Doctoral Degree - Dissertation Requirements

 

Scope and Nature of Dissertation Projects

Dissertation projects will vary widely among disciplines as well as within fields of academic inquiry. There is a common set of features, however, that will characterize dissertation projects. These are basic requirements and departments/schools may have additional requirements.

The subject of the dissertation will be chosen from the candidate's field of major interest and must be approved by the supervisory committee.

The student will design the project with the help of a faculty advisory committee. The dissertation project will be an extended, coherent, written work of original research, demonstrating a doctoral candidate's comprehensive knowledge and mastery of methodological, historical, topical, empirical and theoretical issues relevant to the chosen subject.

The dissertation will provide evidence of the candidate's ability to articiulate, in oral and written formats, (i) the nature of the problem, (ii) the methods used to address the problem, (iii) the results of the investigation, and (iv) the meaning of the results.


Fundamentally, the dissertation will demonstrate the candidate's breadth of scholarship, depth of research skills, and ability to investigate problems independently and efficiently.
There is no fixed length for the dissertation. The dissertation should demonstrate the candidate's competency in applying sound research strategies to the theoretical or applied problems anticipated in his/her future career, originate new knowledge, or to advance or modify former knowledge, i.e., it should treat new material, or find new results, or draw new conclusions, or it should interpret old material in a new light.

The dissertation and abstract (which must not exceed 350 words) must be preliminarily approved by a reading committee of two members from the supervisory committee, excluding the chair, prior to application for the final oral examination. The manuscripts must be presented to members of the reading committee in time to permit review and acceptance, which must be at least three weeks in advance of the final oral examination. The Application for the Final Oral Examination and a copy of the dissertation and abstract must be presented to the Office of Graduate Studies for preliminary review at that time. Final approval of the dissertation by the entire committee will occur following successful completion of the Final Oral Examination.

Following the successful completion of the oral examination, two unbound copies of the dissertation, two copies of the abstract, and one extra dissertation title page are presented to the Office of Graduate Studies. The signature page of the dissertation must bear the signatures of all members of the supervisory committee. The student also must present to the Office of Graduate Studies a signed agreement for the publication of the abstract and microfilming of the dissertation.

Before the degree is granted, each Candidate pays a binding fee and a fee to cover the cost of microfilming the entire dissertation and of publication of the abstract in Dissertation Abstracts International. For specific details, the Guidelines for the Preparation of Theses, Theses Equivalent or EdS Field Projects, and Dissertations is available on the web.