Applicable only to students admitted during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Spanish and Portuguese

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Spanish, the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Portuguese, and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Hispanic Languages and Literatures.

Hispanic Languages and Literatures

Admissions Requirements

Doctoral Degree

Advising

During the first year of doctoral study students choose an adviser, who becomes chair of the doctoral committee and director of the dissertation. Based on the selection of the dissertation topic or area, and in consultation with the adviser, students choose two other committee members from among the department faculty, whose interests and fields of expertise support research in the proposed area of the dissertation. These three department faculty members constitute the departmental advisory committee. It is the student’s responsibility to meet with the advisory committee as early as possible during the first year, to determine a program of course work and directed research that leads to the doctoral qualifying examinations. This meeting must take place by the end of Spring Quarter of the first year. During the second year students choose an additional faculty member, from a different department, who becomes the fourth member of the doctoral committee responsible for the examinations and the dissertation. This committee is nominated by the department and appointed by the Graduate Division. Until the departmental advisory committee is formed, students are advised by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Dissertation topics may be drawn from any field in Spanish and Portuguese language, literature, and culture. Possible fields include: Spanish linguistics; Portuguese linguistics; diachronic Hispanic linguistics and philology; medieval Spanish literature; Renaissance and Golden Age Spanish literature; 18th-and 19th-century Spanish literature; 20th-century Spanish literature; colonial Spanish American literature; 19th-century Spanish American literature; 20th-century Spanish American literature; Chicano literature; early Portuguese literature; modern Portuguese literature; early Brazilian literature; modern Brazilian literature; Spanish and Luso-Brazilian folklore.

Foreign Language Requirement

In addition to proficiency in Spanish and Portuguese, students must have a reading knowledge of one other foreign language, to be chosen with the approval of their guidance committee. Students fulfill this requirement by (1) passing the University reading examination in the language; (2) successful completion of a University course of at least level 3; or (3) successful completion of two upper division literature courses in the foreign language. Students must fulfill the requirement no later than the sixth quarter of graduate study.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 20 graduate courses is required. Spanish or Portuguese M201A or M201B may be required if students have not previously taken it or similar courses elsewhere. Of the 20 courses, a total of four may be taken in other departments with the approval of the dissertation adviser. In the first year of the Ph.D. program, students take regularly scheduled graduate courses and seminars (200-series, excluding 291). In the second year students may take a combination of regularly scheduled and directed research (291 and 596) courses with the dissertation adviser. A maximum of 16 units of directed research is permitted.

Students who hold an M.A. degree in Spanish or Portuguese from another university may petition for up to nine graduate courses used for this master’s degree to count toward the Ph.D. degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the new Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

The qualifying examinations consist of (1) presentation of a 40-60 page paper related to the specific dissertation area; (2) a three-hour written examination in the student’s field of specialization; 3) a two-hour University Oral Qualifying Examination at which the above research paper, written examination, and a dissertation prospectus are discussed. The written examination is based on a reading list approved by the advisory committee. The advisory committee also prepares the questions for the written examination. The examinations are normally taken no later than twelve quarters after admission into the graduate program with a B.A. degree and six quarters after receiving the M.A. degree. Only students who pass the qualifying examinations are advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

For a full-time student taking three courses per quarter, the following figures are optimal: (a) from graduate admission to award of the M.A. degree: six quarters; (b) from award of the M.A. degree to authorization to form a guidance committee: one quarter; (c) from formation of a guidance committee to qualifying examinations: three to five quarters; (d) from passage of qualifying examinations (advancement to candidacy) to presentation of the dissertation: three to six quarters; (e) from graduate admission to award of the Ph.D. degree (or normative time-to-degree): six years (18 quarters).

Requirement	Standard Time to Completion
Course work	During the 13th quarter in residence
Master’s Comprehensive Examination	By the 6th quarter in residence
Selection of Faculty Adviser	By the 7th quarter in residence
Oral Qualifying Examination (Advancement to Candidacy)	No later than the 13th quarter
Dissertation Filed	End of the 18th quarter

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	13	18	30

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

The Committee of Graduate Advisers in the department reviews each student’s progress at the end of each academic year. If the Committee finds that a student is not making satisfactory progress, they propose a probationary period during which certain conditions must be met. The departmental chair advises the student in writing of the Committee’s decision. A student who is unwilling to comply with the expectations of the chair and the Committee is subject to a recommendation for termination.

Master’s

Unsatisfactory progress is specifically defined by the department as the following:

(1) Failure to maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
(2) Failure to remove lapsed Incomplete grades within a specified time period.
(3) Failure to complete at least five courses in each full academic year for TA’s; seven courses for non-TA’s. A student may petition for reduced enrollment to the chair, who refers the petition to the Committee of Graduate Advisers. Petitions are approved only for extraordinary circumstances.
(4) Failure to complete the language requirement during or before the last quarter of course work.
(5) Failure to pass the master’s examination in two attempts (no degree awarded).
(6) Passing the M.A. examination but not receiving the recommendation of the committee to proceed to the doctoral program.
(7) Passing the M.A. examination on the second attempt (terminal master’s degree awarded).

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination in writing to the departmental chair who present the case first to the Committee of Graduate Advisers and, if needed, to the faculty of the department, whose decision is final.

Doctoral

Same as 1-4 for M.A. degree noted above.

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination in writing to the departmental chair who presents the case first to the Committee of Graduate Advisers and, if needed, to the faculty of the department, whose decision is final at the departmental level.