The student's Doctoral Committee will be established by the Advisory Committee in coordination with the student and the dissertation advisor and with approval by the Graduate Dean. This committee will consist of at least five members with the majority from the program and with at least one member from outside the program. OU Norman graduate faculty at appropriate level may serve as the outside member without seeking an OUHSC graduate faculty appointment. The committee must be constituted so that no more than two members do not have authority to chair doctoral committees. If the Graduate Faculty appointment level of a doctoral committee member changes, the Graduate College will honor the appointment level at the time the committee was approved.
This committee must be appointed no later than the time that the General Examination is successfully completed. Any changes in the membership of the Doctoral Committee must be done in consultation with the student and approved by the remaining members of the Committee and the Graduate Dean. The Graduate Dean may exercise the prerogative of appointing an additional voting representative of the Graduate College. If the representative is appointed later than one semester prior to the time of the General Examination, he or she will serve as a non-voting member of the Committee.
The functions of this committee will be to:
- Guide the student in the selection of an appropriate dissertation topic and in the research design and methodology for the dissertation;
- Approve the student's research plan or prospectus;
- Advise and assist the student with specialty information necessary to design and complete the dissertation research project;
- Perform an annual evaluation of the student's progress toward the degree and communicate the results of the evaluation to the student and the Graduate Dean;
- Read and correct the drafts of the dissertation to ensure that appropriate standards are met; and,
- Administer the dissertation defense.
This Request for Approval of Doctoral Committee form is available on the Graduate College website.
