The Ph.D. program in Human Resources and Industrial Relations at Illinois offers an invaluable depth of knowledge for launching an academic career in employment relations. Our on-campus doctoral program is rigorous and research-intensive, designed to prepare graduates for successful academic careers at prestigious research universities worldwide.
The PhD in Human Resources & Industrial Relations at Illinois is more than a degree
It’s a launchpad for bold thinkers ready to shape the future of work.
Interdisciplinary by design. Our program brings together leading scholars in HR, industrial relations, labor economics, organizational psychology, sociology, law, and labor education. As a PhD student in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Illinois, you’ll train across these fields, gaining the breadth and depth to tackle complex questions about work, organizations, and society.
Collaborative and connected. Work side-by-side with world-class faculty, collaborate with fellow PhD and master’s students. Build powerful networks with our alumni at leading universities.
Research from day one. You won’t just learn about research – you’ll do it. From your first semester, you’ll design studies, write papers, and push the boundaries of knowledge in a supportive, close-knit scholarly community.
Ready to lead. By the time you graduate, you’ll have the skills, experience, and network to launch a successful academic career and thrive as a scholar and research leader.
Do you enjoy independent research and working in small groups to discover and communicate new ideas? Do you possess an intellectual curiosity about relationships involving:
- Employee ability, skill, motivation, functional and dysfunctional behaviors, and job performance and satisfaction
- Work practices and organizational performance (based on financial and market indicators, social responsibility)
- Human resource practices and their connections with performance
- Government regulation of employment practices
- Labor markets, both inside and outside the firm, and their impacts on careers
- Union-management relations
If so, then you should excel in the Ph.D. program at the School of Labor and Employment Relations because these are just a few of the relationships that most successful doctoral students have researched in the past few years.
Why Illinois?
Employment relations encompasses the background and interests of Human Resources and Industrial Relations scholars, labor economists, organizational psychologists, organizational sociologists, legal scholars and labor educators. As a student pursuing a Ph.D. in Human Resources & Industrial Relations, you will develop relationships with LER faculty in all of these disciplines, other doctoral and master’s degree students, and alumni colleagues at other universities. You will produce cutting-edge information in the field by learning the craft of research from a tight-knit community of dedicated faculty, students, and alumni who will support and challenge your ideas from multidisciplinary perspectives.
All Ph.D. students receive a generous financial aid package, including support for attending professional conferences. LER has its own top-rated library, a very strong information technology infrastructure, and office space for all funded doctoral students.
The Ph.D. program is residential, and an online option is not available.
Request information about the Human Resources and Industrial Relations Ph.D.
Please email Becky Barker, Senior Assistant Dean for Student Services, at ebarker@illinois.edu to learn more about the Ph.D. program.