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General Information

A satisfactory Dissertation Defense (AKA Final Oral Examination) is required for the approval of your dissertation. The nature and extent of the examination is described in chapter three of the Graduate Catalog. Prior to the examination, you may want to consult with your supervising faculty regarding the format of the examination.

Be sure to review the Graduate School's information about Final Orals.

Working with your Dissertation Supervisor

You should work closely with your dissertation supervisor throughout the dissertation process. You and your supervisor will work together to determine when you are ready to schedule the final oral defense meeting - revisions suggested by the supervisor reduce the probability of serious and substantive issues being raised by your committee members during the final oral defense meeting.

Discuss with your supervisor expectations for your conduct at the final oral defense meeting. In general, students give a brief (10-15 min.) summary of their dissertation, including hypotheses and key findings. Visuals and/or handouts may be used, but these are not considered necessary. Keep your opening statement brief, because the purpose of the final oral defense meeting is for the committee members to ask you questions and to provide you with their views of your work.

General Notes

During the semester that you will be holding your Final Oral, be sure to update your Program of Work in UTBox. You will email the GSC Chair to inform them that you have done so, so that they have adequate time to conduct a final Program of Work check. This step is necessary for the GSC Chair to certify you have completed degree requirements after your final oral.

EDP students use APA style for headings, references, and citations of their dissertations. Everything else will be according to the Graduate School template. For formatting assistance with your dissertation and Final Oral materials, you can contact the Graduate School at GradStudentSVCS@austin.utexas.edu to schedule an appointment or to have your question answered by e-mail.

Scheduling your Final Oral

When you have established a day and time for your final oral, schedule a room through EDP. Final orals cannot be held after noon on Fridays without prior approval of the EDP Department Chair. Final orals must be held on the UT-Austin campus during regular business hours. Exceptions must be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

At least 4 committee members (including your dissertation supervisor) must participate in your Final Oral. Read carefully the Graduate School’s rules about committee member attendance at your final oral. The Graduate School no longer distinguishes between physical attendance or virtual/electronic attendance. However, if you are defending in person, EDP requires that you and your dissertation supervisor both be in the same room. If any of your committee members cannot attend your final oral either in person or remotely, put them on Page 2 of the Request for Final Oral form.

Important note regarding fully virtual defenses: as of Spring 2025, the Graduate School requires a room on campus be booked and available for in-person attendees for all dissertation defenses, even if fully virtual, to comply with the public attendance requirement for dissertation defenses.

Request for Final Oral Form

The "Request for Final Oral" form is the official, required notification to the Graduate School of your Final Oral plans. It must be turned in to the Graduate School at least two weeks prior to your final oral. There are two options for submission:

Digitally via Docusign -
See Instructions
Request for Final Oral Exam Form Submission via DocuSign
Read the instructions carefully before initiating the submission process.
The completed signed request for your Final Oral Examination must be delivered to the Graduate School 2 weeks prior to the scheduled exam. You will need to begin this DocuSign submission process at least 3 weeks before your scheduled date.
Before Submitting the Form via DocuSign
Before beginning the submission process, inform your committee members and the EDP Graduate Advisor that a Request for Final Oral Examination Form will be sent via DocuSign.
DocuSign will require that you enter the names and email addresses of all your committee members, the EDP Graduate Advisor, and yourself.
Committee members will receive an email from DocuSign confirming your petition to schedule a Final Oral exam with your committee.
Required Information for DocuSign Final Oral Request
The names and email addresses of your Supervisor, Co-Supervisor or Member 2, Member 3, Member 4, and Graduate Adviser are required. Members 5-7 are optional.
Final Oral exam details as agreed upon by your committee:
- Date, time, and location (building and room OR virtual).
- If meeting in-person, email EDP@austin.utexas.edu to book a meeting room.
- You will also need to indicate on the form if IRB approval is required and, if so, enter the IRB study number.
DocuSign Submission
Click the link below to begin the DocuSign submission process.
NOTE: Do not begin the process until you have all the required information listed above. If you start the form without finishing it, it will create abandoned documents in the DocuSign system. Abandoned forms cannot be accessed again and you will have to start over.
DocuSign Request for Final Oral Examination Link: http://links.utexas.edu/bkbpwfs
Post-Submission
Once submitted, DocuSign will automatically send the form to all committee members for their eSignature. The Graduate Advisor will be the last one to eSign.
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.
You will receive a second email from DocuSign when all signers have completed the signing process. Click “View Completed Document” link in that email. When the document opens on the DocuSign website, click the “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 and the certificate of completion. The certificate provides a full audit trail of your DocuSign transaction. Submit the combined pdf Request For Final Oral Exam form electronically to the Graduate School at gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu.
Be sure to follow the rest of the instructions on page 1 of the form.
OR
In-person / hardcopy - for this option, download the form from the Graduate School and print; obtain signatures (all on the same form), and email it to the Graduate School at gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu. See the Sample Form - Request for Final Oral (hardcopy). Note regarding electronic signatures: all signatures must be made on the same form. In Educational Psychology, the dissertation supervisor may also sign their own name in the place of members who cannot sign and have given written approval for the supervisor to sign instead.

Once the Graduate School is finished processing the Request for Final Oral Examination form, they then will e-mail a Report of Dissertation Committee form to both you and your dissertation supervisor (in the case of co-supervisors, it will be sent to the first one listed on the Request for Final Oral). The Report of Dissertation Committee is the form your committee will use to indicate to the Graduate School the results of your Final Oral. This form must be printed out and brought to your Final Oral for signatures.

Your dissertation document must be given to your committee members at least 2 weeks before you ask them to sign the Request for Final Oral form (this would be approximately one month prior to your final oral). Any exceptions to this should be worked out with each committee member, as some members will not sign unless they have received the dissertation with ample time for review. Dissertation committee members should be asked if they prefer a hard copy or electronic copy of your dissertation. When delivering your dissertation to your committee members, ask that they review it as soon as possible and let your dissertation supervisor and you know if there are significant problems.

The Request for Final Oral form and other required materials indicated on that form must be turned into the Graduate School at least 2 weeks prior to your final oral. Failure to do this will result in your needing to reschedule your final oral.

Final Oral Results

Dissertation defense meetings generally go well (i.e., a unanimous vote to pass the student). Some revisions of the document are almost always requested. Be sure to leave time to complete these before the deadline to upload your dissertation and turn in all necessary paperwork to the Graduate School (3:00 p.m. the last day of class).

The committee may choose other options than Pass. These include the following: Reconsideration, Not Pass, and Fail. Reconsideration indicates that extensive revision is necessary, but the committee is willing to examine the rewritten dissertation without a second final oral defense meeting. Not Pass indicates that the committee is not satisfied with the dissertation but believes it could be made satisfactory with rewriting and another oral is scheduled. Fail indicates that at least one member of the committee has decided the dissertation is unsatisfactory and the candidate may not rewrite.

After the Final Oral

After your defense, the Report of Dissertation Committee Form must be signed by all committee members. Those committee members who are not physically present at your final oral must sign the form digitally. The Graduate School no longer allows proxy signatures on this form. All signatures must be on the same form. Once all signatures are obtained, the supervisor or student must then have the GSC Chair sign it and return it to you.

Students will hold on to their signed Report of Dissertation Committee Form - as well their corrected dissertation and any other required materials - until the semester they plan to graduate. Once they have applied to graduate, the final edited dissertation document must be uploaded through the Graduate School portal. Once the dissertation is uploaded, you will then email the Graduate School your Report of Dissertation Committee Form as well as any other required forms to gradstudentsvcs@austin.utexas.edu. (Students going on internship following the final oral will wait to upload the dissertation and turn in the required Graduate School materials until they have completed internship and are graduating.)

For CP and SCCP students enrolling in only Internship in the semester(s) following successful dissertation defense, students should contact the Graduate Coordinator to request a petition to the Graduate School to waive the dissertation enrollment requirement for the subsequent semesters.

Students should be careful to ensure their dissertations are ready to upload and that all materials are in the Graduate School office before the deadline. Failure to have everything turned in by the deadline means a student will have to register for dissertation hours again the following semester, and may also be subject to fees for past semesters of waived dissertation hours.

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