Sasin/Kellogg Doctoral Program Overview

The Sasin Ph.D. program is designed for candidates with outstanding intellectual abilities and a strong commitment to research. The program is highly individualized, reflecting each student's unique background, abilities and research interests. Sasin offers two principal doctoral programs: in Finance and in Marketing. Most students are expected to complete their Ph.D. in four to five years of full-time study. Matriculating students for Ph.D. studies are admitted for June only.

Ph.D. students will collaborate with Sasin faculty on research projects and receive advice from faculty on their dissertations. Because of this close working relationship, applicants should make sure the Sasin Ph.D. program is a good academic fit and that there are faculty within the program who are involved in research areas that are of interest to the applicant.

All doctoral students must meet a set of course requirements, pass a written Preliminary Qualifying Examination, an Area Comprehensive Examination, an Oral Qualifying Examination (Dissertation Proposal), and complete and successfully defend a dissertation (Dissertation Defense).

In order to provide students with a breadth and depth of learning, as well as a global perspective with regional relevance, the program is designed so that students spend their first year of study at Sasin, and their second year (the "Kellogg Year") at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University before returning to Southeast Asia to complete their dissertation research.

In the first year of the program students will normally take three courses in each of four (12-week) quarters. All classes are taken for grades; pass/fail courses are not permitted. Most of the Ph.D. courses at Sasin will be scheduled as one 3-hour class per week extending over 11 weeks (12 classes in all).

The minimum residency requirement is 36 months, including at least 24 months at Sasin and 12 months at Kellogg. Students will normally complete all Ph.D. requirements within four to five years.