PhD program advantages
Six ways the Education Doctoral Program at Concordia benefits its students and graduates:
Strong research training, with exposure to a variety of research methods and their underlying philosophies, and hands-on research skill development through course projects, research assistantships (when available), and dissertation research.
Because our program encompasses all of the disciplines in which we specialize, students are exposed to issues of learning throughout the lifetime, from early childhood to adult education, and from discipline-specific issues to the applications of technology. But more than exposure, our program encourages students to explore links among disciplines, and study and conduct research across these disciplines.
The Department of Education is housed on the downtown campus (called Sir George Williams campus) of Concordia University a 1-block walk from the Guy-Concordia station of Montreal’s efficient Metro system. Within a 2-blocks radius of the department are the Hall Building of Concordia—which hosts many student and cultural events, much housing for students, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Ste-Catherine Street--the retail heart of downtown Montreal, and Crescent Street—one of the entertainment centers of Montreal. Beyond 2 blocks? The most unique and culturally diverse urban centers in North America.
Concordia University prides itself on maintaining strong links to the community. Complementing a university that is well integrated into its surrounding communities and institutional outreach programs like the University of the Streets, the faculty of the Department of Education maintain strong relationships with community and professional organizations, which, in turn, provide a real-world labs to help apply the programs developed through our research.
Quebec university tuition is the lowest in Canada for in-province, in-country, and international students. In addition, Montreal has one of the most reasonable costs of living of any metropolitan area of its size in North America. Specifically housing, public transit, and food are especially reasonably priced.
Like the population of Montreal, the student population in the Department of Education is a diverse one, representing cultures and backgrounds from 6 continents, as well as diverse life experiences.
Concordia University, whose Department of Education is among the top-ranked in the world, offers a broad-based doctoral degree in education that prepares students for positions in academia, educational leadership, research, policy formulation, and consulting.
Like all PhD programs, ours is a research degree. The primary emphasis of this program is preparing students to conduct their own research—a dissertation—in such a way that the study will withstand the most rigorous of peer reviews.
Our doctoral program offers an interdisciplinary approach, which provides exposure to the breadth of the field of education while also offering the opportunity to specialize in an area of interest.
Education itself is an interdisciplinary field—drawing on, and contributing to—many fields, including (1) social sciences, such as psychology and sociology; (2) humanities such as philosophy and history; and (3) the design and application of technology, such as human factors and social media.
Our program exposes students to four key branches of the field of education:
- Applied Linguistics
- Child Studies
- Educational Studies
- Educational Technology