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Curriculum & Degree Requirements

The degree requirements for the EdD in Educational Leadership in Higher Education are completion of all coursework and a dissertation in practice. No professional portfolio or internship is required. A professional internship is optional, not required and should be arranged with the program faculty in significant area of responsibility such as Dean, Director, or higher administrative levels

Coursework

The distinctive program curriculum is 55 credits. Students must complete all coursework within the research core (12 credits), higher education content courses (28 credits), and dissertation seminars (15 credits). Please explore our curriculum course descriptions and program distinction.

Plan of Study

View the Higher Education Curriculum (3 Year Plan)

View the Higher Education Curriculum (3.5 Year Plan)

Dissertation in Practice

The Ed. D. program at the Delaware State University offers several different options for the final capstone experience such as the Dissertation in Practice. The dissertation is taught in a dissertation cohort model in which students must complete a 5-course seminar sequence. The sequence presents an organized and highly supervised 5 phases of dissertation development which ranges from three to four semesters to complete. These are:

  1. Prospectus development where you select your research topic, focus of practice, and methodology (EDUC 840)
  2. Develop first three chapters and defend the proposal (EDUC 841)
  3. Obtain Institutional Review Board approval and begin data collection (EDUC 842)
  4. Analyze data and draft findings to connect to implications for practice (EDUC 843)
  5. Finalize dissertation and defend to dissertation committee (EDUC 844)

All doctoral candidates must complete, orally present, and defend a research capstone to meet their final degree requirement. Students who do not complete this required must enroll in continuing dissertation credits (EDUC 829) to maintain continuous enrollment until the dissertation is completed and approved by the approved, supervising dissertation committee.