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Requirements and Procedures for Ph.D. Students
Minimum requirements for the Ph.D. degree in Animal Sciences are listed Appendix C and D.
Each student will be required to complete a minimum of 64 hours of graduate credit beyond the credits required for the M. S. degree, including 20 to 28 hours of lecture and laboratory classes, 4 hours of seminar and at least 32 hours of thesis research. Students will be expected to register for graduate seminar (0 to 2 hours of credit) during each semester of study for a maximum of 2 hours of credit. The Ph.D. courses cover the theory and quantitative methods upon which advanced research and teaching in Animal Sciences is based. Many specialty area courses presume the knowledge gained in courses taken previously. Most students complete the course requirements during the first two or three years, leaving the subsequent years for dissertation research and writing.
Each Ph.D. student, in collaboration with the adviser, may select, generally from among faculty in the department, an Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee may serve as the basis for the required Preliminary Examination Committee and a Final Examination Committee. Members of each committee may, but need not, be members of both of these committees. The Preliminary Examination Committee and a Final Examination Committee shall consist of at least four faculty members, including one from outside the Department of Animal Sciences and one who must be tenured. These committees are appointed by the Dean of the Graduate College after considering advice from the Head of the Department. Faculty members who are not members of the Graduate College faculty may serve on any of the committees providing the composition of each committee fulfills the minimum requirements of the Graduate College.
The Advisory Committee is intended to provide advice to the student and student’s advisor concerning course selection, progress of the student, research, and thesis preparation when appropriate. As such, the Advisory Committee should be appointed and meet initially with the student and student’s advisor during the first year of the students program. The Advisory Committee should meet with the student and student’s advisor at least yearly thereafter until the completion of the degree requirements. The Head of Department may request a report on the progress of the student from the Advisory Committee.
Oral Preliminary Examination
The oral preliminary examination is an examination of your preparation and plans for independent research. The examination includes, but is not limited to, your formal proposal for dissertation research. Normally, during the second or third year of post-M. S. degree study, the student, with the approval of the student's advisor, will take the preliminary exam. The Preliminary Examination Committee will evaluate the student's 1) general knowledge of science and animal agriculture, 2) competence in the field of study, 3) potential for conducting creative and innovative research, and 4) research proposal. The research proposal shall include an introduction, pertinent literature review, hypothesis and objectives, experimental design, and procedures that are to be used. Any preliminary data that may have been collected should be presented.
At least one month prior to the proposed examination date, in consultation with the candidate, the academic advisor recommends to the Head of Department the individuals to serve on the oral preliminary examination committee, one of whom is nominated by the academic advisor to serve as chair. The committee consists of at least four faculty members, at least one of whom is tenured, including the academic advisor; three members from the Department of Animal Sciences; and at least one from another department. At least three committee members must be Graduate Faculty members. Typically, the committee will include faculty from your specialization areas. The Head of Department recommends to the Dean of the Graduate College the Preliminary Examination Committee members and chairperson. The student should submit a written proposal of original research to the Preliminary Examination Committee at least two weeks before the examination and must submit the proposal at least one week before the examination.
Oral preliminary examinations are open to all faculty. The advisor should arrange for the time and place of the examination to be announced through the Department Newsletter at least ten days in advance. While the oral preliminary examination is open to any member of the faculty, the deliberations and decision of the committee are held in an executive session.
The committee makes two decisions. One is whether the student shall advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. This decision is based on command of the subject matter and ability to conduct independent research. On this question, the committee's decision must be unanimous and is reported as “pass”, “decision deferred,” or “fail”. If the committee cannot reach agreement, the chairperson must consult with the Dean of the Graduate College about alternatives. If the student fails the oral preliminary examination, he/she may take it a second time within six months of the initial examination. A second failure results in dismissal from the program.
The second decision is whether or not the dissertation topic and research plan are acceptable. The committee decision reflects a consensus and is communicated in writing to the Head of Department by the committee chairperson. If the committee finds the topic acceptable, the final evaluation of the dissertation will be based on the adequacy with which the topic is addressed and not on the appropriateness of the topic selected.
Dissertation and Final Ph.D. Examination
After successfully completing the oral preliminary examination, the student must register each regular academic term until the twenty four-unit credit requirement is completed, including the semester of thesis defense. Thereafter, candidates who are away from campus need not register each semester. However, if the student has not been continuously registered, he/she must apply for readmission and register for the term of the final dissertation examination.
When sufficient data have been collected, the Ph.D. student will prepare a thesis and abstract in accordance with the requirements of the Graduate College and the policies of the Department. The student is required to give a seminar during the last semester of matriculation. This seminar is customarily given as part of the Department of Animal Sciences Seminar Series and will cover the student’s thesis research. If it is not possible to schedule the seminar within the Department of Animal Sciences Seminar Series, a special seminar outside of the Department of Animal Sciences Seminar Series will be scheduled. The thesis will be reviewed and approved by the student’s advisor before the final examination. The Final Examination Committee should receive the thesis at least 2 weeks before the examination and must receive the thesis at least 1 week before the final examination. The Committee will evaluate the dissertation and the student's knowledge of the thesis topic at a final examination. Results of the final examination will be reported to the Head of the Department and the Dean of the Graduate College.
The final Ph.D. examination is public and is usually conducted by the same committee that conducted the oral preliminary examination. The committee is appointed by the Dean of the Graduate College based on the recommendation of the Head of Department. The academic advisor recommends members of the committee to the Head approximately one month before the scheduled examination. The chairperson is responsible for scheduling the examination and notifying committee members.
The membership requirements for the oral preliminary examination committee also apply to the final examination committee. A faculty member from another university, government or industry with expertise in the area of research also may serve on this committee. An outside participant is nominated to the Dean of the Graduate College by the Head of Department in a letter that justifies the involvement and identifies the resources that will be used to defray the associated expenses, if any.
The committee must reach a unanimous decision about the performance on the final examination. Its decision of "pass," "decision deferred" or "fail" is communicated to the Graduate Program Office, the Department Head, and the Graduate College. Each committee member also indicates that the thesis has been found to be "satisfactory," "satisfactory, pending revisions" or "unsatisfactory." If the committee cannot agree on a recommendation, the chairperson confers with the Dean of the Graduate College.
All theses will include a summary, an introduction to the problem investigated, a review of literature on previous work related to the thesis topic, clearly defined objectives, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions. The thesis may, but need not, be in the form of individual manuscripts preceded by chapters including a general introduction and literature review. The student shall provide the Department with a hard-bound copy of the thesis. The monetary cost of thesis preparation, including typing and/or wordprocessing, copying, and binding, are to be incurred by the student. Secretarial assistance, office supplies, copy machines and computers used by secretaries are not available to graduate students for this purpose. Department guidelines for thesis preparation, format and departmental format approval of theses are given in Appendix E.
All theses must conform to the style and format conventions as required by the Graduate College and the Department. Prior to writing the thesis, students should review the instruction booklet "Instructions for Preparation of Theses", available from the Graduate College. References to literature within the text of the thesis shall be consistent throughout the thesis and in compliance with style and format requirement of peer-reviewed journal in the discipline. The student, in consultation with the advisor, is responsible for the thesis, including spelling, grammar, scientific terminology, organization, stylistic consistency, correct sequence of pages, agreement between table of contents and the text, and the accuracy of the thesis contents.
After passing the final examination, the dissertation format must be approved by the Graduate Program Coordinator (Professor Bryan A. White, 460 Animal Sciences Laboratory, 333-2091). Deposit one copy in the office of the Graduate Program Coordinator for approval at least one week before the dissertation is due in the Graduate College. Deadlines for depositing theses are available from the Graduate College or the Graduate Program Office.
If more than one year elapses between the final Ph.D. examination and depositing the dissertation with the Graduate College, it must be accompanied by a letter from the Head of Department to the Dean of the Graduate College. The letter must address whether the dissertation being deposited is essentially the one that was defended and whether a late award of the degree is appropriate. If more than five years elapse between the oral preliminary and final Ph.D. examinations, a second oral preliminary examination must be passed.
Appendix D of this handbook contains a worksheet to keep track of progress towards degree requirements.