政治学博士学位课程在全国范围内被公认是该学科的领导者，在每个主要子领域都拥有出色的研究人员，并以出色的研究生培训而闻名。政治学研究生课程强调哲学博士课程。该系通常只提供硕士学位作为迈向博士学位的第一步。政治学哲学博士课程要求至少72 sh的研究生学分。该计划旨在使学生为在学术机构和私人或政府机构中的研究，教学和学术努力做好准备。它培养出了致力于政治研究，熟悉政治程序基础知识，训练有素的方法和技术以认真研究基本和应用研究问题的毕业生，并决心为政治学和社会。
The Department of Political Science's doctoral program is designed to prepare students for careers in research and teaching. Some of our PhDs emphasize the former and some the latter, but in either case they will get a thorough grounding in research methods. It is this grounding that permits teachers to be critical consumers of the research they read and permits researchers to undertake significant theoretical and empirical work of their own. Because the Iowa faculty and graduate student body are not large, there is ample opportunity to collaborate with individual faculty members in research endeavors. In addition, students spend some time as apprentice teachers in our large undergraduate classes. Our new PhDs are well prepared for the professional world that awaits.