Doctoral Advancement Kit

Advancement to Candidacy Kit via DocuSign

Prior to formal advancement to Doctoral Candidacy by the Graduate School, a student must successfully complete the Mid-Program Review, SP, and dissertation proposal. Only then, may the student be advanced to Doctoral Candidacy by the student's committee, Graduate Coordinator and Graduate Advisor. 

Please submit your Advancement to Candidacy Kit IMMEDIATELY following a success proposal defense. 

Advancement to Candidacy: Outstanding Coursework Policy

In order to hold a dissertation/treatise proposal defense, students must have no outstanding incompletes from prior semesters. All incompletes must be resolved and a grade must be entered for all courses. If a student received a permanent incomplete, the course must be re- taken and the grade must be entered for that course. Students are permitted to defend the same semester that they are enrolled in the last of their required courses. Students are permitted to have no more than one outstanding required course on their program of work at the time that they hold their proposal meeting. The outstanding course cannot be a core or research course. (In rare circumstances, students may ask their advisor for approval to defend with two outstanding courses.)

Before Submitting the Form via DocuSign

Inform your committee members that they will receive an email from the "ELP Graduate Coordinator via DocuSign" (dse@docusign.net) confirming your petition to report a successful Dissertation/Treatise proposal defense with your committee. (to report the result of your dissertation/treatise proposal defense with your committee).

Required Information for DocuSign Request 

• The names, email addresses, title, and GSC status of your Supervisor, Co-Supervisor or Member 2, Member 3, and Member 4 are required. Members 5-7 may be left blank if you don’t have that many members in your committee.

  • You can find a list of faculty members with GSC membership at this link: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/ogs/auth/gsc/nlogon/gsc_members/. 

    • Please search “Educational Leadership and Policy” (ELP), “all roles”, click enter to view the full GSC roster for the ELP Department.

  • You can find a faculty contact and title information in the UT Directory: https://directory.utexas.edu/.

• Student’s contact information including address, email, and current telephone number.

• Date of proposal committee meeting

• Program Plan/ Program of Work (POW), which must be filled out with coursework taken, semester taken, grades, and instructors.

  • You can find this information through View My Grades (← recommended) or by using the Course Schedule for past semesters

DocuSign Submission

DocuSign Advancement to Candidacy Kit PowerForm Link: http://links.utexas.edu/cgvmrcm

NOTE: Do not begin the process until you have all the information noted above. Stopping before reaching the end will create abandoned documents in the DocuSign system. Abandoned forms cannot be accessed again and you will have to start over.

Post-submission

DocuSign will automatically forward the form to your Graduate Coordinator. They will have an opportunity to ensure that the committee members information was submitted correctly. The form will then be sent to all committee members for their eSignature.

DocuSign will send you an email with a [Review Document] link. Save this email and use the link to monitor the progress of your form signatures. From the linked webpage, click [Other Actions] menu —> [Certificate of Completion] to review who has and who has not yet signed the document.

Once the process is complete, you will receive a second email from DocuSign. To save for your records: Click “View Completed Document” > “Download” button at the top of the document > select the “Combined PDF” option and save the document to your computer. A combined document includes the form, certificate of completion, and a full audit trail of your DocuSign transaction. 

Upon candidacy approval, The Graduate Coordinator will inform the student of next steps, including submitting an online application to the Graduate School and to the Office of Research Support and Compliance (Human Subjects/IRB).