Graduation for PhD

The Graduate School sets firm deadlines for submission of graduation-related paperwork. You should apply to graduate the semester you plan to complete your final oral defense. All pertinent dates, including the dissertation submission deadline, are listed in the Graduate Catalog and here.

Graduating students are required to publish their dissertation digitally by uploading a single PDF to the Texas Digital Library (TDL). It must be formatted per the Graduate School’s guidelines. The dissertation must be uploaded to TDL before submitting the rest of the required pages.

In addition, the Report of Dissertation Committee is required, after the dissertation is submitted to TDL. All members of the committee must have signed the report, and all signatures must be on a single form (i.e. you can’t turn in two partially complete forms signed by your committee, even if both forms together have all the signatures). Incomplete forms will not be accepted.

At the same time you submit your Report of Dissertation Committee, you can submit a request to temporarily delay the publication of your dissertation on ProQuest. This is often used when you plan on publishing your dissertation, either in parts or in whole, in the future and want to prevent others from reading your dissertation before you do. You can fill out and submit an Initial Request for Delay of Publication at the same time you send in your final paperwork. If you would prefer to have this document turned into a DocuSign document, email the Graduate Program Coordinator for help.

Both of these documents should be sent to the Graduate School through the Graduate Student Form Submission Portal by 3 p.m. CDT on the relevant deadline listed on the website. Only submit the documents after you have uploaded your dissertation to TDL. You will receive an email from the Graduate School once your documents have been accepted. During the busy season (the end of semesters, especially Spring semester), it could take a few days to receive the email.  If you miss the deadline to submit your material for graduation, you will NOT graduate that semester.  There is no penalty for applying and not meeting the deadlines; you will simply need to apply for graduation for the following semester and get all your paperwork in on time.

If you want to walk – that is, attend Convocation and be hooded – you will need to apply to walk by the required date. The Cockrell School of Engineering does not hold its own convocation ceremony. Instead, all graduates take part in the Graduate School Convocation. Applying to walk the stage signs you up to receive tickets for the ceremony. You will also need to rent (or buy) regalia and should ask your “hooder” (the person you want to place your hood over you) ahead of time to make sure they are also available that day.

All doctoral graduates are also invited to the University-wide celebration, usually held the Saturday of “official” graduation. More information about this ceremony will be sent out from the university as the Spring semester comes to an end.