Guidelines for the final dissertation document and defense are established by the Graduate School.
- The final dissertation document must be provided in written form to each dissertation committee member at least three weeks prior to the final oral examination (dissertation defense); members should have reviewed prior drafts and given substantive feedback to the student prior to the planned dissertation defense.
- The final defense should not be scheduled before the advisor and committee believe the student is ready to defend. The final dissertation cannot be scheduled in the same semester as the candidacy exam. The defense includes a public presentation followed by a meeting of the committee with the student. The dissertation defense should be scheduled during standard work hours (9-5, Monday- Friday), in Newton Hall.
- The dissertation advisor should contact the PhD Program Director to determine room availability for the public presentation. After that, the advisor and student may set the date and time for the dissertation proposal defense. To schedule the final oral examination the student must submit an Application for Final Examination on Grad Forms and have this approved by each dissertation committee member at least two weeks before the proposed defense date; a dissertation committee member’s approval of the dissertation draft means that the committee member judges it to be of sufficient merit to warrant holding the final oral examination. When submitting the form, students should ensure they are selecting the faculty profile that is associated with the “NURSING-PH” program for any College of Nursing faculty members. Failure to select the appropriate faculty profile for College of Nursing faculty will result in the the student being required to resubmit the form with the correct NURSING-PH faculty profiles.
- The draft approval form and a copy of the dissertation must be taken to the Graduate School at least two weeks before the final oral examination for a format review. A Graduate School Faculty Representative (GFR) will be assigned only after the format review is complete.
- After the Graduate Faculty Representative has been assigned and the final oral examination committee has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School, the Report on Final Examination and Report on Final Document are made available to the examination committee through Grad Forms.
- A final draft of the complete dissertation must be distributed to the Graduate School representative at least one week prior to the Final Oral Examination.
- The final oral examination must take place during announced university business hours, Monday through Friday. The final oral examination must be immediately preceded by a 30 minute public presentation of the dissertation findings scheduled in Newton Hall.
- The dissertation advisor should contact the PhD Program Director to determine room availability for the public presentation. After that, the advisor and student may set the date and time for the dissertation proposal defense.
- The public presentation should last 30 minutes and is a public forum for students and faculty and the “examination” portion of the proposal should be scheduled for 1.5 hours.
- The student and/or adviser will forward all relevant information including the dissertation title to the Student Data Manager who will distribute an announcement of the public presentation via email 2 weeks prior to the defense. The announcement will followed by a calendar invitation to all CON faculty and students with a Zoom link for remote attendees from the Academic Program Assistant.
- The oral examination will be held as a closed committee meeting following the public presentation. A student is considered to have completed the Final Oral Examination successfully when there is unanimous approval by the Final Oral Examination Committee members. Satisfactory completion of the research, the written dissertation document, and the oral examination will constitute fulfillment of the dissertation requirement for the PhD degree.