Program Overview
Ph.D. in Urban Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Are you curious about the world around us and its complexities? Then take your education to the highest level with a Ph.D. in Urban Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ULAE) from the University of the District of Columbia. The program offers four concentrations: (1) Urban sustainability and resilience, (2) Urban governance and policy, (3) Urban education and (4) Urban entrepreneurship. The program is interdisciplinary, committed to the scholar practitioner model of knowledge creation and accepts qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds and with almost any master's degree. As one of UDC's two doctoral programs, our current Ph.D. students and candidates include educators, dieticians, medical doctors, public health specialists, urban planners, transportation specialists and more.
Once accepted, you will be admitted within a cohort with a focus on how your skills and professional interests complement those of your peers. You will learn as much from each other as you will our faculty. The cohort model facilitates a supportive learning environment that will help you pursue your degree.
As a Ph.D. ULAE student, you will have the opportunity to determine what field you want to focus on and what knowledge you want to contribute. Starting as early as the application process, we encourage you to let us know what problems you want to solve and to what scholarly or practitioner field you want to contribute. The program is offered in collaboration with Fielding Graduate University which is well known for its human development and leadership programs.
At UDC, we hope that our program provides you the chance to pursue your goals for your community and the world at large. Our advisors in the ULAE program will help you turn your interests into valuable research projects, providing you with the expertise and support needed to achieve success while also drawing on tier experience and record and successful scholar practitioners.
Note: The ULAE program is structured into two years of coursework and a cumulative dissertation. To fulfill the dissertation requirement, you must be the lead author or sole author of two published articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals.