Cognate

Rackham requires that all students select a cognate area to provide the student with more in‐depth training in a specific field of study outside of that offered in the home department. The HBHE cognate requirement is fulfilled by 9 hours of coursework in the chosen area (usually 3 courses – none of which are in or cross‐listed with HBHE). The faculty advisor should guide the student in selecting the cognate area, and students are encouraged to choose their cognate area and corresponding courses by the end of their first year, in order that the required cognate courses can be completed by the end of year two.

A chosen cognate may be a well‐known academic field of study represented by a department or school on the U‐M campus (e.g., Business Administration, Public Policy, Women’s Studies), or it may be an area of scholarship not conventionally represented by an academic department, but theoretically or methodologically complementary to the planned dissertation. Cognate areas recently chosen by HBHE doctoral students have included Aging, Communications, Complex Systems, Demography, Gender and Health, Native American Studies, and Survey Research Methods, to name a few. What is most important is that the cognate offers a logical complement to the dissertation, and that at least 3 courses can be identified at the University to fulfill the cognate credits. The chosen cognate, and proposed list of Cognate courses, must be submitted to the faculty advisor for approval.