Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Phd

Program Requirements

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) offers a Master of Science (MS) degree (thesis and online non-thesis) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD and PhD PRTM Online-Recreational Therapy Cognate). Flexibility permits individual development in professional interest areas such as community recreation, sport and camp management; park and conservation area management; recreational therapy; and travel and tourism. Each student’s program is tailored to suit personal and professional goals. Applicants from other disciplines may be required to develop background knowledge of parks, recreation and tourism through undergraduate coursework. Applicants for the MS (thesis) and both PhD programs must submit GRE scores.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is an advanced research degree requiring performance of original research leading to a dissertation. Comprehensive and final examinations and 18 hours of dissertation research are required. Coursework is determined by each student’s doctoral committee. The in-residence PhD program is grounded in the student’s grasp of recreation, park and tourism subject matter, competency to plan and conduct research, and the ability to effectively and professionally use written and oral communication. Enrollment requires that the student hold a bachelor’s and master’s degree for admission into the PhD program. The PhD PRTM Online-Recreational Therapy Cognate is based on the student’s grasp of recreational therapy and has been designed to ensure strong research training, optimize opportunities for student-faculty interaction and mentoring and to address an essential need in the field for educators in recreational therapy. Enrollment in the Online PhD also requires the student to have at least 2,000 hours of work experience beyond the internship and current certification as a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS).