Fresh from successful campaigns to add master’s degrees to NIU’s portfolio, academic leaders in the late 1950s began a campaign to create a limited doctoral program. Their rationale was that universities needed to create “master teachers” at colleges, universities and community colleges, and that if NIU wanted to recruit and retain “a more scholarly faculty,” it would be necessary to have a doctoral program.
Beginning in 1957, a twelve-member faculty committee, along with the Graduate Council and eleven sub-committees, began the arduous task of studying every aspect of university structure and readiness for doctoral programs.
In November 1961, the Teachers College Board approved NIU’s request to grant the Ph.D. degree in history and English, and the Ed.D. degree in education and business education. Among those who had championed the doctoral program, the victory was called “the most significant step the university has made since its beginning,” and “the true coming of age of NIU.”
In May of 1964, NIU’s first doctoral degree was awarded in business education as Herbert J. Bergstein received his doctoral hood from Graduate School Dean Robert Thistlewait and Vice President Francis Geigle.
Today, students can earn doctorates at NIU in 24 disciplines, ranging from Chemistry and Computer Science to Art & Design Education and Nursing.
