chair of phd committee

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Doctoral committee responsibilities, responsibilities of the chair.

The Chair will be selected on the basis of content expertise. This should include topic interest or subject matter expertise, experience in  dissertation direction, or methodology expertise. The Chair is responsible for guiding the candidate to produce doctoral level, original scholarship in the proposed topic area. The Chair must be a member of the LEAD faculty and hold Full graduate faculty status. 

The Chair’s responsibilities include:

Being familiar with current dissertation policies and procedures in the LEAD program

Advising the candidate from the Prospectus stage through the final defense of the Dissertation

Guiding the candidate in the selection of Dissertation committee members

Guiding the candidate to set a realistic timeline for completion of the Dissertation

Responsibly assigning the candidate a grade of  SP  (successful progress) or  NP  (no progress) each semester

Guiding the candidate toward achieving a high level of technical and ethical quality in the Dissertation research

Assisting the candidate in developing a quality Prospectus and in navigating the Prospectus approval process

Providing guidance on the research proposal structure, formatting, content and setting clear expectations for timely completion of the Proposal

Guiding the candidate in the selection of methods/procedures for data collection and analysis*

Assisting the candidate in the Dissertation Proposal defense process

Assisting the candidate in navigating the IRB approval process

Assisting the candidate in data collection and analysis*

Preparing the candidate for the defense process

* If a separate Methodologist is assigned, the Chair may serve in a support role.

In special circumstances, with program approval, a Co-Chair arrangement may be appropriate for a particular subject matter. In the case of a Co-Chair arrangement, one of the two Co-Chairs must be a member of the LEAD faculty and hold Full graduate faculty status.

Responsibilities of the Committee Members    

All members of the candidate’s committee share responsibility in ensuring that the candidate produces high-quality scholarship. Committee members are responsible for reading manuscripts within the agreed-upon minimum 14 day time frame (per committee member), suggesting substantive editorial changes, and providing rationale for their support and critiques. Committee members who perceive major flaws that are likely to result in a candidate’s unsuccessful defense should discuss these concerns with the candidate and Chair immediately.

Committee member’s responsibilities include:

In cooperation with the Chair, advising the candidate from the Prospectus stage through the final defense of the Dissertation

Provide subject matter expertise as requested by Chair or candidate

Reading drafts and providing meaningful feedback at each defense stage of the dissertation process

Guiding the candidate in the selection of methods/procedures for data collection and analysis**

Assisting the candidate in data collection and analysis**

Corresponding with the Chair and candidate as needed for clarification/resolution of methodological issues during the Dissertation process**

** Methodologist only (if the Chair is not performing both roles). A Methodologist should be selected who has particular expertise in the type of study the candidate is pursuing (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods).    

Responsibilities of the Dissertation Candidate

The candidate is expected to engage in active preparation of the Dissertation process from the onset of the doctoral program. Candidates are responsible for choosing a topic, submitting proofread drafts of materials to the Chair, preparing adequately for meetings, thoroughly reviewing all Dissertation policies and procedures, and communicating on a regular basis with the Chair via the Dissertation course space or other communication modality. The candidate is expected to maintain a respectful and professional attitude at all times. 

Candidates are expected to maintain contact with the Chair and Methodologist throughout the Dissertation process to ensure that the research and writing adhere to the agreed-upon plan. As the project is the candidate’s responsibility, s/he must frequently keep the Chair informed of progress. All communication for the Dissertation process is accomplished (and therefore documented) in the Learning Management System (UTC Learn) and all drafts are submitted and feedback returned through the Learning Management System (UTC Learn). The candidate should contact the Chair in the event of any significant changes in his/her personal or professional life which may interfere with program completion. Occasionally, face-to-face meetings may be scheduled with your Chair, Methodologist, or the whole committee. In order to document this part of the dissertation process, immediately following a face-to-face meeting (within 48 hours), the candidate should post a detailed summary of the meeting in the Dissertation course space.

In addition, candidates are expected to maintain regular contact with the Program Office via email ( [email protected] ).   

Communicating with the Committee

The Chair will determine when a document is ready for electronic review by the committee and will initiate communication amongst committee members. The candidate should avoid consulting the full committee for feedback without prior approval of the Chair. A minimum of four meetings with the committee is required: Prospectus defense, Proposal defense, Pre-defense of the final manuscript, and the final Dissertation defense. The Chair will notify the Program Office via email ( [email protected] ) of the date/time/location of all committee defense meetings. Committee participation from a distance may be facilitated through video conference, phone conference, or other electronic media as approved.

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What does a PhD Committee do?

I have been reading that many students have a PhD committee. I assume this is a group of experts supervising the student.

In my case, and I think this is quite common, I had two people. One was the principal supervisor and the other was the associate supervisor.

Almost all my contacts were with the principal supervisor. The associate supervisor was a back-up resource if and when needed.

This was a simple one-on-one contact between me and my principal supervisor.

I am just wondering how does a PhD committee work?

• thesis-committee

3 Answers 3

At least in the US, a Ph.D committee will have 4-5 members, and there are rules about the composition of the committee (there might need to be at least one person from an external institution, and at least one person from a different department, or variations thereof).

The committee's formal job is to assess the Ph.D student's dissertation proposal, determine that the work being proposed is sufficient for a dissertation, and then evaluate the final dissertation defense and decide whether to grant the student a Ph.D or not.

Informally, a Ph.D committee provides a set of resources/expertise for the student to tap into for advice, research directions and even contacts for future work (yes, there's life after a Ph.D :)). There's prior discussion on how to choose your committee.

• Thanks So who from the PhD committee supervises the student? –  Javeer Baker Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 2:08
• The advisor supervises the student. –  Suresh Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 2:09
• 1 Or the supervisor supervises, if you use terminology used elsewhere. –  Dave Clarke Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 15:24
• I've always felt that "advisor" was a friendlier term and put the focus where it should be: on the student. A supervisor tells you what to do :) –  Suresh Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 16:33
• 2 I'd only take issue with 4-5. In the universities I've been in, a committee with 3 members was always considered normal or standard, 4 would be large, and 5 would be considered unnecessarily large. –  mako Commented Feb 10, 2013 at 3:23

I want to clarify a point about your first paragraph: at least in the US, the PhD committee does not usually supervise the student very much. A PhD student has an advisor, who is typically on the PhD committee, and may be its chair, who supervises the student. The committee's main role is to determine whether the thesis gives adequate grounds to grant a PhD. At some schools the committee convenes only once or twice---perhaps once to approve a plan for the thesis, and once to approve it. At others, the committee might meet once a year to consider whether the student is making adequate progress.

Regardless, at least in the US, it's unusual for the committee to have a formal role beyond that. Of course it's possible that committee members besides the advisor might be involved in supervising the student, but the causation is more likely to run the other way: because they're involved in supervising the student, they're invited to be on the committee.

The answer to this question differs based on the country, university, faculty, department and the particular members of the committee.

In general universities and departments have regulations and procedures that describe in exact detail the roles and responsibilities of the PhD committee. No one in here can give you anything but some general idea which is already described in more detail in those documents. PhD committees have completely different roles in US and UK for instance. In US they are the ones that assess you but in UK your examiners assess you and then report back to the committee in the department.

• I did not have a PhD committee. If I did, this question would be superfluous –  Javeer Baker Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 2:07

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Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged phd advisor thesis-committee ..

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Checklist for Dissertation Chairs

The dissertation committee chair, working with department administrative staff, helps steer the student through the intellectual stages and institutional requirements of doctoral degree work. Advising practices vary from discipline to discipline. However, the outline that follows provides widely applicable guidelines to a chair’s key responsibilities.

The Student-Advisor Relationship

• Coach the student about your working style and what the student can do to contribute to a good working relationship. (See and refer the student to, How to Get the Mentoring You Want , especially “How to Be a Good Protege,” in Chapter VIII.)
• If you become aware of significant problems or weaknesses (e.g., in the student’s writing, research-related skills, or personal life), refer the student to appropriate resources .
• Be aware of students’ individual situations and working style. Occasionally assess how they are doing (e.g., whether they are working well with you and seeking appropriate mentoring from others). See Part Two of Rackham’s, How to Mentor Graduate Students: A Guide for Faculty in a Diverse University .

The Dissertation

• Help the student to select and refine the dissertation topic, avoiding overly ambitious goals and expectations.
• Help the student formulate a long-term plan for the research and writing of the dissertation, including a timetable and tentative completion date. Ask the student to revise the plan, if needed.
• Reach agreement with the student as to how often they will consult with you and submit work for you to critique.
• Seek a progress report from the student at least once a term.

The Dissertation Committee

• Assist the student with selecting faculty members to serve on the dissertation committee ( membership guidelines ).
• (For Co-Chairs) Consult with each other to divide up your supervisory responsibilities, and then inform the student.
• Make sure everyone on the committee is familiar with the roles of Chair or Co-Chair, cognate, and the other members. How closely and frequently members other than the Chair(s) engage with the student’s work varies, all should be in regular contact.
• Work with the student to schedule and plan for committee meetings, taking into account the norms of the department or program.
• If a member of the committee is not responding to the student’s communication or failing to review the draft sections of the dissertation in a reasonable amount of time, coach the student about how to proceed, or intervene directly if the problem is severe. If all efforts fail, encourage the student to consider finding a replacement.
• Take responsibility for dealing with conflicts among committee members. (e.g., personal conflict and intellectual disputes that create a roadblock for the student).

Supervising Research

• Emphasize data collection and record keeping.
• Go over ethical issues, including human subject and animal care protections.
• Build backup ideas into any research project.
• Follow the student’s development and make adjustments in assignments.
• Be aware of conflicts in a research group, and when they arise, take steps to mediate.

Administrative Matters

• Tell the student to work with the department or program administrative staff to meet Rackham requirements such as filing an up to date Dissertation Committee Form .
• Where feasible, assist the student in securing funds, such as fellowships, GSIs, GSRAs, research and travel funds.
• If the Candidate needs to petition Rackham for an extension to the seven-year time limit, provide the necessary support but require the student to develop a plan for completing the degree.

The Oral Defense

• Tell the student to seek help from the department or program administrative staff about fulfilling Rackham requirements in the final stages of earning the degree.
• Be sure the student and the committee know that Rackham policy requires that the oral defense must be conducted as a public event, (except for the Committee’s private deliberations either before or after the defense), open to all interested persons.
• Before the student schedules the oral defense date, be sure the student knows the date in the term of final registration by which the defense must be held. Also, the student must be able to give the entire dissertation to the committee sufficiently in advance of the meeting. This must be at least two weeks before the defense but can be as much as three or four weeks, depending on the Committee.
• If the student is unable to meet the aforementioned deadline for distributing the dissertation, ask the student to postpone the defense unless you are certain all committee members have critiqued earlier drafts and, therefore, should be able to submit the oral defense evaluation forms on time. It is devastating when a student learns about major concerns shortly before the oral defense because the faculty member hadn’t read the student’s work previously .
• Prepare the student for the oral defense, in accordance with the traditions of the department and/or the wishes of the committee. (Note: The committee will need to decide how long the defense itself will last; there are no prescribed guidelines.)
• If you learn that one or more members of the committee have not submitted the Oral Defense Evaluation Form by the Rackham deadline, contact the committee member(s) immediately.
• If there appear to be serious concerns about the student’s work, advocate for a delay in the oral defense. Dissertations should be approved based on the quality of the work, not because of other pressures (e.g., a job offer contingent upon completion; the expense of registering for a further term, etc.).
• Before the defense begins, the committee must review all the members’ written evaluations and identify the topics they will raise and their sequence. If any of these activities has not been done in advance, excuse the student and others from the room to do so.
• At the defense, make sure it’s clear which committee member(s) will sign off on the required revisions.
• After the defense, submit the completed Oral Defense Examination Form, and, if no revisions or corrections are needed, the Dissertation Completion Form.
• If revisions and/or corrections are required, make sure the Dissertation Completion Form is submitted as soon as possible after the dissertation has been completed and approved.

Launching the Student’s Career

• Ask students to do tasks they will need to do after they get into the field.
• Encourage students to attend professional meetings, and when the two of you attend the same meeting, actively help them to network.
• Speak honestly to students about their strengths and weaknesses (e.g., not everyone can succeed as a faculty member).
• If appropriate to your field, call people to help students seek positions and be deliberate and careful about treating them fairly in this regard.
• Prepare students to consider the full range of career possibilities appropriate to their field.
• If the student’s dissertation is outstanding, consider nominating it for the ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award .

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Dissertation Committee: Roles, Functions, and How to Choose

The path to a dissertation is filled with choices that determine the quality of your experience as a student as well as the future strength of your professional network. 

Choosing your dissertation committee is one of the most important decisions–and one of the most fraught–that you’ll make as a graduate student. With the stakes being so high, many doctoral students worry about making a misstep and getting it wrong. 

Fear not! Putting together your dissertation committee becomes easier once you know the right questions to ask: of potential committee members, of your dissertation chair, and of yourself. While forming your dissertation committee can be challenging, striking the right balance will lead to a richly rewarding academic experience that will pay dividends throughout your career. Do your homework, and you’ll be just fine. 

Dissertation Committee Questions

• What does a dissertation committee do?
• Who serves on your dissertation committee?
• How do you choose dissertation committee members?
• What can you expect from your dissertation committee? 

What Does a Dissertation Committee Do?

The basic function of your dissertation committee, which typically consists of five members, is to guide you through the process of proposing, writing, and revising your dissertation.  

Dissertation committee members serve in a mentoring capacity, offering constructive feedback on your writing and research, as well as guiding your revision efforts. They are also the gatekeepers of the ivory tower, and the ultimate judges of whether or not your dissertation passes muster. 

The dissertation committee is usually formed once your academic coursework is completed. It is not uncommon in the humanities and social sciences for dissertation committee members to also write and evaluate qualifying exams, and of course serve as faculty. By the time you begin working on your dissertation, you may know the faculty members who will serve on your dissertation committee quite well. 

Who Serves on Your Dissertation Committee? 

To a degree, who serves on your dissertation committee is up to you. Dissertation committees usually consist mostly of faculty members from the doctoral student’s home department, though this can vary due to the rise of interdisciplinary programs. 

Some universities also allow an outside expert–a former professor or academic mentor from another university–to serve on your committee. It’s advisable to choose faculty members who know you and who are familiar with your work. 

While it’s a good idea to have a mix of faculty members, it’s also important to be mindful about the roles they can play. For instance, I always advise graduate students working in quantitative fields to have a statistician on their committee. When there’s big data to crunch, it never hurts to have a stats expert in your corner. You’ll also want at least one faculty member–besides your chair–whose research is in the same relative area as yours, or adjacent to it. 

How to Choose Dissertation Committee Members

Think Carefully. It’s tempting to approach a faculty member who is a superstar in their field (if not, necessarily, in yours) to lend a little extra sparkle to your own academic credentials. Or perhaps the kindly professor you can always count on for an easy A. Or even the faculty member you’d like to be friends with after graduate school. Right? 

Not so fast. Here are some things to keep in mind when building your dissertation committee dream team: 

• Avoid Superstars. Though the prospect of having your department’s most eminent name on your committee sounds exciting, their star power comes with a price. Between guest lectures, books, keynotes, and conference travel, their time is not their own, and it won’t be yours, either. Choose dissertation committee members who have time for you. 
• Choose faculty members you know, like, and can learn from. It’s not a bad idea to approach a professor whose coursework challenged you. One of the professors who served on my committee was such an exacting grader that my term papers for her courses were accepted for publication without revision (academia’s most coveted mythical creature). 
• Keep your eyes on the future. Members of your dissertation committee can be your mentors, co-authors, and research collaborators throughout your career. Choose them wisely. 

Forming Your Dissertation Committee

Reaching out to potential dissertation committee members and formally asking them to serve on your dissertation committee can be a surprisingly taxing process. It takes some planning, and you’ll want to put some thought into it before making the big ask. While being asked to serve on a dissertation committee won’t come as a surprise to most faculty–they know the drill–these are some considerations to know going in:

• Talk to your advisor before approaching anyone to be on your committee. Remember, your advisor knows their colleagues in a way that you don’t, and is also aware of departmental politics, potential personality conflicts, and which faculty members are a good fit on a dissertation committee. Trust your advisor’s judgement. 
• Know what you’re asking. Serving on a dissertation committee is a big time commitment for any faculty member. If they say yes to being on your committee, it means they are invested in you and your research, and they want to play a role in your future. It doesn’t hurt to send a thank-you note. 
• Don’t sweat it if they say no. It does not reflect on you as a student or a scholar. A good faculty member is aware of their limitations, and they probably just don’t have the time or bandwidth to take on another big commitment. Thank them and move on. 

Expectations

Once your dissertation committee is formed, it’s time to get down to business. As a faculty member, I love serving on dissertation committees because doing so gives me the chance to work with grad students one on one as they journey into new frontiers and carve a place for themselves in academia. It is a deep, rich learning experience, and it’s thrilling to watch students transform into scholars. 

Even though researching and writing a dissertation is the most challenging work you’ll ever do, recognize this time for the opportunity it truly represents. In your dissertation committee, you have a panel of experts all to yourself, and they’re eager to help you knock your dissertation out of the park. This is the experience of a lifetime; take advantage of your dissertation committee’s time and talent, and channel that energy and goodwill into your development as a scholar. 

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Courtney Watson, Ph.D.

Courtney Watson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English at Radford University Carilion, in Roanoke, Virginia. Her areas of expertise include undergraduate and graduate curriculum development for writing courses in the health sciences and American literature with a focus on literary travel, tourism, and heritage economies. Her writing and academic scholarship has been widely published in places that include  Studies in American Culture ,  Dialogue , and  The Virginia Quarterly Review . Her research on the integration of humanities into STEM education will be published by Routledge in an upcoming collection. Dr. Watson has also been nominated by the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Rising Star Award, and she is a past winner of the National Society of Arts & Letters Regional Short Story Prize, as well as institutional awards for scholarly research and excellence in teaching. Throughout her career in higher education, Dr. Watson has served in faculty governance and administration as a frequent committee chair and program chair. As a higher education consultant, she has served as a subject matter expert, an evaluator, and a contributor to white papers exploring program development, enrollment research, and educational mergers and acquisitions.

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Dissertation advisors and committee.

• Academics & Research
• Rules & Regulations

The Dissertation Committee

Each program should make clear in its handbook how students go about selecting their dissertation advisors and/or committees, and set a timetable for doing so. Programs should be structured so that each student always has an advisor; leaving a gap between advice from the DGS and advice from the preliminary examination committee and/or dissertation advisor tends to prolong time to degree and increase attrition.

Chairs and DGSs need to be aware of the advising and mentoring relationships in their graduate programs. Monitoring the progress of each student is the responsibility of the program and not simply that of the faculty advisor. The dissertation chair and the other faculty members of a dissertation committee should meet with the student on a regular basis, and certainly a minimum of once a semester.

Policy on Advisors who have left Brown

Subject to the approval of the chair of the department, faculty who leave Brown may continue to serve as dissertation or thesis advisors for students whom they were advising at the time of their departure. Under normal circumstances, when a faculty member leaves, his or her advisees will be required to seek a new advisor. The program must be mindful of the need to provide students with some on-campus supervision and contact in the cases where a non-resident advisor continues service.