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Discuss with your supervisor expectations for your conduct at the final oral defense meeting. In general, students give a brief (10-15 min.) summary of their dissertation, including hypotheses and key findings. Visuals and/or handouts may be used, but these are not considered necessary. Keep your opening statement brief, because the purpose of the final oral defense meeting is for the committee members to ask you questions and to provide you with their views of your work.

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Updating your Program of Work

During the semester that you will be holding your Final Oral, be sure to update your Program of Work in UTBox. You will email the GSC Chair to inform them that you have done so, so that they have adequate time to conduct a final Program of Work check. This step is necessary for the GSC Chair to certify you have completed degree requirements after your final oral. 

EDP students use APA style for headings, references, and citations of their dissertations. Everything else will be according to the Graduate School template. For formatting assistance with your dissertation and Final Oral materials, you can contact the Graduate School at GradStudentSVCS@austin.utexas.edu to schedule an appointment or to have your question answered by e-mail. 

Scheduling your Final Oral

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At least 4 committee members (including your dissertation supervisor) must participate in your Final Oral. Read carefully the Graduate School’s rules about committee member attendance at your final oral. The Graduate School no longer distinguishes between physical attendance or virtual/electronic attendance. However, if you are defending in person, EDP requires that you and your dissertation supervisor both be in the same room. If any of your committee members cannot attend your final oral either in person or remotely, put them on Page 2 of the Request for Final Oral form. 

Important note regarding fully virtual defenses: as of Spring 2025, the Graduate School requires a room on campus be booked and available for in-person attendees for all dissertation defenses, even if fully virtual, to comply with the public attendance requirement for dissertation defenses. 

Your dissertation document must be given to your committee members at least one month prior to your final oral. Any exceptions to this should be worked out with each committee member, as some members will not sign unless they have received the dissertation with ample time for review. Dissertation committee members should be asked if they prefer a hard copy or electronic copy of your dissertation. When delivering your dissertation to your committee members, ask that they review it as soon as possible so they can let you and your dissertation supervisor know if there are significant problems.

Request for Final Oral Form

The "Request for Final Oral " (RFO) form is the official , notification required notification to by the Graduate School of your Final Oral plans. It must be turned in to the Graduate School at least two weeks prior to your final oral. Failure to do so results in required rescheduling of the Final Oral. Signatures can take a while to gather, so you should start the RFO form at least 3 weeks before your schedule exam date. There are two options for submissionfor gathering the signatures for your form:

1. Digitally via Docusign -

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   title See Instructions
   Request for Final Oral Exam Form Submission via DocuSign Read the instructions carefully before initiating the submission process.  The completed signed request for your Final Oral Examination must be delivered to the Graduate School 2 weeks prior to the scheduled exam. You will need to begin this DocuSign submission process at least 3 weeks before your scheduled date. Before Submitting the Form via DocuSign Before beginning the submission process, inform your committee members and the EDP Graduate Advisor that a you will be sending the Request for Final Oral Examination Form will be sent via DocuSign. DocuSign will require that you enter the names and email addresses of all your committee members, the EDP Graduate Advisor, and yourself.   Committee members will receive an email from DocuSign confirming your petition to schedule a Final Oral exam with your committeeto them via DocuSign. Required Information for Request for DocuSign Final Oral Request form The names and email addresses of your Supervisor, Co-Supervisor or Member 2, Member 3, Member 4, and Graduate Adviser are required. Members 5-7 are optional. Final Oral exam details as agreed upon by your committee: DatePlanned date, time, and location (building and room OR virtual). If meeting in-person, email EDP@austin.utexas.edu to book a meeting room. number) of your Final Oral exam. You will also need to indicate on the form if IRB approval is required and, if so, enter the IRB study number. DocuSign Submission Click the link below to begin the DocuSign submission process. Submit the Request for Final Oral via Docusign NOTE: Do not begin the process until you have all the required information listed above. If you start the form   without finishing it, it will create abandoned documents in the DocuSign system. Abandoned forms cannot be accessed again and you will have to start over. DocuSign Request for Final Oral Examination Link: http://links.utexas.edu/bkbpwfs Post-Submission Tracking Form Progress Once submitted, DocuSign will automatically send the form to all committee members for their eSignature. The Graduate Advisor will be the last one to eSignsign. DocuSign will send you an email with a Document Review link. Save this email and use the link to monitor the progress of your form signatures. From the linked webpage, click [Other Actions] menu —> [Certificate of Completion] to review who has and who has not yet signed the document. Submit the Form to the Graduate School You will receive a second final email from DocuSign when all signers have completed the signing process. Click “View Completed Document” link in that email. When the document opens on the DocuSign website, click the “Download” button at the top of the document. Select the “Combined PDF” option and save the document to your computer. A combined document includes the form and the certificate of completion. The certificate provides a full audit trail of your DocuSign transaction. Submit the combined pdf Request For Final Oral Exam form electronically pdf to the Graduate School at gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu. Be sure to follow the rest of the instructions on page 1 of the form.

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2. In-person / hardcopy - for this option, you can download the form from the Graduate School and print; obtain signatures (all on the same form), and email it to the Graduate School at gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu. See the Sample Form - Request for Final Oral (hardcopy). Note regarding electronic signatures: all signatures must be made on the same form. In Educational Psychology, the dissertation supervisor may also sign their own name in the place of members who cannot sign and have given written approval for the supervisor to sign instead.

Once the Graduate School is finished processing the Request for Final Oral Examination form, they then will e-mail email a Report of Dissertation Committee (RODC) form to both you and your dissertation supervisor. The RODC is the form your committee will use to indicate to the Graduate School the results of your Final Oral. You can either print out the form to bring to your defense, or can distribute the form to your committee via Docusign.

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Final Oral

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Final Oral Results

Dissertation defense meetings generally go well (i.e., a unanimous vote to pass the student). ! Some revisions of the document are almost always requested. Be sure to leave time to complete these any requested revisions before the graduation deadline to upload your dissertation and turn in all necessary paperwork the dissertation to the Graduate School (3:00 p.m. the last day of class). 

The committee may choose other options than Pass. These include the following: Reconsideration, Not Pass, and Fail. Reconsideration indicates that extensive revision is necessary, but the committee is willing to examine the rewritten dissertation without a second final oral defense meeting. Not Pass indicates indicates that the committee is not satisfied with the dissertation but believes it could be made satisfactory with rewriting, and another final oral is scheduled.   Fail indicates that at least one member of the committee has decided the dissertation is unsatisfactory and the candidate may not rewrite. 

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After your defense, the Report of Dissertation Committee Form must be signed by all committee members. Those committee members who are not physically present at your final oral must sign the form digitally. The The Graduate School no longer allows proxy signatures on this form.  All All signatures must be on the same form. Once all signatures are obtained, the supervisor or student must then have the GSC Chair sign it and return it to you.

Students will hold on to their signed Report of Dissertation Committee Form - as well their corrected dissertation and any other required materials -  until the semester they plan to graduate. Once they have applied to graduate, the final edited dissertation document must be uploaded through the Graduate School portal. Once the dissertation is uploaded, you will then email the Graduate School your Report of Dissertation Committee Form as well as any other required forms to gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu. 

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