadline to submit online application. No changes can be made to the application after submission.

Transcript Deadline

Deadline to upload scans of official transcripts through the applicant portal in support of a submitted application. Information for accessing the applicant portal will be provided after submitting an online application for admission.

Referee Deadline

Deadline for the referees identified in the application for admission to submit references. See Letters of Reference for more information.

September 2020 Intake
Application Open Date
01 August 2019
Canadian Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2019
Transcript Deadline: 01 December 2019
Referee Deadline: 08 December 2019
International Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2019
Transcript Deadline: 01 December 2019
Referee Deadline: 08 December 2019

Funding Sources

All full-time students who begin a UBC-Vancouver PhD program in September 2018 or later will be provided with a funding package of at least $18,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Please note that many graduate programs provide funding packages that are substantially greater than $18,000 per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.

Career Outcomes

74 students graduated between 2005 and 2013: 3 graduates are seeking employment; 1 is in a non-salaried situation; for 4 we have no data (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016). For the remaining 66 graduates:


RI (Research-Intensive) Faculty: typically tenure-track faculty positions (equivalent of the North American Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor positions) in PhD-granting institutions
TI (Teaching-Intensive) Faculty: typically full-time faculty positions in colleges or in institutions not granting PhDs, and teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
Term Faculty: faculty in term appointments (e.g. sessional lecturers, visiting assistant professors, etc.)
Sample Employers in Higher Education
University of British Columbia (15)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (2)
Vancouver Island University (2)
Universite Laval
Calvin College
Brock University
University of Calgary
Whatcom Community College
Simon Fraser University
Sample Employers Outside Higher Education
BC School District (2)
World Vision International
Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin Community Society
Yukon Department of Education
Kootenay Boundary Community Services Cooperative
Ismali Tariqua and Religious Education Board
Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group
Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association
St Paul's Hospital Foundation
Canadian eLearning Network
Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education
Consultant (2)
Executive director (2)
Owner (2)
Director, Problematic Substance Use Prevention
Education Technical Lead, Integrated Programmes Department
VIce Principal
Author
Consultant (Therapist)
Contract Researcher
Teacher
PhD Career Outcome Survey
You may view the full report on career outcomes of UBC PhD graduates on outcomes.grad.ubc.ca.
Disclaimer
These data represent historical employment information and do not guarantee future employment prospects for graduates of this program. They are for informational purposes only. Data were collected through either alumni surveys or internet research.

Alumni on Success

Randy Wollf

Job Title
President
Employer
PaperLift Document Editing

Kenneth Tupper

Job Title
Director of Implementation & Partnerships
Employer
BC Centre on Substance Use

Kaela Jubas

Job Title
Associate Professor
Employer
University of Calgary

Suzanne Scott

Job Title
Manager, Major Gifts
Employer
St. Paul's Foundation
All Alumni Profiles

Tuition / Program Costs

FeesCanadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / DiplomatInternational
Application Fee$104.00$168.25
Tuition *
Installments per year33
Tuition per installment$1,665.26$2,925.58
Tuition per year$4,995.78$8,776.74
Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) $3,200.00 (-)
Other Fees and Costs
Student Fees (yearly)$930.14 (approx.)
Costs of living (yearly)starting at $16,884.10 (check cost calculator)
* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Statistical Data

Enrolment Data

 20172016201520142013
Applications6140442146
Offers1513121015
New registrations1011578
Total enrolment5958555249

Completion Rates & Times

This program has a graduation rate of 68.42% based on 38 students admitted between 2005 - 2008. Based on 23 graduations between 2014 - 2017 the minimum time to completion is 2.83 years and the maximum time is 7.00 years with an average of 5.39 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.
Disclaimer
Admissions data refer to all UBC Vancouver applications, offers, new registrants for each year, May to April [data updated: 9 March 2018]. Enrolment data are based on March 1 snapshots. Program completion data are only provided for datasets comprised of more than 4 individuals. Rates and times of completion depend on a number of variables (e.g. curriculum requirements, student funding), some of which may have changed in recent years for some programs [data updated: 23 September 2018].

Upcoming Doctoral Exams

Wednesday, 30 January 2019 - 12:30pm - Room 200

Gloria Lin
Decolonizing the Social Imaginaries of British Columbia's International Education Phenomenon

Research Supervisors

This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.

  • Abdi, Ali (Citizenship and human rights education, International Development Education, Multi-centric Philosophies and Methodologies of Education, postcolonial studies in education, Social and Cultural Foundations of Education)
  • Ahenakew, Cash (Cultural studies, Higher Education, Indigenous Studies, Leadership and Organizations, Post-colonial studies, Race/ethnicity, Research methodologies, Social justice, Sociology of Education)
  • Andres, Lesley (Equity, Higher education, International and Comparative Education, International comparative higher education, Life Course research, Lifelong learning, Policy, Research methodologies, Social justice, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Higher Education)
  • Chan, Jennifer (transnational social movements, international and comparative education, Japanese civil society, Islam in multicultural societies, Adult education, Citizenship and democracy, Gender studies, International and Comparative Education, Multiculturalism, Post-colonial studies)
  • De Oliveira Andreotti, Vanessa (Education for/about international development, Social accountability in local and global engagements, Global Citizenship Education)
  • Ellis, Jason (Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies, History of education, Education policy, Politics of education, Special education, Disability, History of childhood and youth, Urban and suburban history, Canadian history, American history, Educational administration)
  • Fallon, Gerald (Indigenous Studies, International and Comparative Education, Leadership and Organizations, Policy, Research methodologies)
  • Frank, Blye (Boys’ and men’s sociology of health, Masculinities and schooling gender and schooling Sexualities and schooling professional development in education, Masculinity, sociology of boys)
  • Gill, Hartej (Cultural studies, Leadership and Organizations, Post-colonial studies, Teaching and Practice)
  • Gleason, Mona (History of Major Eras, Great Civilisations or Geographical Corpuses, history of education, history of children and youth, critical youth studies, gender and sexuality)
  • Kelly, Deirdre (Children and youth, Gender studies, Media and democracy, Social justice, Sociology of Education)
  • Marker, Michael (First Nations’ education, First nations education)
  • Mazawi, Andre (Citizenship and democracy, Higher education, International and Comparative Education, Leadership and organizations, Research methodologies, Sociology of Education)
  • Metcalfe, Amy (Science and Knowledge, Power and Organization, Imagery, Higher Education, Faculty, Internationalization, Campus Environments)
  • Poole, Wendy (Educational leadership and administration; Organizational change in education (reform of schooling); Teachers’ work; Teacher unions and teacher unionism; role of teacher unions in education, Leadership and organizations, Social justice, Teaching and Practice)
  • Rocha Perkerwicz, Samuel (Philosophical Traditions in Education, Philosophy of education)
  • Roman, Leslie (Ethnography, Cultural studies, Disability studies, Sociology of Education)
  • Ruitenberg, Claudia (Philosophical Traditions in Education, Educational Approaches, Social Impact of Artistic Education, Professional Ethics, International education; political education; discourse and translation)
  • Shan, Hongxia (Adult education, Equity, Gender Studies, International and Comparative Education, Lifelong Learning, Policy, Research methodologies, Social justice, Teaching and Practice, Workplace learning)
  • Sork, Tom (Adult education, Lifelong learning, Teaching and Practice)
  • Stack, Michelle (Participatory research, Social Contexts, university rankings , media education, knowledge mobilization, student engagement, social justice and equity)
  • Taylor, Alison (Political Economy in Education)
  • Tom, Allison
  • Vanwynsberghe, Robert (Citizenship and democracy, Social justice, Sustainability; Sustainability; Environmental Education; Theory and Method)
  • Walker, Judith (Adult education, Higher Education, International and Comparative Education, International Comparative Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, Medical Education, Policy, Workplace learning)

Pages

Recent Doctoral Citations

  • Dr. Marissa Isela Munoz
    "Dr. Munoz created an Indigenous Fronterizo Pedagogy of Water by documenting the life stories of elders in her home community of Laredo, Texas. Her work revitalizes the ancestral relationships between the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo and the diverse Indigenous peoples of the Texas Mexico border communities, connecting youth to elders through water stories." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Omer Aijazi
    "Dr. Aijazi examined how people have flourished following natural disasters in the mountainscapes of Northern Pakistan and Kashmir. He highlights the diverse ways his participants sustain themselves despite conditions of violence. He reveals that lived and felt experience are sites of knowledge, and theory is not just about seeing, but also feeling." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Heather Lynn Commodore
    "Dr. Commodore examined Indigenous doctoral student's journeys to and experiences at a Canadian university. She found that students established success by creating community, maintaining family and cultural connections, and engaging in Indigenous and faculty mentoring programs. These findings inform policy, programs, and student services for Indigenous doctoral students." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Sereana Elina Patterson
    "Dr. Patterson examined Pasifika women's experiences of working in higher education using Pacific research methods. This research explored how Pasifika women continue to navigate towards community success despite racism and sexism in the academy by challenging these practices and protecting the interests of Pasifika students and communities." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Kalbir Heer
    "Dr. Heer explored how Sikh youth think about multiculturalism and multicultural differences in schools and wider societal contexts. Particularly relevant in this study are the ways contested understandings of race, ethnicity, religion and gender influence identity formation and the ways Sikh youth make meaning of others in multicultural Canada." (May 2018)

Sample Thesis Submissions

Further Program Information

 
 

September 2020 Intake
Application Open Date
01 August 2019
Canadian Applicant Deadline
01 December 2019
International Applicant Deadline
01 December 2019

Program Information

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