The Progress Review is an oral examination performed before your PhD Dissertation Committee as a whole. At this juncture in your graduate studies, you have completed the Candidacy Evaluation process in a prior semester, you have advanced to doctoral candidacy officially, and you have registered or have been registering for the Dissertation course. You You are ready for your committee to conduct a rigorous review, and to evaluate and sign off on your research and plan after conducting a rigorous review. The result will be a de-facto contract between you and your committee to ensure the PhD-worthiness of your topic, projects, research, and research dissertation if completed as planned.
At this juncture in your doctoral studies, your committee has been announced to the ECE GSC and been approved, you have completed the Candidacy Evaluation process in a prior semester, you have advanced to doctoral candidacy officially (your application has the approval of the Dean in Graduate School), and you have registered or have been registering for the Dissertation course.
A PhD student is expected to give a Progress Review prior to the 9th long semester, at the latest, after attempting and/or completing 33 or more hours of coursework of any kind within the Graduate Program, excluding approved leaves of absence. The Progress Review should be done at around the half-way point of the PhD, and at least one year before the PhD defense. It is in your own interest to get input from the committee as early as possible in order to be able to make timely corrections, to undertake further research if requested or take another course if instructed to do so by your committee, and to avoid any surprises during the defense. Certain
Note that certain ECE requirements may be relaxed under rare circumstances generally beyond the student’s control (such as a an advanced doctoral student following his or her supervisor’s move to the UT-Austin ECE department) and with prior approval of the ECE GSC or its representatives.
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Conditions could include, for example, requiring you to address additional information in your Dissertation, or to perform additional research for your Dissertation and/or for your Defense. You may be asked to report back to one or more members of your Dissertation Committee regarding your progress on meeting the conditions.
A student who fails the Progress Review once will be given at least one additional opportunity prior to the 11th long semester after attempting and/or completing 33 hours of coursework to retake the Progress Review. A second failure of a Progress Review will typically result in the student being recommended for dismissal from the PhD program to the Graduate School.
Completion of the
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ECE PhD Progress Review and Program of Work Form
The outcome of the Progress Review including approval of the Program of Work will be recorded by the Chair of the Progress Review after the exam on this DocuSign form launched by the student HERE. Students should have a copy of the form at the Oral Examthe form HERE.