Candidacy Examination Committee

  1. The committee is composed of at least four authorized Graduate Faculty members including the dissertation advisor, who acts as chair or advisor of the candidacy committee.
  2. The Candidacy Examination chairperson must be appointed in tenure track and hold membership at the Category P level in the College of Nursing
  3. The label “advisory” committee is used during the written portion of the examination, until the committee is confirmed by the Graduate School in preparation for the oral portion.

For a list of College of Nursing faculty and their roles and eligibility, please review this list.

Candidacy examination committee approval procedures

  1. At least 3 months prior to the exam, the student and their advisor propose potential faculty members to the PhD Subcommittee for approval to serve on the candidacy examination committee using the Proposed Candidacy Committee form. The PhD Subcommittee will review the expertise of the proposed faculty to support the composition and evaluation of an examination that has sufficient content breadth and depth. The Composition of the Candidacy Exam Committee complies with the rules set forth by the Graduate School which state that a minimum of four authorized Graduate Faculty members are required. In the PhD in Nursing program, one member of the Candidacy committee who has Category P level status with the College of Nursing will be the student’s primary advisor. At least one additional candidacy exam committee member will be appointed who is in tenure track and has Graduate Faculty Category P level status in the College of Nursing. The remaining members may be comprised of faculty with Graduate School Category M or P level status and hold faculty appointments in the College of Nursing and/or other schools and colleges at Ohio State.
  2. Once the Candidacy Examination Committee has been approved by the PhD Subcommittee, the student must submit the Candidacy Examination committee information to the Graduate School for approval in Grad Forms. Any changes to the composition of the approved Candidacy Examination Committee will need to be reapproved by the PhD Subcommittee. The College of Nursing Proposed Candidacy Committee Approval Form can be found online, in Word or PDF versions.
  3. Students expecting to take the PhD Candidacy Examination must initiate the electronic Application for Candidacy Examination form (available via Grad Forms) by the respective deadline – at least two weeks prior to the oral examination. The oral component of the candidacy examination can be conducted on-campus, remotely, or hybrid. If utilizing a remove or hybrid option, PhD students will designate the platform for their exam on the Application for Candidacy form. Petitions are not required for remote or hybrid options. The student’s advisor must electronically approve the form once it has been submitted by the deadline of two weeks prior to the 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 student being required to resubmit the form with the correct NURSING-PH faculty profiles.
  4. Additional documents, Graduate School links, and other information specific to PhD candidacy examinations are available on the StudentWeb (Sharepoint).