Admission is limited to students whose master of art degree in economics record shows genuine capacity for advanced work in the field of economics. The PhD program consists of three components: i) coursework lasting one to two academic years, ii) a comprehensive examination, and iii) supervised dissertation research. Students who have MA degrees from the other economics departments may be asked to complete one-year Ph.D. Preparation Program. Ph.D. Preparation Program is identical to the course work of the MA program.

Before comprehensive examination, in addition to ECON 8003 and ECON 8004, students must complete the required works in two field selected. Each field consists of at least one "Topics" courses and one research paper. At the end of both "Independent Research Paper" and "Independent Research Project" courses, course, students submit and defend a short research paper of "publishable" quality. The current list of available fields is:

International Economics (ECON 8010)
Economic Growth and Development (ECON 8005 and ECON 8008)
Monetary Economics (ECON 8007)
Turkish Economy (ECON 8009) 
Econometrics and Statistics (ECON 8006 and ECON 8011)

Course requirement(s) is (are) given in parentheses.  

The students, who complete the credit requirements of the program, take a comprehensive examination. This examination covers the core fields (microeconomics and macroeconomics) and two fields selected.

Upon passing the comprehensive examination, the student writes and defends a formal dissertation proposal that describes the research topic and the methods to be used in the analyses. Ones the department has accepted the proposal, the student proceeds with the planned research under the supervision of an appointed faculty member. During this period, the student must submit and defends a progress report twice a year, in June and December. When the dissertation is completed, the student defends it in an oral examination before the dissertation committee.

PhD Curriculum:

First Year	First Term	Hours	ECTS
ECON 8001	Independent Research Paper	3	7.5
ECON 8003	Economic Analysis	3	7.5
	Elective - 1	3	7.5
	Elective - 2	3	7.5
	TOTAL	12	30
	Elective Courses:
ECON 8005	Topics in Development Economics	3	7.5
ECON 8006	Topics in Econometrics and Statistics	3	7.5
ECON 8007	Topics in Monetary Economics and Policy	3	7.5
ECON 8009	Topics in Turkish Economy	3	7.5
First Year	Second Term	Hours	ECTS
ECON 8002	Independent Research Project	3	7.5
ECON 8004	Quantitative Methods in Economics	3	7.5
	Elective - 3	3	7.5
	Elective - 4	3	7.5
	TOTAL	12	30
	Elective Courses:
ECON 8008	Topics in Economic Growth	3	7.5
ECON 8010	Topics in International Trade and Finance	3	7.5
ECON 8011	Microeconometrics	3	7.5