I was in a doctoral program (different faculty) at U of M. There was course work (basically 2 years at 80% of a full-time load), a teaching and a research appre

I was in a doctoral program (different faculty) at U of M. There was course work (basically 2 years at 80% of a full-time load), a teaching and a research apprenticeship and a candidacy exam before you were allowed to start work on your dissertation. The absolute minimum time you could complete it was 3 years, but typically you were expected to take 5-7 years (though it was also expected that you'd be teaching at a university during the last couple of years).