All students are required to defend the dissertation successfully in a final oral examination. To be eligible for the final oral examination, a student must have:
- Completed all work on the official doctoral degree program form, including the language requirement
- Passed both the written and the oral preliminary examinations
- Maintained active status
- Satisfied both the thesis credit and the residency requirements
Steps to Take Prior to Defense
Pay close attention to the deadlines! This information can also be found here.
- Record your final oral exam committee. Complete at least one month prior to exam here.
- Apply to graduate no later than the first day of the anticipated month of graduation. Application instructions are available here. Review the date ranges and deadlines for monthly graduation here.
- Initiate your Reviewers’ Report form at least one week before your final exam here. All committee members designated as “reviewers” submit their responses before your final exam.
- Schedule your exam at least one week in advance here. You will be emailed a link to access your Final Exam form for graduate students after you have met all of the above requirements. Your record will also be reviewed for completion of coursework and adherence to policy.
- Initiate your Final Exam Form for Graduate Students. At least one day prior to your defense, initiate the form to review your examining committee for accuracy and send the form to your committee chair.
Final Oral Examination Committee
The doctoral preliminary and final oral examination committees must consist of at least four members, including the advisor(s). All members of the committees and the candidate must participate. Please review committee policies here. Committees must be recorded.
- At least three members (including the advisor) must be from your major field.
- At least one member must represent a field outside the major.
- If you have declared a minor, at least one member must represent the minor field.
- Members cannot satisfy the requirement with respect to more than one field.
Thesis Reviewers for Final Oral Exam
- A minimum of two major field reviewers and one minor/outside reviewer are required. In the case of multiple minors, there must be a reviewer for each minor.
- Advisor(s) must serve as reviewers.
- Every designated reviewer on the doctoral dissertation reviewer’s report must certify that the dissertation is ready for defense before the doctoral final oral examination may take place.
Advisor
- Must represent the major on the preliminary oral and final oral committees.
- The chair of the doctoral final oral examination committee may not be the candidate’s advisor.
Co-advisor (if any)
- May represent the major or the minor/outside field on the preliminary oral and final oral committees.
- The chair of the doctoral final oral examination committee may not be the candidate’s co-advisor.
If they wish, students should schedule a meeting with their Ph.D. Advisory Committee to discuss preparation for the preliminary examination, at least one semester prior to the preliminary examination.
If a student would like to add an external committee member from an outside university, or would like to keep a retiring faculty member on their committee, additional paperwork is required. Please contact the GPC as soon as possible.
Committee Substitutions on the examining committee may be necessitated by such circumstances as a faculty member's temporary absence or leave from the University or an emergency situation. The adviser or the Director of Graduate Studies must request approval from the Graduate School concerning such substitutions well in advance of the examination.
Scheduling Final Oral Exam
Students are responsible for assigning their Final Oral Examination Committee and scheduling their Final Oral Examination (also known as the Dissertation Defense), here. Students must notify the GPC once these steps have been completed, and should work with the GPC to reserve a room (or set up a zoom room if in-person is not an option) and publicize the examination. The student does not need to publicize their defense, beyond what they work out with the GPC, if they do not wish.
Delivery of Dissertation to Final Oral Examination Committee and Dissertation Reviewers
At the time the candidate submits a draft of the dissertation to the dissertation reviewers, copies must also be provided to all other members of the final oral examination committee. The dissertation abstract, signed by the adviser, must be included with the dissertation when it is distributed to the committee. While the department expects only that the committee will receive a near-final draft for approval, the dissertation must be formatted according to university requirements for its final submission. To permit faculty to allocate sufficient time to read the dissertation and decide whether it is ready for defense, students must notify their adviser and other members of the final oral exam committee at least 2 weeks in advance that the thesis will be delivered on a particular date. When signing the dissertation reviewers report form, the reviewers have three options:
- The dissertation is acceptable for defense as presented
- The dissertation is acceptable for defense with minor revisions
- The dissertation requires major revisions and is not acceptable for defense as presented
- The reviewers must be unanimous in certifying that the dissertation is ready for defense, whether as presented or with minor revisions. If this is the case, and all other requirements have been met, the Graduate School authorizes the final oral examination.
Format of Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense)
Once the student has notified GSSP of their final exam date, and GSSP approves, the student will receive a confirmation email with a link to initiate their Oral Exam Form. Once the student initiates the form, it is automatically assigned to the Chair of their committee. The Chair will receive an email notifying them that the form has been assigned to them and they can access it following the student’s exam. There the Chair will record the results of each member of the committee for the oral exam.
The final oral examination consists of a seminar in which the candidate presents the dissertation and to which the scholarly community is invited. It will not exceed three hours, and usually lasts around two hours. A closed meeting between the candidate and the appointed examining committee immediately follows the dissertation presentation. The candidate is then excused and a vote is taken on whether the candidate passed the examination. The Chair will record the results of each member of the committee for the oral exam in the Oral Exam Form. This must be submitted no later than the last business day of the anticipated month of graduation. If any revisions are required, committee members must notify the candidate in writing of all required revisions to the doctoral dissertation as well as specifying a time limit for the submission of the revised doctoral dissertation within seven (7) days of the final oral examination. Please review the Doctoral Degree: Completion policy here.
Recess of Final Oral Examination
Please review the policy here.
Changes in Title or Proposal
Changes in the wording of the dissertation title may be made without special approval, but changes should not be made after the dissertation title is registered. If substantive changes are made in the nature of the dissertation research itself, the student must submit a revised dissertation proposal immediately.
Language of Dissertation
Normally, dissertations should be written in English or French. If the student chooses to write their dissertation in French, a letter should be attached to the reviewer’s report form stating that all dissertation reviewers are qualified to read, comprehend, and criticize a dissertation written in a foreign language.
Dissertation Reviewers
The designated dissertation reviewers consist of the adviser, representing the major field, and at least two other members of the final oral examining committee, including at least one representative from the major field and one representative from the minor or supporting program. All members of the final oral examining committee read the thesis, although only those designated as thesis reviewers sign the report form certifying that the dissertation is ready for defense.
Submitting the Dissertation
All students who complete a doctoral dissertation must file a digital copy of the dissertation with the University in accordance with University standards. Further information on submission and format can be found on OneStop. Students may request that the University embargo publication of the dissertation for a limited period of time.