| PHCE800 - Comprehensive Exam |
(0 credit hours) |
Course Description: For advancement to PhD candidacy, all PhD student must take and pass the Comprehensive Examination before the end of their second year of study. This examination will assess the breadth of knowledge in major acquired by the student, evaluate the student’s research proposal and determine whether or not the student should continue with the doctoral studies. The comprehensive examination has the following two components:
a. A written component, in which the student must write a structured PhD proposal. This proposal should be in a grant format and should be no less than 10 pages (including figures and tables, but excluding references, using single space and an Arial, Helvetica, or Times New Roman font, and a font size of 11 or 12 points) and should cover the following:
• Abstract of the Proposed Work/Project Summary (no more than one page)
• Introduction (a complete literature survey on the topic)
• Aims and Objective
• Proposed Experiments and the Methodology for accomplishing them (including potential caveats and alternative approaches)
• Any Preliminary Results
• References
This proposal should be sent to the members of the Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) at least one week before the oral presentation.
b. An oral component, in which the student must prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the written research proposal, and present/defend the proposal in front of the TAC. The oral examination will include a discussion of the research presented by the student and will also probe the student’s knowledge of the current and historical literature relating to the proposed research and the students’ overall understanding of the proposal. It could also include questions from the TAC members on any other topic in the broader field of the study of the student.
There are two possible outcomes for the candidacy/comprehensive examination:
• Pass: a successful candidate must receive affirmative votes from a majority of the members of the committee to pass the examination and become a PhD candidate.
• Fail: if a student fails to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the literature in his/her core research area or fails to articulate the motivation and design of the research in either the written proposal or during the oral examination, he/she will be allowed to retake the exam only one more time as soon as possible. The student will be dismissed from the program if he/she fails the retake candidacy exam and could leave with a Master’s degree if the requirement(s) for the Master’s degree have been fulfilled.
In either case, the supervisor of PhD student must submit to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies the students’ written proposal, his/her PowerPoint presentation, in addition to a report on the decision of the committee regarding the outcome of the examination.
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