Overview

Theses and dissertations must follow specific guidelines and formatting set by The Graduate School. Please click the appropriate link to get a step-by-step guide to completing your research (Students) or assisting your student through the process (Faculty).

Deadlines

Deadlines will vary each semester, so please be sure to check the Graduate School Calendar for more information. It is the student’s responsibility to meet all established deadlines. Work with the chair of your thesis/dissertation committee as you near these deadlines to ensure their availability for defending, reviewing, and approving your manuscript. Deadlines are STRICTLY enforced!

Roles and Responsibilities of the Chair, Committee Members, and Students

If the academic department does not provide students with a program-specific handbook addressing these topics, these guidelines will apply.

Guidelines for the Conduct of a Thesis Defense

Guidelines for the Conduct of a Dissertation Defense

Forms

PDF forms cannot be signed from the browser. Please download, save the form, and then open the form in Adobe. This will allow you to sign the form. If you have not configured your digital signature in Adobe, you will be prompted to do so before signing. The Graduate School is in the process of transitioning the forms into DocuSign so that you can complete them from your browser.

All forms necessary for the thesis or dissertation process can be found below. Although most of these forms are initiated by the committee chair or program director, the student is responsible for ensuring that forms are filed in a timely manner. Please check your step-by-step guide first to find out which forms you need, when to submit them, etc.

Before submitting committee forms, please contact The Graduate School to ensure your committee members are "Graduate Research Faculty" or "Visiting Graduate Research Faculty." If your chosen faculty do not hold one of these titles, please email gradforms@uttyler.edu for more information.

Thesis

• Appointment of Thesis Committee (DocuSign form): Used to nominate members of the student's thesis committee. The entire form must be completed by the thesis chair and signed by the college dean before sending to GradForms@uttyler.edu for Graduate School Dean approval. Committee membership must be approved by the Dean of The Graduate School.
• Change of Thesis Committee (DocuSign form): Used to change membership of an existing committee. Committee membership must be approved by the Dean of The Graduate School.
  
  

Dissertation/Doctoral

• Appointment of Dissertation Committee (DocuSign form): Used to nominate members of the student's dissertation committee. The form must be completed by the doctoral program coordinator and signed by the department chair before sending to GradForms@uttyler.edu for Graduate School Dean approval. Committee membership must be approved by the Dean of The Graduate School. Students should contact individuals to serve on their committee, and email the names of those who agree to serve to the department chair. The department chair will confirm that all named members have agreed to serve on the committee.
  
  
• Change of Dissertation Committee (DocuSign form): Used to change membership of an existing committee. Committee membership must be approved by the Dean of The Graduate School.
   
• Proficiency Exam Report and Recommendation - 3 Members (DocuSign form)
• Proficiency Exam Report and Recommendation - 4 Members (DocuSign form)
• Proficiency Exam Report and Recommendation - 5 Members (DocuSign form)
• Used to report the results of exams to The Graduate School and to certify advancement to candidacy.
   
• Request to Schedule Oral Defense (DocuSign form): Used to set the date for the Oral Defense. Defenses must be scheduled at least one month prior to graduation.
   
• Final Oral Defense Report - 3 Members (DocuSign form)
• Final Oral Defense Report - 4 Members (DocuSign form)
• Final Oral Defense Report - 5 Members (DocuSign form)
• This form certifies that the student has successfully defended an acceptable dissertation. Form must be submitted to The Graduate School within 5 working days of the completion of the final Oral Defense.
   
• Multi-Paper/Portfolio Format and Style Instruction Sheet: This format may only be used with academic department permission. While the Graduate School strongly encourages publication of research results, students are reminded that preparation of a thesis/dissertation and preparation of a manuscript for publication are two separate operations. Certain mechanical stipulations for submitting manuscript copy to a publisher may differ from those specified by the Graduate School and may not be acceptable. The Graduate School requires that formatting must remain consistent in all chapters, since the dissertation submitted to The Graduate School is considered one manuscript. (even for multiple article theses/dissertations).
   
• Dissertation/Scholarly Project Signature Page
   -Nursing PhD students who have three committee members should use this Nursing PhD Dissertation Manuscript Signature Page. Nursing PhD students who have four committee members (including the committee chair), please use THIS FORM instead. Instructions for how to use DocuSign to obtain sigantures and insert the signature page into the dissertation portfolio can be found here.
   - Nursing DNP Scholarly Project Signature Page: For Nursing DNP students only.
   - Human Resource Development Dissertation Manuscript Signature Page: For HRD PhD students only. Instructions can be found here.