Welcome to the Ph.D. Degree Requirements Webpage. This page contains informal information on degree requirements that has been of interest to previous Ph.D. students and thus might be of interest to current students. It is not a substitute for information on the School of Information, Graduate School, and UT Websites but provides unofficial, informal and some historical information that hopefully fills in gaps left by the other sources. The Programs of Study, proposals, and other documents are provided as examples of successful documents submitted by past Ph.D. students. They should be used in the context of the most recent requirements and formats available on official Websites. You should always refer to official sources for current information before taking irreversible action in meeting your degree requirements.

General Requirements

UT Graduate School requirements for award of the Ph.D. degree are listed in the UT Graduate Catalog. Detailed requirements for the School of Information are provided on the iSchool Doctor of Philosophy Webpage. Lisa Kleinman provided an unofficial summary of the requirements to the participants in the Fall 2004 Ph.D. Orientation.

Milestones

Program milestones consist of development and approval of a Program of Study, satisfactory completion of course work and a comprehensive doctoral examination including written, oral, and research components, presentation and approval of credentials to Graduate School (including a separate Program of Work), approval of a dissertation proposal, research and completion of a dissertation culminating in a final examination consisting of defense of the the dissertation and final presentation approval of the student's credentials to the Graduate School. Annual reviews are submitted to the students Advising Committee so that the committee may evaluate the student's progress. The student's Supervising Committee monitors the student's progress after the student reaches candidacy.

From a historical perspective, Dr. Fran Miksa's Checklist for the Doctoral Program(1993) provides interesting insight in earlier requirements.

Advising

The Doctoral Advising Form is used to document your past courses and your committee's approval of your future courses. Each semester and at your annual review you should fill it out, get your committee members to sign it, and print copies for Carol Carreón for your official file, for your advisor, and for your file.

GSC

Within the School of Information, the Graduate Studies Committee or GSC approves the students Program of Study and Annual review. The GSC consists of the dean and the faculty of the iSchool. The chair is elected. The current chair (2005-2007) is Dr. David Gracy.

Doctoral Program of Study

Normally in their second semester iSchool Ph.D. students complete a program of study describing their planned course work. The approved program of study is kind of a contract between the committee and student on planned work. It is a useful tool for measuring student progress at each annual review. Details of current requirements are provided in Guidelines for Development of the Doctoral Program of Study available from the iSchool Ph.D. Webpage.

Lisa Kleinman and Don Drumtra have posted examples of their approved programs on their Websites for those interested. Although these examples were prepared under previous guidelines , they may provide some insight into the kind of things that advising committees look for. Note that these

Annual Review

Requirements for review are specified in the latest Doctoral Studies Committee Guidelines available from the iSchool Ph.D. Webpage. In the summer of 2006 these requirements specified that Annual reviews are required for all students who have not presented a dissertation proposal but "those students who have entered into candidacy and presented proposals are encouraged to participate as well." Previous Ph.D. candidates have found in practice time is well spent preparing and scheduling a review. The review helps the committee members appreciate the success the candidate has had so far and problems that may be getting the way of faster completion. Even if the review is canceled, the preparation by itself forces the candidate to face the reality of either good or poor progress.

Qualifying Exam

Current iSchool requirements for admission to candidacy are specified on the iSchool Ph.D. Webpage. In order to qualify to apply for candidacy, the iSchool requires a written exam and oral defense (often called the comprehensive exam or "comps") and a research paper, research proposal or a "mini proposal" to be accepted by the student's committee. This committee (perhaps, it should be called the Examination Committee) ordinarily consists of three members of the iSchool faculty and one outside member. The three iSchool members could be your Advising Committee, potential members of your Supervising Committee, or any other three members who agree to serve. Ron Houston and Don Drumtra have volunteered to post their comps as two different examples of what was required. Their exams were open book and emailed to them on Monday at 8 AM with a response was due by Friday at 5 PM. But since the exams are student and committee dependent, another student's may be completely different. Although qualification exams are taken after completion of initial coursework as laid out in the student's program of work, additional courses may be taken while in candidacy. Ron and Don have volunteered to answer any questions you might have about their experiences.

Since each committee is different, some previous Ph.D. students have found it best to ask the committee chair exactly what should be studied prior to the exam and what type of research product their committee required. In general, most committees require that students defend a proposal prior to applying for candidacy, especially since it has been necessary to file for extensions to the three-year time limit for completing the dissertation. However, past committees have made exceptions, based on specific student circumstances (e.g., pending obsolescence of course work, employer requirements, etc.). Bottom line, talk about the candidacy process with your committee chair.

Application for Candidacy

On June 1, 2004 the UT Office of Graduate Studies automated the application for candidacy and placed it online. Instructions for completion of and a link to the actual online form is provided in the application Webpage. Other candidacy requirements are also provided on that page including the requirement for the Program of Work.

Program of Work. The Program of Work is a document submitted to the Graduate School upon application for candidacy. It is discussed under "Certification of Academic Credentials" on the Application for Doctoral Candidacy Webpage. It is the "list of courses taken toward the doctoral degree." Additional details about courses included in the Program of work are provided in the Graduate Catalog.

IRB Approval

If you plan to do research with human subjects, you will experience the frustration of working with UT's Institutional Review Board Process. Your research must be approved before you begin to collect data and it must be annually renewed. Current information is available from the Office of Research Support and Compliance Webpage. Before you can apply you must complete training and upload evidence of completion. Training may be completed online. Some UT research courses used to meet the requirements for training and it would be well worth you time to attend one of the courses the IRB holds occasionally. The requirements change and your training must be current as specified in the instructions for your annual reviews.

Dissertation

Requirements for the content of your dissertation are developed between you and your Supervising Committee and the Graduate School sets guidelines for format. There are two format guidelines are provided by the Graduate School (Office of Graduate Studies or OGS), print guidelines and electronic submission guidelines. Even though you must submit your dissertation electronically, you would do well to meet both guidelines because someone might very well want to print your dissertation in the future. An a point of interest, the final authority on both the content and format of your dissertation is your Supervisory Committee--not the folks in the Office of Graduate Studies. However, the OGS folks can make life really difficult for you if you do not listen to them.

Dr. Harmon and eleven other UT advisors have published dissertation tips for doctoral students.  It is posted on the UT Intellectual Entrepreneurship, Dissertation List-Serve and Resources Webpage. The Webpage also contains a dissertation writing bibliography, reflections of former graduate deans on dissertation completion, advice from UT alumni, and numerous other useful items for Ph.D. students.

Final Oral Exam
(Defense of Dissertation)

A satisfactory final oral examination is required for the approval of a dissertation. The Office of Graduate Studies publishes the time and place of this examination. The exam is open to all members of the University community and the public, unless attendance is restricted by the Graduate Studies Committee. Information is available in the Graduate Catalog and an application form are available from the Office of Graduate Studies.

Application for Graduation

There are lots of forms for graduation listed by the Office of Graduate Studies. You would be well advised to visit the office of Graduate Studies well before the deadlines to be sure you have the latest information and do not forget an essential form the absence of which might hold up your graduation.

Graduation

After all that work you won't want to miss the graduation celebration and fireworks at the end of the spring semester. UT introduced a new doctoral robe in 2001, which will be first available for graduating students in May, 2005. For non-academic employment after graduation.

Employment

Research Careers with Academe. Dean Dillon and many of the faculty receive announcements of Faculty vacancies for new Ph.D.s seeking academic appointment. In addition, the iSchool Career Services Office provides help in writing curriculum vitas and résumé. Click on the Career Services link above to see what is available and talk with the Director, Ron Pollock to gain his insight on the employment picture for Ph.D.s as you near graduation.

Research Careers with Industry and non-profits. . Dr. Rick Cherwitz suggests Students, "Check out PhD Fusion, This site connects Ph.D.s and offers career information based on their needs and interests. This site connects Ph.D.s and offers career information based on their needs and interests. Though the focus of the site is for Ph.D.s (and other advanced degree holders) to find non-academic jobs, it also has some content for Ph.D.s in academia. " Dr. Cherwitz is Director & Founder,Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) "Educating Citizen-Scholars." Dr. Cherwitz is a professor in the CommunicationSchool and has previously served as the Dean of the Graduate School. He is veryapproachable. Go visit him during his office hours or make an appointment. Hisphone is 471- 1939.

Additional Sources

The iSchool Ph.D. Webpage states that " Doctoral students are responsible for knowing and complying with the relevant policies and procedures of the School of Information and the Office of Graduate Studies, including the Graduate Catalog, other publications, deadlines and forms, selected policies, and related topics." Because there are lots of rules and regulations, it is likely that none of us will become experts or even know all that might apply to us. So it is important that we talk with each other and with the faculty and staff to keep up with the most important rules that may apply. The additional sources below may help.

The University of Texas and the UT Office of Graduate Studies provide the latest information on degree and administrative requirements requirements in three publications:

• The University of Texas at Austin, Handbook or Operating Procedures. The HOP provides basic policy and procedures on how the University of Texas at Austin operates. Probably of most interest would be The Graduate School dealing with what the Graduate School and the Graduate Studies Committees do.
• The Graduate Catalog. This publication provides more update information than the HOP but not as much as the policies below. Chapter 3. Degree Requirements is probably the most interesting, but there are items of interest in other sections as well.
• Graduate School Policies. These policies supplement the HOP and Graduate Catalog providing details on OGS administrative procedures not adequately covered in the two publications.

In addition The University of Texas at Austin, Revised Handbook of Operating Procedures and the Original Policy Memoranda may provide curious details that could impact Ph.D. programs. Also, for anyone really interested, Texas Law and UT System Regent's Rules and Regulations provide the underlying basis for the UT Austin HOP and other rules impacting Ph.D. students. "Graduate Education in the University of Texas System" is the section that is probably of most interest to Ph.D. students, but other sections are not without interest.

Last Updated, 2007 February 18