Educational Policies Committee Program Proposal, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, April 1, 2010

The PhD program in Theory & Practice of Professional Communication, in the Department of English in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Utah State University (USU), was designed to fill a growing demand in higher education for PhD-credentialed instructors and researchers in professional communication—including technical, business, scientific, and online communication. This PhD is a natural outgrowth of the USU English Department\u27s 20-year history of working with the relationship between writing and technology in the academy and the workplace. The main purpose of the program is to prepare students for tenure-line teaching and research positions in higher education where they will specialize in workplace communication. Graduates of the program will also be prepared to apply for jobs as communication experts in education and corporate settings