Ph.D. Preliminary Examination
Ph.D. Preliminary Examination Preparation
The Ph.D. Preliminary Exam occurs during the student’s fourth semester of study. The preliminary examination process develops broad knowledge of the discipline of French and Francophone Studies, knowledge of a specific field within that discipline, and the research skills required for writing a dissertation.
Ph.D. Preliminary 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.
- 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.
Advisor
- Must represent the major on the preliminary oral and final oral committees.
- May serve as chair for the preliminary oral examination.
Co-advisor (if any)
- May represent the major or the minor/outside field on the preliminary oral and final oral committees.
- May serve as chair for the preliminary oral examination.
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.
Ph.D. students must schedule their Ph.D. Preliminary Exam with the Graduate Program Coordinator (GPC) at the beginning of the semester of their exam, after coordinating the schedules of their committee. It is the student’s responsibility to coordinate the availability of the committee members, and to reserve an appropriate room with the GPC. If an in-person exam is not possible, the student, or their committee Chair, should create a Zoom room for the event and share it with the committee. Both the date of the Portfolio submission, and the date of the Oral Exam, should be scheduled at the same time and should traditionally occur within the same semester (within about one month of each other).
Once exam dates and times for the Prelim Exam have been finalized with the GPC, the student must then schedule the Preliminary Oral Exam with Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) online by clicking on the link “Preliminary oral exam scheduling” at here. Once the student schedules the exam online, a confirmation email will be sent to their UMN email account.
Ph.D. Preliminary Exam
The Ph.D. Preliminary Exam consists of a Portfolio Review and an Oral Exam.
The Portfolio includes in a single PDF document:
- A table of contents indicating page numbers for each component of the portfolio.
- Two re-worked seminar papers in the major (minimum 10,000 words, or 40 pages, total)
- At least one of the two papers should have been written during the Ph.D. phase
- One re-worked seminar paper outside the major (minimum 5,000 words, or 20 pages)
- May include seminars in Italian or FRIT (if not counted as a part of the major)
- One publication, or one article ready for submission (minimum 3,000 words, or 12 pages)
- Must be formatted for a specific journal
- Must include a publication plan with titles of journal(s) and their formatting guidelines
- May be derived from one of the three papers above
- A Critical Review Essay (minimum 5,000 words, not counting the Bibliography).
- Within the essay, the student should articulate the state of the fields that they are presently researching. Students must also include a bibliography.
- A Dissertation Proposal (minimum 2,500 words, or 10 pages)
- A Progress Review Report comprising of 1) your yearly reviews by DLI and DGS since entering the program; and 2) a short narrative (approx. 1 page) of your engagement in scholarship and professionalization both on and beyond campus (attending talks and workshops; participating in working groups or conferences; submitting publications).
- Minimum coursework G.P.A. (3.5)
On the selected day, the Ph.D. student submits their Portfolio materials in a combined PDF document to the GPC; the GPC will then submit the Portfolio to the committee. There are approximately four weeks (or one month) between the submission of the Portfolio and the Oral Exam.
At least one week prior to the Oral Exam, the student will receive an email from GSSP with information regarding any outstanding requirements and how to fulfill the requirements.
One week prior to the Oral Exam, the committee should submit their individual letter grades for the Portfolio to the GPC. The GPC will combine these grades and create a cumulative grade based on the average, which the GPC will ultimately communicate to the committee. Additionally, the Chair of the committee will collect comments from the other members of the committee about the Portfolio, and communicate them to the student at the Oral Exam.
Students will be graded on an A-C basis, and must receive a B average to pass and move on to the Oral Exam. If a student receives a C (2.0) average or lower, the Portfolio may not be resubmitted. A student with an average slightly below a B may appeal through the Chair to the entire faculty for permission to advance to the Oral Exam.
Once the GPC has entered the cumulative grade for the Portfolio online, and GSSP has verified that all other examination requirements have been completed, the student will receive a confirmation email with a link to initiate their Preliminary 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. During the Oral Exam, the committee may discuss any part of the Portfolio. At the end of the exam, the Chair will record the results of each member of the committee for the oral exam.
Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Outcome
The outcome of the Oral Exam, with all committee members present and voting, is recorded in one of three ways: Pass, Pass with Reservations, or Fail.
- Pass: If a majority of the members (i.e. 3 out of 4, 3 out of 5, or 4 out of 6 members) of the Examination Committee give a “Pass” to the candidate, they have passed the oral examination.
- Pass with Reservations: A vote to pass the student with reservations constitutes a conditional passing vote. The student is informed immediately, but the Chair of the Examination Committee has seven days to send a letter to the student fully describing the nature of the reservations and how they can be satisfied. A copy of this letter is sent to the Graduate School by the Committee Chair. When the student has successfully addressed all reservations, the Committee Chair informs both the student and the Graduate School by letter. If the Examination Committee members disagree as to whether the reservations have been satisfactorily removed, the Chair asks for another vote, the results of which are subject to the same voting proportions as the initial vote. If the student is unable to satisfy the committee’s reservations, his or her doctoral candidacy and graduate student status may be terminated.
- Failure of Examination: Students who fail the preliminary oral examination may be excluded from candidacy for the degree or may be allowed, on unanimous recommendation of the Examination Committee, to retake the examination, providing the reexamination is conducted by the original Examination Committee. In no case may the reexamination take place before at least one full academic semester has passed. No more than one reexamination is allowed.