Approval of Doctoral Program Forms

Students should email all forms in need of review and approval (e.g., individual instruction forms, candidacy applications) to the ADDE and cc GPC. Students must work with the appropriate faculty when completing these forms, but need not get a final signature  from the involved faculty until the form is approved  by the ADDE. The ADDE will screen and review forms, and send any feedback directly to the student (and cc GPC) with instructions to resubmit the revised form to ADDE. Students should expect to receive revision requests and, so should plan their forms submissions with sufficient time to address any revisions by the designated deadline (if one exists). When the student returns the revised form, ADDE reviews the form for compliance with/acceptance of revision requests. The ADDE may request more than one round of revisions. Once the form is finalized, ADDE sends the form to GCP to distribute to the appropriate persons for signature via Docusign (if necessary).

Criteria for Screening Individual Instruction Forms

Answers to all three questions must be ‘Yes’ before moving on to a full review. If any of these criteria are not met, the ADDE will return the form to the student without review.

1. Are the proposed course objectives for the course consistent with the intent of the type of course? If the student’s proposed objectives are better suited for a different type of course, their submitted form will be returned with no comments and they will be advised to complete a form for the more appropriate course instead. See the guidelines on each Individual Instruction form. Briefly, the intent of each individual instruction course is as follows:

   1. Writing Practicum: to submit a first-authored scientific/scholarly manuscript for review at a scientific journal by the end of the course. This practicum is typically (but does not have to be) completed in order to fulfill the program requirement of submitting a first-authored manuscript. The student must provide proof of having submitted the manuscript in order to receive credit for the course.

   2. Research Practicum: To advance/produce a scientific product over which the student can take ownership. The work done in this practicum should provide the student with hands-on training in the conduct of research and directly benefit the student’s program of research.

   3. Conference Course: to develop knowledge and skills in a topic area for which their does not already exist an organized course. This course should, in all respects, be structured like any other graduate course (readings, weekly lectures/meetings, learning activities, grading system, etc.). Specificity in learning activities is imperative to the evaluation of this criterion: i.e., what, exactly, are they going to do each week with regard to readings, assignments, meeting topics, readings, exams, etc.

2. Is the type of course credit allowable? Research Practicum and Conference Courses may be taken for a letter grade or credit/no credit. Writing Practicum can only be taken for credit/no credit. Students should review their program of work record to ensure that they are not at risk of exceeding the 20% (9 credit hour) cap on credit/no credit courses included on the Program of Work.

3. Have all parts of the form been filled in? Forms with missing information, no matter how minor, will be returned to the student for completion.

Criteria for Screening Candidacy Application Forms

Answers to all five questions must be ‘Yes’ before moving on to full review. If any of these criteria are not met, the ADDE will return the form to the student without review.

1. Have all parts of the form been filled in? Forms with missing information, no matter how minor, will be returned to the student for completion.

2. Is the program of work complete and accurate? The program of work should be cross-checked with University records to ensure accuracy. It is the discretion of the ADDE whether to return forms with errors on the program of work to the student for correction, or to take it upon themselves to make the corrections.

3. Did the student include proof of article submission? If not, this will be requested from the student and must be received by the ADDE before further reviewing the application.

4. If the outside committee member is not UT Faculty, did the student include the CV of the outside member? If not, this will be requested from the student and must be received by the ADDE before further reviewing the application.

5. Does the student’s dissertation committee comply with University requirements? If any dissertation committee requirement is not met the student and their committee chair/co-chairs will be notified and asked to bring the committee into compliance with University requirements. Dissertation committee requirements are as follows:

   1. There are at least 4 members.

   2. At least 3 members are part of the School’s Graduate Studies Committee (GSC).

   3. The committee chair or at least 1 co-chair is part of the School’s GSC.

   4. At least 1 member is NOT part of the School’s GSC.

6. Does the description of the dissertation include all of the requested information AND  not exceed 60 lines of text? If the description is missing pertinent information and/or exceeds 60 lines, the ADDE will return the application to the student with instructions to edit the description as appropriate.