Program Structure and Requirements (with M.Sc. Degree)
Overall Program Structure
The PhD in Earth Sciences consists of a minimum 60 credit hours, distributed as follows: 24 credit hours of coursework, 36 credit hours of PhD Dissertation, two zero credit PhD Seminar courses, as well as PhD Written Qualifying and PhD Research Proposal Examinations. The components of the program are summarized in the table below.
| Program Component |
Credit Hours |
| Research Methods in Science |
3 |
| PhD Research Seminar I |
0 |
| PhD Research Seminar II |
0 |
| Written Qualifying Examination (WQE) |
0 |
| Research Proposal Examination (RPE) |
0 |
| Program Electives |
21 |
| PhD Research Dissertation |
36 |
| Total |
60 |
Program Requirements
Students seeking the degree of PhD in Earth Sciences must successfully complete a minimum 60 credit hours as specified in the program requirements detailed below, with a minimum CGPA of 3.0. Course selection should be made in consultation with the student’s Main Advisor. Students who may have previously taken PhD level courses during their MSc at KU are not allowed to repeat those courses during their PhD. All courses listed below have a credit rating of three credits each, except for PhD Research Seminar, Written Qualifying Exam, Research Proposal Exam, and the PhD Research Dissertation.
Program Core (3 credit hours)
Students must complete the core courses listed below.
Core Courses
Program Electives (21 credit hours)
Students must complete a minimum of seven technical elective courses from the list below. Subject to the approval of the dissertation Main Advisor, up to two elective courses (6 credit hours) can be taken from another relevant PhD program in KU.
Electives
| ERTH 701 | Petroleum Systems | 3 |
| ERTH 704 | Machine Learning for Earth Sciences | 3 |
| ERTH 711 | Carbonate Petrology and Stratigraphy | 3 |
| ERTH 713 | Rock Physics | 3 |
| ERTH 714 | Seismic Interpretation in Petroleum Exploration and Production | 3 |
| ERTH 718 | Biogeochemical Cycles | 3 |
| ERTH 721 | Sedimentary Basins Analysis | 3 |
| ERTH 723 | Isotope Geochemistry of Sedimentary Systems | 3 |
| ERTH 724 | Clastic Sedimentology and Depositional Systems | 3 |
| ERTH 750 | Earth’s Paleoclimate | 3 |
| ERTH 751 | Geology of the Solar System | 3 |
| ERTH 753 | Field Geology of the UAE | 3 |
| ERTH 754 | Environment and Engineering Geophysics | 3 |
| ERTH 757 | Global Change, Natural Hazards and Disaster | 3 |
| ERTH 758 | Phys & Chem of Solar System | 3 |
| ERTH 759 | Astrobiology | 3 |
| ERTH 793 | Special Topics in Earth Science | 4 |
PhD Research Dissertation (36 credit hours)
Students must complete a Dissertation that involves creative, research-oriented work within the field of Earth Sciences, under direct supervision of a full-time faculty advisor from the Earth Sciences Department, and at least one other full-time faculty who acts as a co-advisor. The outcome of research should demonstrate the synthesis of information into knowledge in a form that may be used by others. The research findings must be documented in a formal dissertation and defended successfully in a viva voce examination.
Dissertation
Total Credit Hours: 60