Multi-Sector Communication, Doctor of Philosophy

Admission Requirements

Please note: doctoral students are expected to engage in ongoing research and present and/or publish scholarly studies, in addition to completing classroom assignments, while studying in the doctoral program. Prospective students are encouraged to contact the Program Coordinator for a personal interview before starting the application process.

Master’s Credit Transfer (maximum 24-credit transfer from the second master's degree)

Admitted students to the Ph.D. program who have maintained a 3.0 GPA throughout their master’s program are selectively eligible to transfer credits from a completed master’s degree program. Each request is assessed separately.

Degree Objectives

1. To educate high-level experts in the field of communication by offering skills and competencies necessary to be able to conduct significant research in the field of International Multisector Communication.
    
2. To identify the needs in all areas of communication, and develop research which responds to those needs, including interconnections between the various areas of communication to be thematic (multidisciplinary research).
    
3. To make the outcomes of research available to the wider society by enabling you to communicate the results of research in accordance with academic requirements.
    
4. To help improve the elements of the professional spheres of communication through innovation.
    
5. To strengthen the links between the private, nongovernmental, and governmental sectors’ communication.

Core Competencies

• Ability to conceive, design, create, implement, and undertake a substantial creation or research process and contribute to the broadening of the frontiers of knowledge, in the field of International Multisector Communication, through original research, especially focused on digital communication and mass communication.
   
• Ability to use new knowledge, tools, and technology from other research branches and areas, and integrate knowledge from other professional areas.
   
• Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific communities and with society in general about their research area in the ways and language typically used in the relevant international scientific community.
   
• Ability to exchange knowledge, communicate, and collaborate in multisector, multistakeholder projects, teams, or networks, in order to broaden and deepen knowledge applicable to areas of communication, and to communicate research to wider audiences.
   
• Ability to apply scientific knowledge in order to create and foster both scholarly, as well as applied, multisector innovations and problem-solving.

Career Outcomes

This Ph.D. program prepares you for upper-level, media management positions as it allows you to cultivate and maintain ongoing partnerships/relationships with international organizations, academia, and the government sector. Leaders from various fields will be involved in the degree program, possibly hosting within their organizations doctoral students who are interested in completing case studies, action research or ethnographic work, or data collection.

Graduates of this program may seek employment in academia in the areas of communication, public relations, corporate communication, strategic communication, industry, and information and communications technology for development and related fields.

In industry, the most common titles may include Change Management Communications Director, Communication Account Executive, Communication Manager, Communication Specialist Manager, Director of Executive Communications, Director of Global Planning, Executive Communication Manager, Internal Communication Executive, Manager/Chief Executive Officer/Executive of Employee Communication, Public Sector Director, and Senior Communication Strategist.

Why Should You Choose St. John’s?

Robust Structure

This degree is unique in its structure and modeled after similar programs at the London School of Economics and the University of Leicester. It offers a robust program designed not to be financially burdensome (in alignment with our Vincentian mission) or unduly time-consuming. It attracts both domestic and international students.

Like the European models, the program is designed to be completed within three to 3.5 years as a full-time student, or five to 5.5 years as a part-time student. After you earn your master’s degree, you are required to take an additional 36 credits and a comprehensive exam. You begin your work on a dissertation upon completion of 30 credits, of which 12 credits must be in research methods courses that build qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method study foundations.

You have the option to find dissertation mentors outside the division, College, or University as the topic may demand. At least three credits are designated as research mentorship with the goal of presenting research at reputable academic conferences and submitting a publishable paper to peer-reviewed journals.

Research focus 

Tentative focal points for research, among others, include interorganizational information technology networks; the relationship between communication, knowledge, and power; emerging technologies and new media in interorganizational communication, cultures, values, and digital identities; the disjuncture between global and local communication networks; and critical theories and methods of addressing interorganizational communication across institutions and countries.