Distinguish yourself as a leader in education

Are you looking to elevate or support your organization or or educational institution using practical, research-based tools? Our Doctor of Education prepares you to use analytical, critical, and innovative thinking to improve performance and solve complex problems in education. This program does not lead to any educational licensure or certification.

Specialize your degree

To specialize your educational focus, you’re encouraged to take one of these four elective tracks:

Educational Leadership: Gain in-depth understanding of academic structure, school financing, policy-making and faculty — all while emergeing as a leader who values diversity and academic integrity.

Curriculum and Instruction: Influence curriculum development and policy, and evaluate instructional and assessment methods to improve learning outcomes.

Educational Technology: Implement technologies that revolutionize the way students learn and integrate technology into curriculum.

Higher Education Administration: Gain a top-level view of the complex challenges facing educational communities — and gain the skills to address them through research, planning, fiscal oversight and outcomes assessment.

Distinctive learning model

Our unique Scholar-Practitioner-Leader^SM model separates us from other doctoral programs. It fits into every aspect of your doctoral studies, preparing you with the advantages of:

• Scholarship – you’ll understand how to design research and use its data to solve root problems
• Practitioners – you’ll learn how to apply your skills to solve problems in your organization or community
• Leadership – you’ll develop leadership skills that help you change organizations and communities

Better doctoral experience

In 20 years of delivering doctoral education, we’ve come to realize that the doctoral journey can be very focused and personal, yet also lonely. That’s why we’ve restructured our programs to create a more supportive, motivating environment for doctoral students.

Here’s how it works:

• You’ll move through courses with the camaraderie and support of a cohort of students.
• You’ll have dedicated faculty to explain the doctoral journey and provide feedback as you go.
• You’ll research, write and defend your dissertation in manageable chunks throughout your program.

Requirements and prerequisites

You’ll need 54 credits to complete this program. Required courses may vary based on previous education or transferable credits.

Dissertation

You’ll begin the dissertation  process in your third course and follow a schedule of milestones throughout your program. This makes your dissertation doable in smaller segments and helps identify any research methodology challenges early, so there are no surprises or delays at the end.

Symposium

While some doctoral programs require on-campus residency, we’ve shifted to an 8-week online Symposium. In the required course you’ll:

• Receive a detailed overview of each milestone in the doctoral journey
• Understand what the University expects from doctoral students
• Understand what doctoral students can expect from the University

Doctoral students may also enroll in an optional, zero-credit, zero-tuition/fee one-weekend seminar in Phoenix, Ariz. The seminar provides an opportunity for personal interaction with faculty and peers as well as instruction around the framework of your dissertation.

Transfer credits

Earn your degree faster. If you’ve earned a master’s degree from an accredited university, you may be eligible to receive up to six doctoral-level credits toward your doctoral degree. Current doctoral students from an accredited university or college may be eligible to receive up to 30 credits based on previous doctoral coursework.

Core courses