Non-thesis Option

This option is designed primarily for students who do not intend to pursue further graduate study beyond the M.A. in International Studies. Students choosing this option must: complete the core courses and the regional and topic specialization requirements (comprising 30 hours of coursework); take two additional elective courses, totaling a minimum of 36 hours of course work; and enroll in 1 credit hour of INTL 897, master's exam, during their final semester.

• Exam Structure and Scheduling
• Exam Committee
• Exam Content
• Advice to the Student
• Graduation Timeline
• Requirement for Continuous Enrollment
  

Exam Structure and Scheduling For the non-thesis option, INTL 897 requires a written and oral comprehensive examination, structured as follows:

1. a three hour written examination over core course content,
2. a two hour written examination over the regional specialization,
3. a two hour written examination over the topic specialization, and
4. a one hour oral examination.

Students will have the option of taking the written examinations over one day, two days, or five days. The student will be responsible for communicating with all committee members to determine a schedule for the written exam and to set the meeting date for the oral exam.

The written exams must be taken at a pre-arranged location at a scheduled time; the student should work with the committee chair and/or the program advisor to identify and reserve a room. Each exam will be proctored by a committee member or an individual selected by the committee chair. This is a “closed-book” exam; no outside materials are allowed. The student may use a laptop other than their own if approved by the committee chair (laptops are available through individual departments on an arranged basis).

A period of at least three weeks and no more than six weeks is mandated between the final written examination and the oral exam. The student being examined must pass all three written examinations before being permitted to sit for the oral examination. The student is permitted two attempts to pass each written examination and two attempts to pass the oral examination. If a student fails an examination, they need only retake that particular examination.

Exam Committee The exam questions will be written and evaluated by an examination committee of three faculty. It is up to the student to identify, with the advice of the academic advisor and/or program director, the faculty members who will serve on the committee; the student should have taken at least one class with each and they must all be members of the Graduate Faculty at KU. Generally, the student should comprise the committee with faculty members who can each represent at least one of the content areas of the written exam; that is, one committee member should be familiar with the core course content, one committee member should be an expert in the region of the student’s specialization, and one committee member should be an expert in the topic of the student’s specialization. The student should also identify one of these committee members to serve as the chair. The final composition of the exam committee must be approved by the program director at least six weeks prior to the date of the first written examination.

Note: once the committee members have been identified, the student should consult with them as early as possible in the final semester to schedule a time for the oral examination. This serves to reserve a time, often toward the end of the semester, before committee members’ schedules are completely booked. This date also informs the scheduling of the written exams since they must be completed three weeks before the oral can be taken.

Exam Content The student should plan to meet with each committee member individually early in the semester during which s/he intends to take the exam. It is recommended that the student bring copies of all relevant syllabi reflecting coursework completed in the examiner’s specialty area to these meetings; these syllabi will guide the committee member in determining the scope and content of the exam questions.

Each committee member shall use the course syllabi and his or her conversation(s) with the student to draft questions for the written exam; s/he may also consult with other faculty in the student’s focus area in drafting the questions. Typically, examiners should draft three questions that synthesize the material covered in the student’s coursework in that area; these questions are forwarded to the committee chair. At the appointed exam time, the student will be given the questions and will select two of the three to respond to.

Committee members should be advised that they must determine among themselves how the written examinations will be graded and should agree on a timeline for providing the outcomes to the student.

Advice to the Student A good exam is characterized by coherent and forceful arguments based on existing work and evidence in the field. A weak exam is one where the argument is made in isolation from the literature and/or where no argument is made. Almost all questions are designed to allow you to take a position on an issue. Do so, and do not simply produce an annotated bibliography. That is, use the question to show that you both know the material and can present an argument as a scholar.
Graduation Timeline The Graduate Division of the College and Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) sets a date each semester by which all requirements must be completed in order to graduate that term. In order to have all graduation requirements completed during the semester the exam is taken, the written exams must be completed early enough to allow the oral exam to be scheduled by this final date. For fall 2007, for example, the CLAS deadline for completion of all degree requirements is December 14. Thus, since there must be three weeks between completion of the written exams and the oral examination date, the written exams must be completed by late November in order to allow time for the oral exam and still meet the December 14 deadline.

If the deadline is not met, the student has a brief grace period at the beginning of the following semester to complete all requirements for summer graduation without having to enroll for summer. The CLAS graduate calendar lists these dates for upcoming semesters.

Requirement for Continuous Enrollment Students in any KU master’s program are required to be continuously enrolled during the regular academic year (fall and spring semesters) from the time all courses are completed until all graduation requirements are completed. This means that if a student doesn't take the final exam during his/her last semester of coursework, the student must keep enrolling in each subsequent spring and fall semester (and summer if the student will be graduating during the summer semester) until s/he finishes, usually repeating INTL 897.

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