Post Graduate Studies

Masters Degrees  
The Master of Arts degree program in Biblical Studies without the need to return to the environment of the traditional college classroom, Christian Communication, Psychology and Christian Counseling, and Christian Education is primarily designed for the mature professional who seeks to further his or her education without the need to return to the traditional college classroom environment. The program allows you to continue working toward a degree while maintaining your professional career.

The program has the flexibility of combining professional development courses, workshops and seminars such as those offered by an employer with other academic course requirements. This allows you to optimize the use of your time for both your education and your profession.

LBU offers the degrees of Master of Theological Studies and Master of Divinity through the Seminary Division.

The admission requirements for both the undergraduate and graduate programs are based upon the criteria of the institution. Admission is further based on individual approval of the Admissions Office.

Doctor of Philosophy Degree
The Louisiana Baptist University doctoral programs lead to the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Studies, Psychology and Christian Counseling, and Christian Education. Your individual program of study will be developed from a core of required courses based on your own personal and professional goals.

The external studies program requires that your plan of study be developed specifically for you within the overall academic requirements of the institution. A Doctor of Philosophy degree will normally require 45-60 credit hours of work beyond the Masters degree or 90 credit hours beyond the Bachelors degree.

Your faculty advisor is closely involved in the formulation, planning and development of your program of study and research. The faculty is committed to your achievement of excellence in course work and in your professional development.

The Doctor of Philosophy programs utilize prepared courses in the field of study in combination with extensive research projects and cooperative education learning experiences. In this manner, your program provides you with an opportunity to strengthen your skills and knowledge in your chosen field and at the same time to make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge. It does this by allowing you to bring your unique expertise to bear on a contemporary problem of interest to you and other professionals in your field of study, within the context of graduate study. The faculty of LBU believes that this program offers a valuable opportunity for intellectual growth and development to the mature professional.

Candidacy
A graduate student is required to maintain a 3.00 grade-point average (based on a 4.00 scale) while completing his/her graduate studies. A student may not consider themselves a candidate for a doctoral degree until he/she has demonstrated this academic ability through completed course work and received the doctoral committee’s approval of the student’s prospectus.

Dissertation
Every candidate for a doctoral degree is required to prepare and present a dissertation that shows competent independent investigation of a subject area and is acceptable in form and content to the student’s doctoral committee. It is necessary that the work be of publishable quality.

The dissertation must exhibit originality and thoroughness of research and must be an exhaustive treatment of the subject chosen. The form of the dissertation must be approved by the faculty advisor. In addition, the graduate student must present his research in an acceptable and correct grammatical style. Mere technical form is not enough; the material should reflect the high quality of research and knowledge expected of a Doctor of Philosophy degree candidate.