HASS PhD Programme

The Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) PhD in SUTD offers exciting opportunities for students who wish to pursue an interdisciplinary post-graduate program focusing on understanding social, behavioural, and technological transformations through empowering lenses of humanities and social sciences.

HASS faculty represent a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social science, including psychology, communication, history, comparative/English literature, digital humanities, anthropology, sociology, etc.

Coursework must be completed within the first two years of candidacy. HASS PhD students are required to take 2 core courses and 3 electives as follows:

2 Core courses (applied for new and existing PhD students who have not yet completed previous mandatory courses since January 2024)

• 01.505 Innovation by Design
• One of the following three courses
  1. 02.564 Interventions in Design, Technology, and Society (DTS Core)
  2. 02.519 Introduction to Digital Humanities: Principles and Methods (DH Core)
  3. 02.501 Theory and Dynamics of Urban Social Processes (USPP Core)

*PhD students who have already taken these (or similar) courses would need to take a substitute course to fulfil these requirements (a suitable course to be selected in consultation with advisor)

3 Graduate electives

Choice of PhD elective from other pillars/ HASS MUSPP elective/Independent Study Module

*No credit transfer allowed; “Independent Study Module” (for letter grade) is counted as one of the three electives, while “PhD Research Pre-candidacy Module” (for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only) is not.

Seminars (*applied for new PhD students since September 2021 Intake)

Attend 2 series of seminars organized by HASS (or any equivalent series of seminars organized by other pillars, clusters, and centres in SUTD per supervisor’s acknowledgement). The course code is given respectively (by pillar/cluster) and the submission of a list of seminars is required for the completion of this seminar course for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.

The student must take and pass the qualifying exam by the end of the second year in order to continue with the candidacy. The QE shall comprise:

1. an oral defense that will comprise a 20 minute presentation, followed by a 30 minute question and answer session with the primary and secondary thesis supervisors, and one additional faculty member from within SUTD deemed to have the domain/cognate expertise;
2. A dissertation proposal comprising a literature review, research questions and a description of the proposed research method, of no longer than 10,000 words;
3. and two written exams of up to 2 hours duration each:
   • One written examination on the academic literature relating to the student’s dissertation;
   • One written examination on research methods relating to the student’s dissertation.

Oral examination

The Thesis Examination Committee (TEC) shall be constituted at the QE in accordance with SUTD FORM 105 ANNEX A – GUIDELINES FOR FORMATION OF THESIS EXAMINATION COMMITTEE (TEC) as below:

1. It is the responsibility of the Main Advisor to identify suitable members for the candidate’s TEC in consultation with the co-advisors (if any) and if necessary, the Graduate Committee Chair (GCC).
2. The TEC Chair must be a tenured SUTD faculty member, preferably in a related research field, and must NOT be one of the advisors of the candidate.
3. The TEC should include all advisors (internal & external), the TEC Chair, and a minimum of 2 other members who should preferably be tenure-track or teaching-track faculty members.
4. Excluding the advisors, there should be no more than ONE non-tenured or adjunct SUTD faculty in the TEC which is subject to the approval of the Pillar/Cluster Head or designate.
5. All TEC members must hold PhD degrees unless a special provision is given by the Associate Provost (Education).
6. The number of external TEC members (outside SUTD) should not exceed TWO. For clarity, these would be in addition to the minimum of FOUR TEC members from SUTD.
7. The Pillar/Cluster Head or his/her designate needs to approve the composition of the TEC.
8. The TEC must not have any vested interests or relationships pertaining to this candidate that could potentially result in a conflict of interest.

Thesis format

The thesis format shall adhere to the “Guidelines for Thesis Evaluation, Oral Examination and Thesis Format for PhD, Engineering Doctorate and Master of Engineering (Research)” with one suggested addition specific to HASS, underlined as follows:

Apply online

For enquires relating to application, admissions and scholarship matters, please write to Graduate Programme Office.

For other enquiries, please write to phd@hass.sutd.edu.sg