FAQ (Doctoral Program)

The Dean of the College of Education has limited enrollment to eighteen candidates in each TUJ center (Tokyo and Osaka). In the past there have been between twenty and forty applicants for each doctoral cohort (in Tokyo and in Osaka).

Among doctoral programs in the U.S., TUJ has one of the highest rates of successful completion. As of February 1, 2008, 98 candidates have successfully completed the Ed.D. degree at TUJ.

If everything goes well for a candidate, the Ed.D. will take four years. Assuming that a candidate follows the prescribed schedule (described below), all course work can be finished in three years. If a dissertation can be completed in six-to-twelve months, the entire degree can be finished in four years. Dissertations can be troublesome projects, however, and it's hard to predict how long they will take. The graduate faculty will do everything possible to move candidates through the program quickly. Candidates will be encouraged to start thinking of dissertation topics early on in their graduate careers, in the hope that TUJ dissertations can be measured in months rather than years.

• Outline of the Schedules (Cohort VIII in Tokyo and Cohort V in Osaka) (PDF: 39KB)

Missing a core course in the doctoral sequence could cause problems. If TUJ continues to accept doctoral candidates in future cohorts, then a missed course could be taken when it is offered to the next cohort. In other cases an elective course or independent study might be substituted for a doctoral core course. From the outset, however, every candidate should plan to take every core course in the doctoral sequence.

Universities differ somewhat on this issue. At Temple, the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) degree is granted by the College of Education; the Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) is granted by the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science and Technology. At Temple University, the Ed.D. and Ph.D. are virtually the same. In the academic world, holders of both degrees are called "doctor" (and some form of "professor" if they have college or university faculty positions). Usually members of the academic community don't know or care what kind of doctorate one holds. Some would say that the Ph.D. is a more prestigious degree, but that is not the case in the field of education. In fact, the degree of Doctor of Education was arguably invented at Temple University, which - as far as we can tell - offered the first Ed.D. degree in the United States.

Completed applications should be sent to the Graduate Office in Tokyo by Monday, June 2, 2008. Applications will be sent to Philadelphia, where the final selection of candidates will be made by the Graduate Admissions Committee in the College of Education. Applicants will be evaluated comparatively on the strength of their application materials: graduate and undergraduate grades, letters of recommendation, standardized test scores, scholarly and professional activity, publications, and personal and professional goals. Final selection will be made by Friday July 4, 2008. If an appropriate number of qualified candidates can be assembled, doctoral classes will begin on Friday, September 5, 2008.

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is offered regularly at various locations in Japan, and the test is offered by appointment at the Testing Center at TUJ-Tokyo (03-5441-9877 or testing@tuj.ac.jp).

An alternative test for graduate admissions is the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), and this test is regularly given at TUJ-Tokyo and TUJ-Osaka. For information on the MAT, contact the Graduate Office. (Be careful not to confuse the MAT with the GMAT; the latter is a test of business management skills.) Dates for the MAT are given below.

Yes. We have been informed by the Graduate School that this requirement is the same for all applicants, even though the GRE and MAT are not appropriate tests for native speakers of other languages. This requirement should be regarded as merely a formality by applicants who are native speakers of other languages.

There is no fee required for application. There will be a matriculation fee of ¥30,000 for everyone accepted into the doctoral program. Students new to the graduate program at TUJ will also pay a New Student ID Registration Fee of ¥11,000.

The central concentration both for course work and for dissertations is language acquisition research; within this broad area there are many aspects of language acquisition waiting to be studied. Candidates will be encouraged to follow their own interests within the language acquisition concentration. TUJ dissertations have included: studies of individual differences among language learners; studies of motivation in groups of language learners; longitudinal, ethnographic studies of learners in particular language programs; studies of the effectiveness of specific instructional approaches in the classroom; studies of curriculum design in language programs; studies of naturalistic acquisition of second languages (outside the classroom); studies of language testing programs; and studies of cross-cultural pragmatics and non-verbal communication among language learners.

• Titles of All TUJ Dissertations Completed to Date (PDF: 31KB)

All TUJ dissertations can be found in the University Library.

On the following pages you'll find a tentative schedule for the first semester, together with descriptions of the courses taken by the preceding doctoral groups (Cohort VIII in Tokyo and Cohort V in Osaka). The schedule assumes that every candidate will be able to take two courses each semester. One doctoral course is typically offered on Friday evening, the other on Saturday afternoon. During the Summer Sessions, classes are occasionally scheduled on Sunday afternoon.

• Outline of the Schedules (Cohort VIII in Tokyo and Cohort V in Osaka) (PDF: 39KB)