Previously Earned Credits in the Ph.D. Program

With the approval of your Advisory Committee, you can count up to 33 hours of course work with grades of B or higher from your master's degree toward the 60 required credits. This 33 credit maximum applies whether you took the courses at The University of Memphis or elsewhere. The Advisory Committee will assess the suitability of previously earned credits for the proposed degree in its first formal meeting; the Director of Graduate Studies will approve these recommendations after confirming that the credits meet departmental requirements. After your Advisory Committee has approved previously earned credits, fill out the Transfer Credit Evaluation (For Doctoral Degree Programs Only) form (pdf). When the form asks for UofM Equivalent what it is really asking is if it is the equivalent of our 6000-level courses (i.e., undergraduate students could enroll in the same class) or of our 7/8000-level courses (i.e., only graduate students could enroll). ). So all you need enter is 6___, 7___, or 8___. You do not need to write in a specific course number. An exception is if you want to use the course as the equivalent of a specific required course, like a Research Seminar, Historiography course, or Philosophy and Theory of History, in which case you should enter the full equivalent course number.

In addition, credits earned beyond the M.A. degree, whether from another institution or The University of Memphis, can count toward the Ph.D. so long as your Advisory Committee agrees and so long as you also meet the requirement that you take the final 30 credits at the University of Memphis. These credits, however, fall under the time limit for courses (see Time Limitation).