PhD Student Information

The Graduate School’s web page for Ph.D. students describes doctoral degree requirements, policies and procedures and provides guidelines and forms students need in completing their Ph.D. program. It is divided into sections describing each important stage in the Ph.D. process. The Graduate School monitors the academic requirements for the Ph.D. degree, and staff is available to help students with questions about meeting degree requirements.

Degree Completion Deadlines
Requirements for the PhD degree must be completed by these deadlines to graduate that term (December, May, and August).

Overview of the Ph.D. Process

Coursework Requirements
Credit requirements, program load, Plan of Work, transfer of credit, annual progress reviews, and time limitations

Qualifying Examinations and Candidacy
Written and oral exams, examining committee, candidacy requirements, and Candidate Status registration

Dissertation Advisory Committee and Prospectus
Research using human or animal subjects, Dissertation advisory committee, and Prospectus meeting as Oral Examination

Dissertation Process
Format check procedures, publishing requirement and copyrighting option, and manuscript submission

Final Defense, Graduation and Time Extensions
Completion deadlines, Defense procedures, graduation, and time extension procedures

Dissertation/Thesis Format Guidelines
Wayne State specifications for the format of the dissertation/thesis manuscript: Margins, spacing, pagination, order of parts, title page, table of contents, and format checklist

Graduate Writing Resources
Resources available to help with the dissertation prospectus, dissertation writing, scholarly writing style, publishing, citation formats and links to online writing guides

Contact the PhD Office