Doctoral Committee

Each doctoral student must have a Research Advisor and a doctoral committee appointed. For Ph.D., Ed.D., and D.A. students, a committee must be appointed before the written comprehensive exam is taken. Clinical doctoral programs that do not require comprehensive exams must appoint the doctoral committee at the point a student begins proposal research.

At minimum, a doctoral committee for Ph.D., Ed.D. and D.A. students must consist of:

a Research Advisor, who must be from within the program/discipline area and must hold a current Doctoral Research Endorsement [DRE] status. Faculty wishing to continue to serve as Research Advisor after retirement must hold a current Retired Graduate Faculty status with DRE (RGF/DRE).
one additional faculty Committee Member from within the program/discipline area;
one additional faculty Committee Member from within a related discipline or area of inquiry;
a Faculty Representative (needs to be outside the program discipline).

Doctoral scholarly project committees require a minimum of three committee members to include a research advisor, an additional committee member from the program or related discipline and a third faculty member or approved clinician.

All Committee Members and Faculty Representative must hold a current Graduate Faculty (GF) status. The doctoral committee is subject to the approval of the program advisor and the Graduate School.

The student and all members of the Doctoral Committee will receive confirmation of the approved committee assignments. Unless the student or Research Advisor informs the Graduate School or the Graduate School informs the student of the need for a change, the doctoral committee membership will remain the same from the written comprehensive examination throughout the dissertation or doctoral scholarly project research stages of the program.

The Graduate School reviews and confirms the membership of student's doctoral committee each time a Request to Schedule the Doctoral Examination (oral comps and dissertation defense) is submitted and upon submission of the student's dissertation proposal.

While the research advisor is the primary mentor of the student in conducting research and writing the dissertation, the entire committee is responsible for ensuring the academic rigor of the dissertation. Each member of the committee should provide guidance and feedback from their respective disciplinary view point. Each member of the committee has editorial responsibility to ensure that a student's dissertation follows the chosen style manual in formatting and citations. Doctoral committees should meet with doctoral students at least one time per year to receive a progress update from the student and file a progress report with the Graduate School. If, in the view of the research advisor or committee members, a student is failing to make adequate progress, the committee may compose an agreement between the committee and the student with milestones for adequate progress and deadlines. If the student does not meet the expectations and deadlines for adequate progress, the doctoral committee may recommend program termination.

The Graduate Dean charges the Faculty Representative with upholding the standards and expectations of the Graduate Faculty. The faculty representative is a full voting member with all the rights and responsibilities of any other member and must be present at the student’s oral examination, proposal hearing, and final dissertation defense. The faculty representative must hold Graduate Faculty status. The faculty representative is expected to actively contribute conceptual, theoretical, methodological and/or academic expertise from an alternative disciplinary perspective and provide an impartial evaluation of the student’s academic work.

No faculty member will be appointed to a doctoral committee without their consent. University faculty who have not been appointed Graduate Faculty, Clinical Graduate Faculty, Doctoral Research or Retired Graduate Faculty status by the Graduate Council shall not be appointed as members of doctoral committees. An Honorary member is not required, but is allowed when an off campus faculty member with research expertise related to the study is requested. An Honorary committee member must apply for and receive Graduate Faculty Equivalence status. The Honorary committee member is a full voting member with all the rights and responsibilities of other members of the committee and must be present at the student’s doctoral oral examination, dissertation proposal and dissertation defense.

Any change of membership or role (faculty rep, co-research advisor, committee member) requires a change of committee membership form to the Graduate School www.unco.edu/graduate-school/pdf/Change-Committee.pdf. Changes to the membership of a doctoral committee should be rare and made only after the student and the research advisor have consulted. Students who wish to replace a committee member are urged to communicate the desire and rationale for the change directly to the specific faculty member in person. If a committee member or faculty representative is unable to be present during an oral examination, proposal hearing or dissertation or doctoral scholarly project defense, the program area shall appoint an eligible member of the graduate faculty to replace the original committee member on the student's doctoral committee. The Graduate School must be notified of the replacement before the oral exam, proposal hearing or final defense. If a replacement cannot be appointed prior to the examination, proposal or defense, the exam must be rescheduled for a future date. The concerns and recommendations of all committee members, including the faculty representative, are crucial to the dissertation approval process.

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