Final oral exam

Final Oral Examination

1. Students are responsible for being aware of the various deadlines associated with this final process, including the Graduate School’s policies about dissertation credits and about the time between advancing to doctoral candidacy and taking the Final Oral Examination. Additional information is on the GSSP website. 

2. The Final Oral Examination covers the defense of the doctoral dissertation as well as other aspects of the student’s knowledge in the field of family social science.

3. All committee members must be present at the examination (either physically or via telecommuting); the absence of any member results in an invalid examination.

4. The Final Oral Examination in the Department of Family Social Science begins with a formal presentation of the dissertation in a public forum to which all faculty, staff, and graduate students in the department are invited. The chair of the examination committee will introduce the student and topic as well as close the seminar. The student presents for approximately 40 minutes, leaving time for questions from the guests at the presentation. No committee member can ask questions during the open-question portion of the presentation.

5. Following the formal presentation, the candidate meets with their final oral examination committee; the meeting is closed to all others.

Finishing Degree

If the student has clearly passed or clearly failed the examination, the Final Oral Examination Report Form, the Committee chair must submit the completed form no later than the last business day of the anticipated month of graduation.

The student is responsible for making any and all corrections requested by the committee to the dissertation.

Initiate your Thesis/Dissertation Approval & Deposit Agreement before the last business day of the month. Advisors must submit their approval no later than the last business day of the anticipated month of graduation.

It is the student’s responsibility to submit the completed dissertation/project and ensure that all remaining degree requirements are met by the last working day of the month they intend to graduate. Your dissertation is uploaded to ProQuest and the other two documents can be scanned and emailed to GSSP. It is requested that students share an electronic copy of the completed dissertation with their advisor as well.

Your dissertation to ProQuest should be submitted no later than the last business day of the anticipated month of graduation. Check the requirements here: Dissertation submission (Step #15)

Degrees are conferred monthly by the University of Minnesota. Students planning to graduate in May maintain active status throughout Summer. If you have not turned in your materials by the last day of the month, and it is a semester end (August or December), you will need to register for something in the next semester to maintain your active student status so you can be cleared to graduate in the next month. If you run into this issue, please let the GPC know so that degree clearance can be completed on time.