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The final examination for a Ph.D. candidate is an oral defense which includes a presentation of the student's thesis research and is followed immediately by a meeting with the student's thesis committee for evaluation. A description of this requirement can be found on the  page. Below is more informaiton regarding the guidelines for a dissertation defense. 

Deadlines

For funded students, the Ph.D. dissertation defense must take place at most six years from the student's entrance, unless the student petitions the Graduate School for a seventh year and the student's advisor certifies that the student is likely to finish in the seventh year. No Ph.D. student will be funded by the Mathematics Department for more than seven years.

Review the to submit your application to graduate, your dissertation title, your dissertation, as well as, complete your oral defense.

Forms

You will need to submit the Doctoral Examination Report. This document must be submitted to the Graduate Assistant two weeks prior to your exam.

Dissertation Hours

Students must take between five and ten dissertation hours each semester after passing the comprehensive exam, up to and including the semester in which the defense occurs. The only exception is for students who are not using any campus resources, who may apply for part-time status and take three dissertation hours each semester (but the student must still take five dissertation hours in the semester when the thesis is defended, even if in the summer semester). Grades for dissertation hours are assigned as "in progress" until the defense is completed.

Defense Committee

The dissertation committee consists of five members. The chair of the committee is the student's advisor. One of the members must be from outside the ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder mathematics department (either in another department at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder or at another university). The chair and outside member must have regular or tenured graduate faculty appointments; the other members must have regular or special graduate faculty appointments. (Regular appointments usually include tenured or tenure-track faculty, while special appointments are granted for faculty qualified to teach graduate courses who are not on the tenure track.)

Oral Defense

The dissertation defense must consist of an oral defense which is open to the public. The dissertation must represent the equivalent of at least 30 semester hours of work. The student is responsible for notifying the Graduate School of the title on or before the posted deadline in the semester of graduation. 

To pass the dissertation defense, the student must have approval of all committee members (up to at most one dissenter). If the dissertation defense is not passed on the first attempt, the student may attempt the defense once more after a period of time determined by the dissertation committee. If it is not passed on the second attempt, the student must leave the program.