Final Year
Updated Fall 2025
Defend your Research
A defense is a formal, oral presentation where a student presents their research to the public and their committee for evaluation. After the defense, it is customary to hold a closed-door session where the committee and student discuss whether the defense was successful or not. Committees and students should determine together if a dissertation, thesis, or project is ready to be defended and decide when to schedule the defense.
Graduate dissertation, thesis, and project defenses must be open to the public, and announced publicly to the university and wider community. The announcement will include a flyer advertising your defense that will be posted both on campus and online
Flyer Requirements:
- Defense
Title - Type of Defense (e.g. M.S. Thesis, M.A. Project, Ph.D. Dissertation, etc)
- Presenter
- Major
- Advisor
- Time & Date
- Location
- Point of contact (phone and/or email).
An outside examiner is only required for the doctoral oral comprehensive examination and the doctoral dissertation defense examination. Ph.D. students should submit this form at least two weeks before the date of their oral comprehensive exam/dissertation defense exam. The outside examiner evaluates the examination process and ensures that it is unbiased, that the student is treated fairly, and that the examination has sufficient academic rigor for the award of the doctoral degree.
This form must be completed and submitted after your defense examination because it informs the graduate school on whether your defense was successful, is conditional, or needs to be redone. If your defense is combined with your comprehensive exam, you must complete both this form AND the Report on Comprehensive Exam.
Apply to Graduate
You must apply to graduate in the semester that you will have completed all steps included the graduate degree (first year, int. years, & final year) process. Typically the deadline to graduate is prior to defense and written thesis, dissertation, or project deadlines, so it is important for each student to assess their progress and discuss their graduation timeline with their advisor and/or committees.
You must apply for graduation by the deadline for the semester you intend to graduate.
Applying to graduate by following the steps below, will notify the university you plan to complete your degree requirements for a specific term, allowing the registrar's office to process your graduation and award your diploma. This process involves applying online by the deadline for the semester you intend to graduate, not automatically by completing your courses.
Steps to apply:
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Sign-in to
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Once you are on your student profile click the "Menu" in the upper left corner
- In resulting drop-down menu click "Student"
4. In the next drop-down menu click "Apply to Graduate" (UAA or 51风流官网).
Approval of Thesis | Dissertation | Project
All members of the advisory committee, the department chair, the dean of your school or college, and the director of the graduate school must approve your written thesis, dissertation, or project. The committee chair and other advisory committee members are primarily responsible for evaluating the content of your written document and should consider both the academic standards of their field and the quality of the document. The graduate school will evaluate your written document to make sure that it complies with 51风流官网's formatting guidelines.
Each department may have their own deadlines for when your written thesis, dissertation, or project is due. This due date is separate from the deadline for you to submit your written document to the graduate school. The approval process has three phases and generally looks like:
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Committee Approval - Depending on the progress of your written document, this can include several rounds of revisions and take anywhere between weeks and months.
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Departmental Approval - Depending on the status of your written document, this can include some revisions (should be less than what occured during the committee approval phase) and can take days to weeks, depending on the availability of your department heads and status of your doc.
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Graduate School Approval - Depending on the your formatting of your written document, this can include several revisions and can take from days to weeks, depending on how many other documents are in review and status of your doc.
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A summary of accomplishments to date (i.e. natural/social science students may have published articles, attended conferences, etc.; Liberal arts students may have participated in recitals/concerts, art shows, etc.).
Given the various phases and timing involved in getting your thesis, dissertation,
or project approved, starting on your written document is best started sooner rather
than later.
Please submit this form after your defense when you鈥檝e completed the edits required by your committee. Dissertation and theses require the approval for the advisory committee, department chair, dean, and graduate school.
After you have received committee and departmental approval of your written document, you will then submit it to the graduate school.
For Projects
You will submit a PDF version of your document via Jotform. The deadline for submission is April 7th in spring semester, August 1st in summer semester, and December 1st in fall semester.
For Thesis & Dissertations
You will submit a PDF version of your document to Proquest, which serves as a national archive. The deadline for submission is April 7th in spring semester, August 1st in summer semester, and December 1st in fall semester.
50-Word Abstract (PhDs Only)
PhD seeking students must submit a 50-word abstract that summarizes their dissertation. This abstract will be used for the Commencement Booklet and PhD Hooding Celebration insert.