PhD program in PER

The UC Davis physics department is one of a few departments in the country that have a physics education research (PER) group. PER PhD students have the same basic requirements as all other physics PhD students including core classes, a written preliminary exam, and a oral qualifying exam. For more information on the department's general requirements go here. During the second year, PER students may take a varity of classes depending on their interests and needs. A typical student will take a number of courses in the Education Department or perhaps the statistics department depending on their interests and abilities. (Go here for the current UC Davis Education Department course list.) After a student has passed the written preliminary examination, they will start preparing for their oral qualifying examination. Each student's qualifying exam is a talk organized by the student on their own particular research. The qualifying exam is usually taken in their third year of study.