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The College of Visual & Performing Arts participates with the faculties in art, music, theatre & dance, and philosophy in an interdisciplinary program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy with a major in Fine Arts. Students engage a core curriculum of 15 hours that emphasizes interdisciplinarity among the arts: four required courses include a colloquium that explores disciplinary formation and types of interdisciplinary engagement; arts histories; arts in a contemporary context; and philosophical aesthetics. An additional approved topics or aesthetics course completes a student’s core program. Work within this track involves an individualized curriculum that allows the candidate to pursue a professional goal relating to personal competencies and culminates in a dissertation.
The doctoral degree program with major in Fine Arts requires a minimum of 60 semester hours; the residence requirement is fulfilled by satisfactory completion of 18 semester hours of graduate coursework during one 12-month period. Additional details appear in the introductory catalog section to the Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts.
Concentrations. The Interdisciplinary Arts track allows students to work within two or three disciplinary concentrations. The primary concentration will be situated in one of the TCVPA’s three Schools but will not be limited to the concentrations currently offered as part of that School’s FADP tracks. The second (and third, if chosen) concentration can be an additional arts discipline housed within the TCVPA, or can be a non-arts discipline with which the TCVPA has an agreement relative to this degree track. The Qualifying Exam for this track will involve multiple parts: the VPA Core Exam as well as exams in each of the major fields.
September 2025
J.T. and Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts
Holden Hall - Rm 103,
1011 Boston Ave.,
LUBBOCK,
Texas,
79409, United States
The applicant must have earned a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution in the United States or its equivalent from a foreign institution.
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) - The minimum TOEFL score required is 79.
International English Language Testing Service (IELTS) - The minimum IELTS required score is an overall band score of 6.5 on the Academic version.
Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) - The minimum required PTE Academic score is 60.
Cambridge C2 Proficiency Test (Cambridge CPE) - The minimum required Cambridge CPE grade is a score of 180 or above.
Cambridge C1 Advanced Proficiency Test (Cambridge CAE) - The minimum required Cambridge CAE grade is a score of 175 or above.
Recommended deadlines for international students are as follows:
January 15 for Fall and Summer semesters
July 15 for Spring semesters
*There may be different IELTS requirements depending on your chosen course.
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