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The Master's Thesis, Thesis Equivalent Project and EdS Field Project Guide

A Master's Thesis, Thesis-Equivalent Project, or EdS Field Project provides the opportunity for students to acquire first-hand experience in research or creative activities with the supervision of experienced faculty. A thesis or thesis-equivalent project is equivalent to six semester hours of credit. The Specialist in Education (EdS) field project is equivalent to three hours of credit. Required course hours must be indicated on each student's plan of study.

Grades for a thesis, thesis-equivalent project or EdS field project are recorded on the permanent record after completion and approval by the department/school and the Office of Graduate Studies. For a thesis or thesis-equivalent project, grades will be either "S" for satisfactory or "U" for unsatisfactory. A letter grade will be recorded for the EdS field project.

The thesis, thesis-equivalent project or EdS field project is not considered to be a publication thus it may be published, in whole or in part, and either quoted or paraphrased, by giving appropriate credit to the relevant Department/School, the Graduate College, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

File a Proposed Supervisory Committee form and a Thesis Proposal Approval Form with the Office of Graduate Studies before initiating the thesis, thesis-equivalent project or Eds field project at least one semester prior to your anticipated graduation date.

Theses, Thesis-Equivalent Projects, and EdS Field Projects (ETD) Submission Procedures:

The Supervisory Committee guides the student in the conduct and development of the thesis, thesis-equivalent project, or EdS Field Project and approves the final product. Typically, final recommendations from the supervisory committee, or Supervisory Committee Chair, are provided to the student at the time of the final oral examination, although details vary among department/schools and individual faculty. Final approval of the ETD, in PDF format, is contingent upon approval by the supervisory committee and the Office of Graduate Studies.

Procedures:

When the final PDF version of the thesis/project has been approved by the Supervisory Committee, the student must submit the following to the Office of Graduate Studies for the final, administrative step in the approval process:

NOTE: If the thesis/project is to be held pending patent issuance, etc., the student must specify this at the time the PDF file is submitted to ProQuest (UMI).

After the documents are submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies, the students will upload their thesis/project to ProQuest. Instructions for the upload at http://dissertations2.umi.com/unomaha/

Be certain the electronic version, in PDF format is exactly as was approved by the Supervisory Committee. ETDs are to be checked for formatting, pagination, spelling, grammar, and typos by the student and the student's Supervisory Committee.

For help with conversion of files from word processing to PDF, see the Library staff (presently, Matt Fenner, mfenner@mail.unomaha.edu) who is available to assist.

Since errors may occur when converting from a word processor file to a PDF file, it is essential the student review the final version of the PDF file.

Please Note: There is a fee to submit the ETD through ProQuest. The amounts are noted on their website.

After successfully uploading the thesis/thesis-equivalent project, or EdS Field Project, The Office of Graduate Studies will be notified electronically by ProQuest of the submission and asked to provide final approval. Final approval of the thesis/project will not be granted if steps 1-2 above are not completed.

Note, these steps must be completed prior to the end of the day of the Graduate deadline which is 12 working days prior to the commencement ceremony.