Final Defense/Filing a Dissertation

FINAL EXAMINATION AND FILING OF THE DISSERTATION

The final Ph.D. requirements are submission of a dissertation and the dissertation defense. A minimum interval of three quarters of academic residency must elapse between advancement to candidacy and final defense and submission of the dissertation. Therefore, you should plan on taking the Final Examination about one year after passing the qualifying exam. The Final Exam is an oral examination, which shall be public and so announced, in which you present and defend your dissertation to your doctoral committee.

Scholarship Requirements
  • You must have completed 6 quarters of academic residency, of which 3 quarters must be between advancement and final examination. Residency requirements between advancement to candidacy and completion of the degree may be waived under special circumstances. Please consult an ECE Graduate Student Affairs Advisor on the process involved.
  • You must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above in upper division and graduate course work, have no more than 8 units of "F" or "U", and resolve all outstanding grading problems.
  • You must be registered and enrolled or file a general petition to pay the filing fee in lieu of registration.
Initial Preparation
  1. You must liaise with the members of your doctoral committee to decide upon a date and time for your examination. Try to set a date and time for your exam six weeks in advance. Faculty members are very busy and are frequently out of town, especially during the summer months. Keep this in mind when planning to schedule your exam.
  2. You would normally take the final exam during a regular quarter. You may, however, schedule the exam during the summer or between quarters to accommodate the availability of faculty. In this instance, you will be required to file a general petition to waive registration and pay the filing fee.
  3. For a variety of reasons, your doctoral committee may need to be reconstituted. To request a reconstitution of the membership of your committee, you must consult an ECE Graduate Student Affairs Advisor. The Advisor will then submit a Request for Reconstitution of Committee Membership form to Graduate Division, with the reasons for requesting the change. This form must be submitted to Graduate Division at least two weeks prior to your final defense.
  4. Schedule your exam at least six weeks prior via the ECE Exam Card. You will be required to provide the following information relating to your exam:
    1. Date and time of exam
    2. Title of your dissertation
    3. Names of your committee members Page 2 of 3 Updated 08/2016
  5. Once you’ve provided this information, the following arrangements will be made for your exam:
    1. Room booking
    2. Preparation of required forms
    3. Preparation of your file for the exam committee
    4. An exam confirmation will be sent to you via email once initial arrangements have been made for your exam
    5. An exam announcement will be sent to you and your exam committee via email two weeks prior to the exam
    6. An exam reminder will be sent to you and your exam committee via email two days prior to the exam
  6. Academic Senate policy states that a draft of the doctoral dissertation should be submitted to each member of the doctoral committee at least four weeks before the final examination.
  7. The final version of your dissertation must conform to procedures outlined in the publication, Preparation and Submission Manual for Doctoral Dissertations and Master’s Theses, which can be found on the Graduate Division’s website.
  8. You must make an appointment with Graduate Division for a preliminary check of your dissertation. At that appointment the format is checked and instructions on the final preparation and submission of the dissertation are given. You may schedule your dissertation formatting review appointment via Graduate Division’s Online Calendar: https://gradforms.ucsd.edu/calendar/index.php
  9. For reservations in EBU1, the last 6 digits of your PID will serve as your room code the day of your exam.
  10. Complete the Program Exit Questionnaire.
Exam Format
  1. 1. Academic Senate policy states that the committee conducts the examination which is to be public and announced as such.
  2. All committee members are required to be present at the examination. In the event that a committee member is going to be absent at the time of the examination, this matter should be discussed with an ECE Graduate Student Affairs Advisor and your committee chair. The committee chair and the tenured outside member must always be present at a defense exam. The doctoral committee shall pass on your dissertation and conduct the final oral examination.
  3. The final examination is about 2 hours in duration. You should be prepared to present and defend your dissertation before your doctoral committee.
  4. Plan to give a practice talk to your advisor and/or fellow students at least one week before your exam. This allows you plenty of time to make revisions and helps to strengthen your advisor’s confidence in you.
Results of the Exam
  1. You will be informed of the outcome following the end of the exam. The Report of the Final Examination and Filing of the Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy form is then signed by members of your doctoral committee. The Final Report and the Signature page of your dissertation must have the original signatures of all members of your doctoral committee. Proxy signatures are not acceptable. Page 3 of 3 Updated 08/2016
  2. Schedule your final appointment with Graduate Division for the submission of your final paperwork and dissertation at least a week after your final defense date to allow sufficient time for finalizing your final paperwork and obtaining relevant signatures.
  3. The ECE Graduate Student Affairs Advisor will notify you via email when the Report of the Final Examination and Filing of the Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy form is ready for collection. You must submit this form during your final submission appointment with Graduate Division and by the filing deadline.
  4. Concurrently, you must submit the dissertation to Graduate Division and, upon approval by the Dean of Graduate Studies, file the dissertation with the university archivist, who accepts it on behalf of the Graduate Council.
  5. Acceptance of the dissertation by the archivist, with subsequent second approval by the dean of Graduate Studies, represents the final step in the completion by the candidate of all requirements for the Ph.D. degree.
  6. You are not "finished" until the dissertation has been filed with the Library and Graduate Division has signed off on all paperwork.
Completion of the Ph.D. degree
  1. The Ph.D. degree will be awarded in the same quarter that you file your dissertation (except for exams taken between quarters, for which the degree will be awarded at the end of the following quarter).
  2. You will receive a letter confirming that you have successfully completed the Ph.D. degree requirements at the end of the same quarter.
  3. Your diploma will be mailed 3-6 months after the end of the quarter. The diplomas are mailed directly to your permanent mailing address. Therefore, you must check your address for accuracy on TritonLink (http://tritonlink.ucsd.edu/) to avoid delays in delivery.
  4. Collect all mail from your student mailbox, and notify everyone who sends you mail at ECE of your current mailing address. Your mailbox will be cleared at the end of the quarter of your graduation, and all remaining mail will be returned to the sender.
  5. UCSD conducts one commencement ceremony each year at the end of Spring quarter. In order to participate in commencement, you must have completed all degree requirements, including the filing of the dissertation by the Spring filing deadline.