90 PhD programmes offered by the university

The Anthropology program at Northwestern University fosters the historic diversity of the discipline by building an intellectual dialogue between different humanistic and scientific approaches. 

The Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences program at Northwestern University provides the resources and training environment necessary to promote the development of Ph.D. students into independent, creative research scientists and teachers.

The Civil and Environmental Engineering - Environmental Engineering and Science program at Northwestern University is organized to provide a common core for all environmental engineers, and to allow individual students to tailor the program to their interests. 

The Medicine and Public Health program at Northwestern University is available to incoming medical students in the Feinberg School of Medicine. 

The Religious Studies program at Northwestern University is highly flexible and profoundly interdisciplinary. All students take courses both within and outside the department, most choose at least one dissertation adviser from another department, and many students take one qualifying examination in another discipline. 

Students in this joint Management and Organizations and Sociology program offered by Northwestern University are interested in topics that bridge management strategy and economic sociology, such as social movements, the production of culture, entrepreneurship, social networks, gender and race inequality in organizations, and globalization.   

The Accounting Information and Management doctoral program at Northwestern University trains students in empirical/archival and analytical/theoretical research methods focusing on the role of accounting in the market for financial information.

The Political Science program at Northwestern University is designed for students whose primary concern is a mastery of theories, methods of research, and substantive literature of the discipline of political science.

The Screen Cultures program at Northwestern University continues the historical leadership in the cultural and critical analysis of film, television, and emerging media by integrating interdisciplinary opportunities both within the School of Communication and across the University. 

Students in the Music - Music Theory and Cognition program at Northwestern University design a course of study incorporating their individual interests and a broad-based approach to contemporary music research. 

The Life Sciences program at Northwestern University combines graduate study in biochemistry and structural biology, cancer biology, cell biology, developmental biology,, genetics and genomics, immunology, microbiology, neurobiology, pharmacology, systems biology, and biomedical informatics into a single program. 

The Electrical Engineering program at Northwestern University provides students with the opportunity to work with leading, world-renowned faculty members in research areas such as solid-state devices, photonics, image and video processing, and wireless communications.

The Biomedical Engineering - Neural Engineering program at Northwestern University extends and applies basic knowledge of the nervous system, from the molecular to the systems level, to develop useful technology for medical and other applications. 

The German Literature and Critical Thought program at Northwestern University focuses on the theoretical and cultural foundations of German literature, critical thought, and media from early modernity onward.

The Medical Anthropology program at Northwestern University prepares graduates for leadership in academic and government institutions requiring expertise in biocultural approaches to the study of human health and disease. 

A unique aspect of the Music program at Northwestern University is a cognate area requirement in a non-music field such as psychology of learning, cognitive science, learning sciences, cultural studies, social sciences, humanities, philosophy, or communication studies. 

The Biomedical Engineering - Medical Devices and Instrumentation program at Northwestern University focus of research in medical devices and instrumentation is to conceptualize, design, fabricate, and validate novel therapeutic and diagnostic tools. 

The Computer Science - Interfaces program at Northwestern University primarily prepares students to become expert independent researchers. 

The Clinical Psychology program at Northwestern University is one of only a handful of programs in the United States based in an academic medical center and housed in a psychiatry department.

Students in the Music - Music Education program at Northwestern University design a course of study incorporating their individual interests and a broad-based approach to contemporary music research.