In an age of climate change and rising environmental challenges, there is no better time to become an emergency management professional. Online Ph.D. Program‘s list of the Top 2 Affordable Online Ph.D.’s in Emergency Management strives to help you find a flexible and affordable degree program to further your career. 
The following Top 2 Affordable Online Ph.D.’s in Emergency Management can help future professionals break into the field of emergency management with the best industry practices and research methodology that are central to the industry. These degree programs focus on deepening your practice skills and pairing them with strong research methods to enable you to make a significant impact in whichever career path you choose to follow.
FINDING AN AFFORDABLE ONLINE PHD IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Emergency Management is a burgeoning field where experts focus on building safety, fire suppression and dynamics, environmental and natural disaster responses, community planning, and logistics. There are a variety of different careers open to people who pursue a Ph.D. in the field, including academic teaching and research, governmental and municipal research, analysts of existing emergency programs, and hazard mitigation consulting. Emergency management specialists can work for private companies, local, state, or federal agencies, ensuring that policies and procedures are in place and work to keep people, animals, and environments healthy and safe.
According to the Department of Labor, the field of emergency management is expected to keep pace with all other fields in regard to jobs. EMD positions are also well worth considering in terms of salary because they make around double the average wage, and there are positions available throughout the country. If you are considering a job in the field, and you want to have the research skills needed to complement your practical skills and experience then check out our list of the Top 3 Affordable Online Ph.D.’s in Emergency Management.
RANKING THE TOP 4 AFFORDABLE ONLINE PHD IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
While you’re on your way to earning your Ph.D. or Doctorate within your field, the editors at Online PhD Programs are already practicing doctors of their craft: ranking the best online Ph.D. programs. To be featured on our annual rankings online doctorates must satisfy four coinciding requirements: accreditation, research and scholarship doctorate certification, NSF recognition, and institutional association with peer-reviewed academia.
Each degree is then ranked using the information provided – primarily – through the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook. The data collected is scored through a series of weighted categories to represent seven crucial aspects of what makes an online doctorate valuable to future students. Online program quality and presence are joined by industry salaries, student reviews, degree exclusivity, costs, and completion rates to determine the best online doctorates available. For a comprehensive breakdown of how we categorize and source data, please visit ourmethodology page.
#1. OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
One of the first of its kind, Oklahoma State University offers an online Ph.D. in Fire & Emergency Management Administration. The degree was inspired by OSU’s commitment to live out its mission as a land-grant school, as students are prepared for the professional work in several areas critical to the community or environmental health. The PHDFEMA program is geared towards preparing researchers and scholars in the field and is meant to prepare graduates for teaching in a variety of institutions as well as conducting fieldwork research.
The program is overseen by the College of Engineering Architecture and Technology, and students will be able to demonstrate a mastery of various theories and practices in fire and emergency management. Admission to the program requires a 3.0 GPA and GRE scores taken within the previous five years. Students must have completed a master’s degree. The program includes 45 credits of both coursework and dissertation research and writing. Some of the classes in the program include Emergency Management in the International Setting, Emergency Management and Public Policy in the United States, and Politics of Disaster.
Format: Online
#2. WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
Located in Worcester, MA, Worcester Polytechnic Institute offers a Ph.D. in Fire Protection Engineering. The program is geared towards prevention in the form of regulatory policy, building design, first responder operations, and product performance standards. The program is an excellent mix of theory and hands-on learning. Students take classes from mathematics, computer science, psychology, and engineering. Ph.D. curriculum, along with faculty research, focuses on a variety of areas, such as detection, alarm, and smoke control, advanced fire suppression, failure analysis, and fire dynamics.
Because the field of emergency management is so young, students who enroll in this program are entering an exciting area of research and development. Students have the opportunity to discover and create new knowledge for generations to come. Facilities are state-of-the-art with a 2,000 square foot space, which is used for a wide variety of purposes. WPI also has a Combustion Laboratory and a Fire Fundamentals Laboratory. Faculty and other program members have access to both private and public funding, which is not surprising since the field is central to the community and environmental safety. WPI also has large alumni in a variety of fields and graduates of the FPE program have gone on to work as consultants, in government, and research centers.