Students must complete degree requirements within five calendar years after initial registration.
Doctoral Degree:
Students with a master's degree must complete degree requirements within seven years after initial registration. Students without a master's degree must complete degree requirements within nine years. In either case, you must defend within five years after passing your Preliminary Exam.
Steps to Your Defense
Start to organize your Thesis Defense Examination committee at least 5 weeks prior to the date you plan to have your examination. This lead time is necessary because the committee requests must be approved by the Graduate College. If you are a Ph.D. student, you must be registered in the term you defend (including summer) or, if defending between terms, you must have been registered in the previous term.
Discuss the format of the examination and the membership of your committee with your faculty advisor. The format can be found in your group's Program Description. Three members are required for the M.S. Thesis Defense. For the Ph.D. Thesis Defense, five members are required and one member must be from outside the department. Two members must be faculty members at the full professor rank.
Fill in the information on the Defense Examination Committee Recommendation Form and return it to the graduate advisor who will submit the necessary forms to the Graduate College. Make sure to include CVs for any members from outside UIC.
Upon completion of your thesis research, you should obtain the approval of the advisory committee to prepare the thesis. The thesis should be submitted to the Examining Committee two weeks prior to a thesis defense meeting with the Examining Commitee. The meeting with the Examining Committee and the public presentation are not on the same day.
Upon approval of the thesis document by the Examining Committee, a public presentation is scheduled. Arrange a convenient date and time for your public seminar and confirm this time with the graduate adviser. Schedule the rooms with your group coordinator (CDMB, E&E or Neurobiology).
Authorship on a number of published or publishable manuscripts appropriate for the field of research, as determined by the thesis committee is ordinarily one of the requirements for successful completion of the Ph.D. program.
