Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree
The goal of the University in its Ph.D. programs is to develop productive scholarship and professional competence in its students. In addition to a broad acquaintance with the historical and contemporary state of learning, the University encourages its students and faculty to make contributions to the advancement of their respective fields.
In addition to the following Graduate School requirements, individual departments may require higher standards. Students are expected to know their department’s requirements.
Credit Hours
Residency
Foreign Language Requirement
Award of Master’s Degree to Doctoral Students
Degree Eligibility
Advisers and Dissertation Directors
Candidacy Examination
Admission to Candidacy
The Dissertation
Defense of the Dissertation
Submitting the Dissertation
Credit Hours
The number of semester credit hours of formal courses, directed studies, and research is specified by the student’s department. (See also, “Transfer Credits,” above.)
Residency
The minimum residency requirement for the Ph.D. degree is full-time status for four consecutive semesters (may include the summer session).
Foreign Language Requirement
This requirement varies from department to department, in both the choice of language and the degree of proficiency required. Students should consult their department concerning this requirement.
Award of Master’s Degree to Doctoral Students
A doctoral student may receive the master’s degree without taking the master’s examination on the recommendation of the department and completion of (a) the coursework required by the department for the master’s degree and (b) all written parts of the doctoral candidacy or Ph.D. qualifying examination. Departments may have additional criteria, or may choose not to offer a master’s degree in this manner; students should consult the departmental guidelines.
Degree Eligibility
The student must fulfill all doctoral requirements, including the dissertation and its defense, within eight years from the time of matriculation. Failure to complete any of the Graduate School or departmental requirements within the prescribed period results in forfeiture of degree eligibility.
Advisers and Dissertation Directors
Each student is assigned an adviser from the time of enrollment. This may initially be the director of graduate studies, but an individual adviser or dissertation director will be chosen as soon as practicable, following the department’s policies.
Advisers and dissertation directors are normally chosen from the teaching and research faculty of the student’s department. There also may be one codirector chosen from the faculty outside (or within) the student’s department. In exceptional cases, a student may choose a dissertation director from the Notre Dame teaching and research faculty outside the department. Arrangements for extra-departmental directors or codirectors must be consistent with departmental policies and must be approved by the department.
Candidacy Examination
Normally, the candidacy examination is passed, and the dissertation topic approved, by no later than the student’s eighth semester of enrollment. Failure to meet this deadline may lead to discontinuation of Graduate School funding.
The examination consists of two parts: a written component and an oral component. The written part of the examination normally precedes the oral part. It is designed, scheduled, and administered by the department. The oral part of the examination is normally taken after the completion of the coursework requirement. The oral part, among other things, tests the student’s readiness for advanced research in the more specialized area(s) of his or her field. In total, the examination should be comprehensive. Successful passage indicates that, in the judgment of the faculty, the student has an adequate knowledge of the basic literature, problems, and methods of his or her field. If the proposal defense is part of the oral, it should be a defense of a proposal and not of a completed dissertation.
A board of at least three voting members nominated by the department and appointed by the Graduate School administers the oral part of the examination. (The department may require larger committees.) Normally, this board has the same membership as the student’s dissertation committee. Board members are normally chosen from the teaching and research faculty of the student’s department, although if approved by the department, a faculty member from another department or another institution may also be appointed to the committee.
A faculty member appointed by the Graduate School from a department other than the student’s department chairs the examination board. This chair represents the Graduate School and does not vote. After completion of the examination, the chair calls for a discussion followed by a vote of the examiners. On a board of three, two votes are required to pass. On a board of four, three votes are required to pass. If a department chooses to have five members, four votes are required to pass. The chair should, before the examination begins, confirm departmental regulations for conduct of the examination and voting procedures. The chair sends a written report of the overall quality of the oral examination and the results of the voting immediately to the Graduate School.
In case of failure in either or both parts of the doctoral candidacy examination, the department chair, on the recommendation of a majority of the examiners, may authorize a retake of the examination if this is permitted by departmental regulations. An authorization for retake must be approved by the Graduate School. A second failure results in forfeiture of degree eligibility and is recorded on the student’s permanent record.
Admission to Candidacy
Admission to candidacy is a prerequisite to receiving any graduate degree. To qualify for admission to doctoral candidacy, a student must:
- be in a doctoral program;
- have been continuously enrolled in the program without withdrawal;
- complete the departmental coursework requirement with a cumulative average of 3.0 or better;
- pass the written and oral parts of the doctoral candidacy examination and have the dissertation proposal approved (if this is not part of the candidacy exam) by the end of the eighth semester of enrollment.
It is the responsibility of the student to apply for candidacy admission by submitting the appropriate form to the Graduate School office through the department chair.
The Dissertation
In continuing consultation with the dissertation director, the candidate explores research areas in his or her field to formulate a dissertation proposal. The methods of approval of the dissertation proposal are determined by the individual departments.
The department chair or director of graduate studies will appoint a dissertation committee consisting of the dissertation director and at least two readers. (The department may require larger committees.) Normally, the committee is drawn from the membership of the student’s oral candidacy board. The student’s department must approve the appointment of committee members from outside the department and/or the University.
The candidate delivers typed copies of the finished dissertation, signed by the director, to the department chair for distribution to the readers.
At the same time, the candidate should also give a complete copy to the Graduate School, where it will be reviewed for compliance with the formatting guidelines. (See “Submitting the Dissertation” below.)
Readers normally have two to four weeks to read the dissertation, decide whether it is ready to be defended, and so indicate on the appropriate form to the Graduate School. Reader approval of the dissertation for defense does not imply reader agreement or support; it implies reader acknowledgment that the dissertation is an academically sound and defensible scholarly product. Only a dissertation that has been unanimously approved for defense by the three readers may be defended.
Even though the dissertation has been approved for defense, revisions may be required. If defects in the dissertation come to light at the defense, the candidate may be asked to revise the dissertation before it is accepted by the Graduate School and the degree is conferred. In that case, it will be the responsibility of the dissertation director, or such person as the committee may appoint, to report to the Graduate School that such revisions have been completed satisfactorily.
Defense of the Dissertation
In defending the dissertation, the doctoral candidate supports its claims, procedures, and results. The defense is the traditional instrument that enables the candidate to explore with the dissertation committee the dissertation’s substantive and methodological force. In this way, the candidate and the committee confirm the candidate’s scholarly grasp of the chosen research area.
The format of the defense is determined by the department with the Graduate School’s approval. The defense is chaired by a faculty member who is appointed by the Graduate School from a department other than the candidate’s department. This chair represents the Graduate School and does not vote. After the examination is completed, the chair calls for a discussion followed by a vote of the dissertation committee. At least two votes out of three (or three votes out of four, or four votes out of five) will be required to pass a candidate. The chair sends a written report of the overall quality of the defense and the voting results immediately to the Graduate School.
In case of failure of the defense, on the recommendation of a majority of the examiners, another opportunity to defend may be authorized if this is permitted by departmental regulations. An authorization for a second defense must be approved by the Graduate School. A second failure results in forfeiture of degree eligibility and is recorded on the candidate’s permanent record.
Submitting the Dissertation
To receive the degree at the next commencement, the doctoral candidate who has successfully defended his or her dissertation must submit it to the Graduate School on or before the deadline published in the Graduate School calendar. Candidates should be cognizant of deadlines for graduation established by the Graduate School and the department.
To be accepted by the Graduate School, the dissertation should be prepared according to the formatting guidelines established by ProQuest. These guidelines can be found in the Graduate School office or here.
For formatting assistance beyond these guidelines, students should follow the formatting custom in their field. Students may also consult the Graduate School’s Guide for Formatting and Submitting Dissertations and Theses. When the Graduate School performs its formatting check, it will primarily make sure that the document conforms to the ProQuest guidelines. It is the student’s responsibility to submit a clean and professional-looking dissertation.
When the dissertation is given to the readers, the candidate should also give a complete copy to the Graduate School, where it will be reviewed for compliance with the style manual. This copy may be submitted electronically as a PDF or delivered as a printed document.
After successfully defending the dissertation and making any necessary changes, the candidate must present the document to the Graduate School for final approval and submission.
The dissertation may be submitted either in electronic (PDF) form or in printed manuscript form. Only the official submission will be accepted by the Graduate School.
The candidate may submit the dissertation electronically by uploading one complete PDF copy to the Hesburgh Library’s Electronic Dissertation and Thesis database and providing three signed title pages and any other necessary forms to the Graduate School.
Alternatively, the candidate may present two clean, printed copies of the dissertation, each signed by the dissertation director. The candidate pays the binding costs for the two official copies required by the Graduate School.
The Graduate Council requires that all doctoral dissertations be microfilmed by ProQuest Information and Learning. In addition to any other required forms or surveys, the candidate must submit a completed Microfilming Agreement to the Graduate School’s dissertation editor, who handles this publication requirement for the candidate.
