Major responsibility for assessment of Doctoral Faculty qualifications rests at the department level where nominations for membership are initiated. Doctoral Faculty must be duly nominated and approved regular (tenured or tenure-track) members of the faculty with the rank of assistant professor or higher. In UMKC's Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, three members of a student's supervisory committee must be members of the UMKC doctoral faculty, and the research advisor must be from the primary discipline area.

There are three classifications of Graduate Faculty membership at the University of Missouri-Kansas City: (a) Graduate Faculty, (b) Ex-officio graduate faculty and (c) Adjunct Graduate Faculty. The Graduate Dean approves these appointments on an annual basis.

The supervisory committee shall be composed of one doctoral faculty from each of the primary and co-disciplines with a maximum of three from any one discipline. Up to two of the remaining members of each committee can hold either graduate or adjunct graduate faculty status.  Final approval of the composition of each supervisory committee shall be obtained in writing by the advisor (or committee chair) from the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. Where graduate or adjunct graduate faculty are included, the advisor shall provide a strong justification for their inclusion.

For purposes of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, a discipline is defined as an academic unit, such as a department or division (with a chair/head) within a school, college or academic program. To be able to participate as a discipline in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, a discipline, meeting the above definition, must have at least four regular doctoral-faculty members.

Doctoral Faculty Discipline Affiliation

Continuing doctoral faculty are reviewed for five-year reappointment and nominations for new appointments are considered throughout each academic year. Consequently, the list of doctoral faculty is dynamic and subject to change. Current lists are available from the School of Graduate Studies.