Dissertation Process
Following approval of the membership of the Dissertation Committee by the Executive Committee, the dissertation process proceeds as follows:
1.The student, in consultation with his/her research supervisor, prepares aprospectus document that will essentially comprise the initial draft of Chapter 1(see Dissertation Format below) and a detailed description of all of the studiesand associated methods that will be used to complete all of the research beingproposed for the dissertation
2.The student distributes the prospectus document to his/her DissertationCommittee. Then the Chair of the Dissertation Committee schedules a"Prospectus Meeting/Hearing" of the entire Committee to occur at least twoweeks after the distribution of the prospectus document.
3.At the Prospectus Meeting the student gives an oral presentation that is basedon the prospectus document, and answers questions raised by the Committeeabout the proposed work. The Committee will then decide if modifications needto be made to the proposed work and these will be documented as requirementsfor the dissertation research to proceed.
4.Once the Prospectus is approved and the dissertation is underway the studentmust:
a.Meet at least once per term as a group with the Program Director and/or Associate Director (plus any other interested faculty) to briefly describe and discuss their progress. A written summary (not to exceed 500 words) of the progress made since the last group meeting must be provided to the Program Director and Associate Director (copy Damary) prior to the meeting.
b.Provide a formal update every term to their dissertation committee thatincludes a report of progress made since the last update, problemsencountered, planned changes/modifications to the research plan (mustbe approved by the committee), and plans for the next term. It is stronglyrecommended that this be done in person with the committee. A detailedwritten report to the committee can be substituted when a face-to-facemeeting with the committee is not possible.
5.The student completes all of the work that is required by his/her DissertationCommittee including the submission of manuscripts for publication. Thedissertation document is then completed and distributed to the Committee atleast two weeks before the scheduled oral defense.
6.The Chair of the Dissertation Committee schedules the oral defense, which willinclude a public and private session. The public session is open to the public andconsists of an oral presentation about the dissertation by the student and a briefperiod for questions from the audience following the presentation. The privatesession occurs after the public session and involves just the student respondingto questions from the Dissertation Committee in a closed meeting.
7.After the oral defense is completed, the Dissertation Committee will meet inexecutive session to decide by majority vote if the student has successfullyfulfilled the dissertation requirement, or if additional steps must be taken.