Finance Program Structure

The Finance Ph.D. Program provides students with a rigorous background in finance, both theoretical and empirical; economics; mathematics; and statistics. These tools, plus opportunities for supervised independent research, enable students to make their own contributions to the understanding of financial markets and institutions.

Program of Study
The emphasis of the Finance Ph.D. Program is on research. To facilitate significant research findings, the Finance Ph.D. Program involves coursework, seminars, and supervised independent research. Students may be asked to take additional graduate-level courses in economics and mathematics based on their background and research objectives.

Finance Program Study Plan

Year 1 (Study at Sasin)
In their first year, students take required courses, electives and the Preliminary Qualifying Examinations according to the schedule below. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the Area Advisor, based on each student's background and objectives. The Head of the Ph.D. Program must approve all first-year coursework.

Preliminary Qualifying Examinations: A student must successfully complete this examination at the end of Year 1 at Sasin before being permitted to advance to Kellogg in Year 2. The Preliminary Qualifying Examinations will be scheduled around the end of the third or fourth quarter of Year 1. A student who fails any Preliminary Exam will have only one additional chance at a retake.

Year 2 (Study at Kellogg)
In their second year, students take required courses, electives and a Finance Comprehensive Examination. Elective courses are selected in consultation with the Area Advisor, based on each student's background and objectives. The Head of the Ph.D. Program must approve all second-year coursework. Students are expected to participate in the weekly finance research seminar as well as to complete a work requirement.

Finance Comprehensive Examinations: A comprehensive finance examination must be passed just before the beginning of classes in the spring quarter. In case of poor performance, a student can retake the examination for one more attempt at the end of the spring quarter. In general, the examination covers the material of the first four finance Ph.D. classes (taken in fall and winter).

Weekly Finance Seminars: External speakers, and occasionally internal ones, present research papers at the department weekly seminar series. Ph.D. students are expected to attend these presentations. During the fall and spring quarters, students are also required to discuss in groups, under the direction of a Kellogg faculty member, the paper to be presented each week.

Second-Year Evaluation: The Head of the Ph.D. Program and the Ph.D. Program Committee meet at the end of Year 2 of study to perform a comprehensive evaluation of every second-year Ph.D. student, taking into account examination performance, the research paper, coursework grades. Following this evaluation, all students receive detailed feedback on their strengths and weaknesses. Students with satisfactory evaluations are expected to begin the dissertation process upon returning to Sasin.

The student is required to prepare a written dissertation proposal which is a detailed description of the specific dissertation project to be undertaken, including a dissertation topic, a discussion of its significance to the development of knowledge, a thorough review of the appropriate literature, an explanation of the research methods to be used, the specific research questions to be addressed, the data to be collected, analysis to be performed and a presentation of any preliminary results.

Prior to the dissertation proposal defense, the student is required to present his/her preliminary research in at least one Sasin Tiffin Meeting. It is expected that other members of the Sasin faculty and visiting professors will attend this meeting and make constructive suggestions. The students should carefully consider all suggestions.

The specific format required by the Dissertation Committee may vary somewhat depending upon the nature of the study, but will normally include the following points:

• A precise statement of the problem which the student proposes to investigate.
• A statement of the reasons for undertaking the study. This will include specifying relationships being explored, definitions of terms, gaps in the literature, controversies that only research can clarify and its contribution to the field.
• A section describing the theoretical foundation of the research and indicating previous works which have been done and a relevant bibliography as evidence of the fact that the student has carefully researched the literature on the topic he/she proposes to investigate and that this study will, in fact, represent a contribution to knowledge.

Human Subjects Review: Even though it may appear that risk to research subjects or participants is negligible, any research that involves human subjects MUST have approval from the Chulalongkorn University’s Human Subjects Review Board before proceeding. This includes survey or interview procedures. The Ph.D. student and the Dissertation Chair are responsible for obtaining the approval to use human subjects in research. Students may

Year 4 (Study at Sasin)

• Dissertation Work—dissertation study
• Presentation of dissertation research at Sasin Tiffin luncheon
• Dissertation defense and submission of dissertation
• Publish a part of your dissertation in a respectable peer review journal (Chulalongkorn’s Regulation)

The dissertation must demonstrate that the student has acquired the ability to conduct original and innovative research. The dissertation should make a significant contribution to a field that at least one scholarly article suitable for publication in an international peer reviewed journal can be derived from it.

A student who fails the Final Oral Dissertation Defense will be given an opportunity for another defense, with the approval of the Head of the Ph.D. Program. A student who fails the second defense will be subject to dismissal from the Sasin Ph.D. Program.

Students enrolling without MBA follow a similar study plan, but will need additional quarters of MBA coursework to acquire the necessary general background.

Commonly Used Forms in the Sasin Ph.D. Program