5.4.13 Dissertation Defense

(Approved May 5, 1995) (Amended 15 December 2004) (Amended January 25, 2012)

When the dissertation research has been completed, the Ph.D. candidate prepares a draft of the dissertation and provides a copy to each member of the dissertation committee for approval. Upon the dissertation committee's unanimous acceptance of the draft as the basis for a dissertation defense, the dissertation committee chair notifies the departmental Ph.D. committee and provides it with a draft of the dissertation. The dissertation committee chair schedules the final dissertation defense. This examination must be scheduled later than one week after the submission of the draft of the dissertation to the departmental Ph.D. committee.

A minimum of six months must elapse between successful completion of the oral qualifying examination and the defense of the dissertation.

All members of the dissertation committee are required to attend the final defense and the entire Academic Council is invited to attend. The Academic Council shall designate a representative, who must attend the dissertation defense. In the final dissertation defense, the candidate presents the dissertation and is subject to such questions as the entire dissertation committee deem appropriate. The extent of participation of all parties is determined by the dissertation committee chair.

Attendance at the final dissertation oral examination is delineated in Table 5.2.

Whenever the Academic Council representative becomes of the opinion that the defense is not being conducted in accordance with the Policy of the Academic Council, the representative should suspend the defense and require that the dissertation defense be rescheduled. The representative should report the reasons for this decision to the Academic Council and to the departmental Ph.D. committee concerned as soon as possible. Such a finding should never be deemed a "failure" of the dissertation defense.

Table 5.2 Attendance and Voting Privileges for Dissertation Defenses

A: will attend the defense, B: will attend Comment Phase, C: will attend Voting Phase, D: will Vote, E: may attend the defense.