Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Ph.D.

Curriculum

The Ph.D. program in the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics consists of 72 credits, including core courses in economic theory, with an emphasis on aspects pertinent to natural resource use. EEC 501, 502, 528, 534, 535, 576, 602, 624, 628, 630, 634, and 676 are required courses. You can visit the Courses link on the left side of the page to see a list of the courses offered. Additional courses may be elected from appropriate offerings in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, as well as from other disciplines including Engineering, Geography, Natural Resource Science, Oceanography, Mathematics, Political Science, Statistics, Computer Science, and Management Science. A dissertation is written on a problem involving environmental and natural resources or in an associated industry. A dissertation defense is required. A Ph.D. qualifying examination is required of students admitted without the M.S. degree in a related field.

At least 42 credits must be taken at URI (see GSM 7.54). For students who have received the master’s degree in the same field of study or in a closely related field, all coursework beyond the master’s degree towards the doctorate must be at the 500 or 600 levels. For students who have not been awarded the master’s degree by the time they enroll in Graduate School, a maximum of 12 credits within the minimum of 72 credits required for the Ph.D. may be taken at the 400 level (upper undergraduate courses). All other work for program credit must be at the 500 or 600 levels. (GSM 9.20)

Full-time students not on an assistantship are required to carry a course load of 9 – 15 credits. The usual semester course load for students not on an assistantship is 12 credits. A normal load is 9 credits for a student on an assistantship; 6 credits is the minimum for full-time students on assistantships.

Credit transfer

Students without a master’s degree in the same or closely related area may transfer up to 20% of the total credits required in the program (GSM 7.20 (b)). Students with a master’s degree in the same or closely related area may request that up to 30 credits from this master’s degree be applied to their doctoral program. If the degree is from another accredited institution up to 6 additional credits in any combination of advanced standing and/or transfer credits may be applied to the doctoral program with special permission of the Dean of the Graduate School (GSM 7.20 (b)). If the degree is from URI, a total of up to 9 credits combining transfer and advanced standing are allowed.

Contacts

Graduate Program Director: enre_grad@etal.uri.edu
Graduate Admissions: enre_grad_admissions@etal.uri.edu