Stage III

You've almost made it!  You have entered the final stage and the final examination and thesis deposit are very much an integrated process. When you schedule your final exam, this puts into motion both the final exam approvals and the thesis/dissertation approvals. 

Final Examination

The Final Examination may be taken no earlier than six months after successful passing of the preliminary examination and consists of an oral defense of the dissertation and is administered by the doctoral committee. This examination is open to the public. The Graduate College does require that all doctoral candidates be registered for the entire academic term during which they take the final examination, regardless of when the thesis will be deposited or when the degree will be conferred. For this purpose only, "academic term" is defined as extending to and including the day before the first day of the following academic term. If enough thesis credits have been accumulated, registration for zero hours is acceptable. 

The Examination Committee

This committee shall have a minimum of four faculty members from the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign with at least one member not from the home department of the candidate. Committee members from outside the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign are welcome, but would serve in addition to the four University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign committee members.

Three of the committee members must be listed as Graduate Faculty members and two must be tenured. The committee should include faculty members from more than one area of specialization and at least two from the ISE Department. The Chair must be a member of the Graduate Faculty and may also be the Director of Dissertation Research. The Chair is responsible for convening the committee, conducting the examination, and submitting the Preliminary/Final Exam Result form to the department in which the student is enrolled.

A Contingent Chair, if designated, must be a member of the Graduate Faculty. The Contingent Chair serves if the original chair is unable to serve for any reason. The Committee Chair, defending student, and at least one additional voting member of the committee must be physically present for the entire duration of the examination. If the committee has more than one chair, all chairs must be physically present; in these cases, no additional voting member is required to be physically present.

A Departmental Affiliate cannot serve as a chair or a contingent chair of a preliminary or final examination. Only faculty members of the Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering Department may serve in that capacity.

The Director of Dissertation Research is responsible for guiding/advising the student in their thesis research as part of an ongoing research project. He/she may also discuss a tentative course of study or recommend a sequence of courses the student can take reflecting the interest of the student.

If a proposed voting member is not on the Graduate Faculty, a letter of justification from the Committee Chair and a CV from the proposed member must accompany the Request for Appointment of Doctoral Examination Committee. This justification letter should include information about the proposed member's expertise in the area of research and association to the candidate. Non‐voting members, such as an external reader, a member of the faculty who is off campus, or others who can make a significant contribution to the research, may be appointed. A letter of justification is not needed for a non‐voting member. The Doctoral Exam Committee request cannot be forwarded to the Graduate College without justification and a CV.

Both voting and non‐voting committee members may sign the Thesis/Dissertation Approval form that becomes a part of the dissertation document. Only the voting members of the dissertation committee sign the Preliminary/Final Exam Result Form.

If, for some reason, your examination committee has to be changed (committee member dropped or added, etc.), please inform the Graduate Programs Office immediately. A new Examination Committee form must be submitted to the Graduate College before the exam takes place.

You can find additional information on the Graduate College Prelim & Final Exam Committee Request website.

Scheduling your Final Exam

1. at least 6 weeks prior – decide on a date/time in consultation with your advisor and reserve the room for your exam with the staff in 117 Transportation Building. Your room should hold at least 30 people and should be reserved 2 hours and 15 minutes – 15 minutes prior to your exam time to allow for setup and 2 hours for the exam portion. It is best to avoid the hours of 10 am - 2 pm, as the Transportation Building is busiest during these times. Please note – final exams can be conducted in-person or via Zoom.  
2. at least 3 weeks prior –  select a Doctoral Examination Committee in consultation with your advisor and submit a Request for Appointment of Doctoral Examination Committee AND a Graduate College Final Exam Request (FER) through the Graduate College Student Portal. Both of these forms must be submitted. One is routed through ISE and the other is routed through the Graduate College.
3. at least 2 weeks prior – submit your dissertation to your committee. Passage of the Final Examination will be determined based upon the vote of the Doctoral Examination Committee.

Please keep in mind that you must be registered for at least 1 course during your final exam semester. 

Thesis Deposit 

The Graduate College has an extensive deposit checklist that you should follow. Here are a few notes in relation to that checklist:

• You should view the Graduate College Thesis Requirements for templates and sample pages to make sure your thesis is following the correct formatting.  
• When it is time for the format review with your department, send a PDF version of your thesis via email to ise-grad@illinois.edu via attachment or Box link. This should be sent for review at least two weeks prior to the posted thesis deadline. Once your thesis is format reviewed, you will receive suggestions/approval via email. The ISE Grad Programs Office will submit the Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form to the Graduate College after your thesis review is complete, on your behalf. 
• Please make sure you list RS Sreenivas, rsree@illinois.edu, as the thesis format reviewer when submitting your thesis.
• It is not uncommon for the Graduate College to require some corrective revisions/editing. Make sure you complete these right away! 
• All of your 599/thesis grades will be updated from "DFR" once your thesis has been approved/accepted by the Graduate College. 

The Graduate College also requires several workshops that may be helpful leading up to your thesis deposit.