Doctoral Student Oral Exam Committee Composition

Committee Composition Requirements

Doctoral student oral examinations include the doctoral comprehensive oral exam and the doctoral final oral exam (i.e., dissertation defense).

1. Doctoral committees are composed of at least five voting members.
2. All committee members must be members of the Graduate Faculty authorized to serve on doctoral exams.
3. The committee chair must also be authorized to chair doctoral examinations.
4. Except as provided in point 4.1, the majority of committee members must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the candidate’s department or program of study. Tenured and tenure-track faculty who are appointed as courtesy faculty within a program or department are considered to be faculty of that program or department, for the purposes of committee composition.
   1. For approved professional doctorate programs (listed below), the internal or departmental majority may include one individual who holds a non-tenure-track faculty appointment in the student's department or program.
5. One member must meet the requirements for serving as the Graduate Studies Representative. A faculty member from a different department with a courtesy appointment in the student’s department may serve as the Graduate Studies Representative or in fulfillment of the committee majority requirement but cannot serve in both roles at the same time. (For more information on the Graduate Studies Representative, see the policy listed in the Policy Library here).
6. As long as the majority requirement is met, additional committee members may be, but need not be, a member of the candidate’s department or program.

As long as the conditions above are met, the committee may include more than five members.

While committees are not required to have a co-chair, the student or the committee members may decide to select a co-chair.

Substitutions of the committee chair (and/or co-chair) are prohibited after the committee has been approved by the Graduate Division of the School or College. If a committee chair (and/or co-chair) needs to be replaced, the revised committee must be approved by the Graduate Division in advance of the exam.

Substitutions of the committee members are permitted as long as the new committee meets the requirements above. Additional members can be added after the committee has been approved by the Graduate Division of the School or College. Additions and substitutions must be approved by the Graduate Division in advance of the exam.