Overview

Successfully defending your dissertation - also called the Final Oral Examination - is a requirement for the Ph.D. (UT Graduate Catalog). Before your defense, you should talk with your supervisor to clarify expectations, including how the meeting will be structured. We also recommend reviewing the Graduate School's Final Oral guidelines early in the process.

During the defense, students typically give a brief (10-15 minute) overview of the dissertation - summarizing key hypotheses, methods, and findings. Visuals or handouts are optional. Keep your presentation concise; the majority of the meeting is dedicated to questions and discussion with your committee. 

Working with your Supervisor

Throughout the dissertation process, your dissertation supervisor will be your main point of contact. Together, you'll decide when you are ready to schedule your defense. Your supervisor's feedback helps ensure your work is in strong shape before it goes to the rest of your committee. 

Review your Program of Work

Before your defense, your Program of Work must be reviewed and approved. At the start of the semester you're defending, be sure to review your Program of Work online and let the EDP Graduate Coordinator know if you see any issues. 

Scheduling your Final Oral

When you have established a day and time for your final oral, schedule a room through EDP. Final orals cannot be held after noon on Fridays without prior approval of the EDP Department Chair. Final orals must be held on the UT-Austin campus during regular business hours. Exceptions must be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

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 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. Be sure to send your Dissertation document to your committee before submitting the Request for Final Oral Form. There are two options for gathering the signatures for your form:

1. Digitally via Docusign -

    See Instructions

   Request for Final Oral Exam Form Submission via DocuSign

   Before beginning the submission process, inform your committee members that you will be sending the Request for Final Oral Examination Form to them via DocuSign.

   Required Information for Request for Final Oral form

   • The names and email addresses of your Supervisor, Co-Supervisor or Member 2, Member 3, Member 4, and EDP Graduate Adviser are required. Members 5-7 are optional.
   • Planned date, time, and location (building and 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.

   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
   

   Tracking Form Progress

   Once submitted, DocuSign will automatically send the form to all committee members for their eSignature. The Graduate Adviser will be the last one to sign.

   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.

   Submit the Form to the Graduate School

   You will receive a 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. Send the Request For Final Oral Exam pdf to the Graduate School at gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu.

   OR
    

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. 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 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 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.

Final Oral Results

Dissertation defense meetings generally go well! Some revisions of the document are almost always requested. Be sure to leave time to complete any requested revisions before the graduation deadline to upload the dissertation to the Graduate School. 

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 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. 

Report of Dissertation Committee Form

After your defense, the Report of Dissertation Committee Form (RODC) must be signed by all committee members. The Graduate School no longer allows proxy signatures on this form. 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.

SUBMITTING THE DISSERTATION AND RODC: 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. 

For CP and SCCP students enrolling in only Internship in the semester(s) following successful dissertation defense, students should contact the EDP Graduate Coordinator to request a petition to the Graduate School to waive the dissertation enrollment requirement for the subsequent semesters.

Students should be careful to ensure their dissertations are ready to upload and that all materials are in the Graduate School office before the deadline. Failure to have everything turned in by the deadline means a student will have to register for dissertation hours again the following semester, and may also be subject to fees for past semesters of waived dissertation hours.