Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D.

About the Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Program

In addition to regulations established by the Graduate School for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, students are required to demonstrate high proficiency in a single research area through a record of accomplishments. As part of this record, students should have at least two technical papers published or accepted for publication in an archival journal relevant to their field of expertise, prior to the defense of their thesis. Individual faculty advisors may choose to require more than two journal publications. The Ph.D. degree requires a minimum of 60 hours of graduate coursework, 12 hours of ME 8000  (Doctor’s Dissertation), the Ph.D. qualifying exam, the Ph.D. thesis proposal, and public Ph.D. defense. The graduate coursework includes at least 12 lecture courses (36 credit hours) and research courses. A maximum of 6 graduate-level courses (18 credit hours) can be transferred from a prior master’s degree earned outside the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas Tech University.