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Dissertation Proposal and Defense – General Information

• Some concentrations require students to write a dissertation proposal and present a defense of the proposal. The dissertation proposal consists of Chapters 1-3 of the dissertation.
• For concentrations that require a dissertation proposal defense, students must be admitted to doctoral candidacy prior to the defense, and be registered for dissertation credits during the semester of the proposal defense.
• The following forms must be submitted no later than 2 weeks prior to the dissertation proposal defense:
  • Proposal Defense Form must be submitted in Archivum. Students that started before 2017, (and that have not submitted the required COPH doctoral forms in Archivum), should contact cophdoctoral@usf.edu for the required defense forms.
  • PhD Dissertation Proposal Announcement (form should be sent to cophdoctoral@usf.edu two weeks prior to the proposal defense date). Announcements are posted to the public prior to the scheduled defense date. 
• The Proposal Defense Chair is not required. The Major Professor can serve as Chair for the Proposal Defense.
• Students should meet with their (Co-) Major Professor(s)

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Manuscript Processing Fee
USF Regulation USF4-0107, regulationspolicies.usf.edu/regulations/pdfs/regulation-usf4.0107.pdf. Students participating in the dissertation process are required to pay a processing fee. More information is available on the website at www.grad.usf.edu/thesis.php.

Doctoral Dissertation Defense
Upon acceptance into candidacy, the doctoral student forms a dissertation committee that is approved by the college. The candidate, major professor and the committee members should meet regularly (at least once per term) to review the candidate’s progress. Minutes of committee meetings including date, who was in attendance, and action items are maintained by the candidate. 

When the candidate, major professor and committee members agree that it is time to schedule the final defense of the dissertation, the candidate distributes the final dissertation draft at least 4 weeks before the final defense date. This time period allows the committee to thoroughly review the document and the student to make changes before the final defense. The final defense date must be at least one week prior to the final submission deadline to the Office of Graduate Studies.

After the Doctoral Dissertation Committee has determined that the final draft of the dissertation is suitable for presentation; the Committee will request the scheduling and announcement of the Dissertation Defense (also called Final Oral Examination or Oral Defense.) Check with the College and Program for college and program specific procedures for this process. A copy of the announcement should be sent to the Office of Graduate Studies, preferably two weeks in advance of the defense date. The announcement must also be posted in a public forum for a minimum of twenty-four hours to comply with statute requirements for a public meeting. The student and the Major Professor (or, if Co-Major Professors, at least one) must be physically present at the defense. The student must successfully defend the dissertation to be able to proceed and complete the final submission process.

The Doctoral Dissertation Defense (Final Oral Examination) shall be presided by

• An external committee member from outside the Department, School, or equivalent, hosting the doctoral program, but may be within the academic discipline.

OR

• A non-committee member (a.k.a. Outside Chair), (Refer to the individual Program's Degree Requirements in the Graduate Catalog for information).  If the Chair is from another institution, this individual must be approved for Affiliate Graduate Faculty status.

• discuss the requirements of their specific concentration regarding the dissertation proposal and defense. 
• The students and their doctoral committee will determine that date and time of the exam.