Candidacy Examination

To be admitted to PhD candidacy, each student is required to prepare a written research proposal and present it to their dissertation committee as part of a candidacy examination (this takes the place of the “prelim” requirement of previous years).  For more info on forming your dissertation committee, please see here.

Purpose of Exam

This examination allows the committee to assess the student’s conceptual and research mastery of a topic that will become the focus of a PhD dissertation.  This exam will focus on evaluating both the written proposal document and the oral proposal defense. This is a final technical checkpoint after satisfying the GPA requirement for the three required graduate courses in the program. This is an opportunity for committee members to help enhance the research quality by offering suggestions and opportunities for collaboration. Specifically, this examination is used to evaluate the student’s:

(1) ability to design, articulate, contextualize, and defend a set of proposed aims and research methods

(2) understanding of the broader research context for their proposed work, including an extensive understanding of the back ground literature in the area of study

(3) ability to develop a sound research methodology with testable hypotheses and premises

(4) ability to anticipate and propose pitfalls and alternative strategies

Oral Exam Guidelines

Students should plan for an oral presentation of no longer than 30 minutes uninterrupted.  Students should plan on 90 minutes for the entire examination, to allow time for questions during and after the presentation (schedule exam for 2 hours).  Students are expected to answer the questions from the examiners without the help of the supervisor. 

As this is an examination, the entire meeting will be closed door to only members on the student’s dissertation committee.

It is the responsibility of the student to set the date of the exam, and they are advised to do so at least two months in advance to accommodate the committee’s schedule. See Room booking on the Departmental Resources Page for instructions on booking rooms in CPE. The written research report must be given to each of the examiners at least one week in advance of the exam. 

Note: The department requires that no food be brought to the Oral Exam.

Examiners can attend virtually, or the presentation can be given separately if all examiners cannot attend on the same day. However, all committee members must sign off on the exam form (see below).

During the examination, students are expected to demonstrate:

• adequate progress toward identifying an important and impactful research problem
• the creation of a viable research strategy/specific plans
• presentation of preliminary results to warrant continuation on the track toward PhD candidacy
• an overall scholarly understanding of the research area

Qualifying Exam Rubric

Starting spring 2025, the Qualifying Exam Rubric will be included with the Candidacy Exam form. The detailed rubric can be found here. All committee members will have a copy of the rubric and will have the option to write comments and provide to the student. These comments will not be reflected on the DocuSign. 

Progress in this preliminary research proposal will be scored as pass, conditional pass (with conditions such as  “re-write document” or “take additional coursework”), or fail. Students who fail the examination on their first attempt may be asked to repeat it within one long-semester or will otherwise be transferred to the terminal Master’s degree program.

• 2nd year students will be assigned a spring date as to which they are required to complete their oral exam by. 
• A fall meeting (early September) with the Graduate Advisor will occur to explain the process of the candidacy exam, rubric and exam dates. 

Deadline