USU English Department adds new PH.D. program

The Department of English at Utah State University will soon offer a doctoral (Ph.D.) degree program in the theory and practice of professional communication, made possible by a recent decision by Utah’s Board of Regents.

“The demand for this program in the academic and business worlds is great,” said department of English Head Jeffrey Smitten.

As English departments in colleges and universities around the nation have expanded their offerings in technical communication, the need for qualified Ph.D.-level faculty has grown.

“This new degree program will primarily help address that rapidly growing need in higher education,” said Smitten. 

Placement trends for graduates with this type of degree are strong for non-academic positions as well, according to a recent study. One of the study’s authors, associate professor of English Mark Zachry, said these graduates secure jobs as consultants, corporate researchers and communications specialists.

“These include positions with Fortune 500 companies, such as IBM, and consulting firms,” he said.

The program will be “expense neutral” and will accept four new students each year beginning in 2005.

“As we accept students into the Ph.D. program, we will accept fewer master’s candidates, so our total number of graduate students will remain the same,” Zachry said. “Both master’s and Ph.D. students will also serve as instructors teaching lower-division writing and professional communication courses. The program will cost the state nothing in new funds.”

Smitten said he and others have been working for several years to bring this degree program to Utah State.

“It’s been a very long process, and we’re pleased it has been approved,” he said.

The program was approved by the Board of Regents as an exception to the moratorium on new programs that has been in place since 2002. To secure approval as an exception, a proposal cannot require any new state funds, it has to demonstrate strong student demand and it has to be ranked as the top priority for the institution. 

“We are especially grateful to President Kermit Hall, Provost Stan Albrecht and Dean Gary Kiger for their continued efforts to secure the program’s approval,” Smitten said.

“This program is a natural outgrowth of the English department’s 20-year history of working with the relationship of writing and technology in the academy and in the workplace,” Smitten continued. “It was initiated to address burgeoning demand for researchers and teachers within the field of English and in appropriate areas of the contemporary workplace.”

For more information on the new English Ph.D. program, call (435) 797-2733, or visit http://english.usu.edu/.