Students are expected to complete and defend their thesis research by the end of their 5th year of graduate school. If the student requires additional time to complete their studies this should be discussed with their thesis advisor. Funding past the 5th year is determined by the thesis advisor and should be obtained in writing by the student if it will be needed. The expectation is that most MGM students will graduate in 5 years. The Graduate School rule is that the thesis defense occurs 2-4 years after the preliminary exam. Graduate credits have a time limit; those students still in the program 6 years past the date of the prelim are required to re-enroll in classes. This is a Graduate School requirement to which all training programs must adhere. The effective completion of one's PhD thesis studies is the oral defense and submission of final dissertation. There are several rules that must be followed well in advance of the defense date, as outlined below:
Requirements to Graduate with a PhD
Credits
Completion of a minimum of 30 credits, with at least 24 graded credits
Final committee meeting
By the start of the 5th year, students should have had a final committee meeting in which the committee has evaluated the student’s progress and given approval for the student to defend their thesis.
Publications
In order to graduate students must have a minimum of one 1st author manuscript of original and scholarly work published (or in press) in a peer-reviewed journal. Reviewed articles (even if peer-reviewed) and preprints do not count towards this requirement. The manuscript must be officially accepted and/or in press before the committee can give a student permission to schedule the student thesis defense. Knowing this requirement, students should aspire to submit their manuscript no later than the beginning of their 5th year to ensure ample time for revisions and preparation of their thesis. Publications reflect your productivity and make you a strong candidate for the next step in your career.
In rare or extenuating circumstances may inhibit the progress of the student towards their degree. In such extraordinary circumstances, students can apply for an exemption to the publication requirement. The student should submit a publication waiver application to the DGS one month prior to their committee meeting. An ad hoc panel of MGM faculty will then review the application to see if it merits a publication waiver. If the DGS approves the application waiver the DGS will send the signed form to the student and their committee for final committee approval. Importantly, approval by the DGS does not guarantee committee approval and the committee can reject the publication waiver in which case the student will need to meet the publication requirement to graduate.
Committee Chair
The chair of the final examination committee must be a MGM primary faculty member. If your thesis advisor is a primary MGM faculty member they should serve as your chair. If your thesis advisor is not a primary MGM faculty member, they should co-chair your final examination committee along with an MGM primary faculty member. At least two months before your final exam, your final exam committee must be approved by the Graduate School, even if it is the same committee you had for your prelim. This form (located on the MGM website under “Forms and Resource Links”) is submitted by the program coordinator and DGS and approved by the Associate Dean of the Graduate School. As with the preliminary exam, please remember this is not an instantaneous process, so please submit this paperwork an additional month ahead of time (a total of two months prior to your milestone event).
Required Forms
MGM requires all students to complete the pre-defense checklist (located on the MGM website under “Forms and Resource Links”). The form must be signed by the committee chair and the student’s advisor,
then submitted to the program coordinator the semester prior to the defense. The Intention to Receive Degree form must be submitted to the Graduate School in January, for the May commencement, in July for September commencement, and in November for December commencement. However, these deadlines can change without warning, so please consult the Graduate School Bulletin. If you do not graduate at the anticipated time, there is no penalty. However, you must submit a new form for the next commencement date. This form is submitted via the web.
** Please, SEND A NOTE OR EMAIL to the MGM program coordinator indicating that you have submitted your commencement form. **
Scheduling the Defense
If your faculty is affiliated with a different department, please contact the program coordinator two months prior to your dissertation so that we may arrange a time and location for you. The MGM admin will help with the scheduling your defense and with distributing information about it to MGM students and faculty. Otherwise, please notify the MGM program office at least one month prior to your seminar so that we may confirm that all requirements have been met. At least two weeks before your defense, you must 1) have your advisor initiate the milestone in T3, 2) confirm your title with the program coordinator, and 3) upload the electronic copy of your dissertation into T3 and ProQuest.
Written Document/Thesis
Students are required to give committee members a complete draft of the dissertation three weeks ahead of the defense date via uploading the document to T3. This allows the committee members enough time to read the entire dissertation and to contact you with major changes to the document that can be addressed in a revised document before the defense. Ensure that the dissertation is submitted to the advisor and committee for comments via T3, and then to Pro Quest electronically before the defense. Some revisions may occur afterwards, but it will save you time if you have some of these changes in hand before the defense so that revisions can be easily attended to in the week between the defense and re-submission of the revised document. Bear in mind that proper planning can alleviate much of the stress that inevitably leads up to the thesis defense. Format of document: The Graduate School has a booklet called “Guide for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations” which sets forth requirements concerning the dissertation format (page layout, type style, footnotes, etc.), submitting the dissertation for preliminary approval, binding, copyright procedures, etc. **In addition, MGM leadership has requirements and expectations for the content of the written thesis document. The general outline is as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This should include background information that is relevant to the subsequent data chapters. In general, it should define the research area, the research problem, the gap in knowledge, and summarize the main points of the thesis.
Chapters 2+: Data
These chapters should describe the distinct studies that make up the body of thesis research. These chapters are often from published papers. While the published document can provide a framework for the chapter, the student should ensure that figures follow the formatting and numbering of the thesis. In addition, sufficient background, justification, and experimental detail that might not be included in a published paper should be included in the thesis chapter(s) so that committee members can thoroughly evaluate the work.
The title pages of the chapters that are linked to published papers should indicate the publication somewhere on the page. Doing so highlights that the scholarly work was reviewed and deemed acceptable by the scientific community and also highlights other co- workers who might have contributed to the study. Since the thesis is an evaluation of a student’s body of research, it is important for a student to emphasize in the thesis chapters the studies performed by the student versus that done by collaborators.
An example of a chapter title page that includes published data is provided below:
Chapter 2: Analysis of Centromeric Activity in Robertsonian Translocations: Implications for a Functional Acrocentric Hierarchy
Chapter 2 was modified from a manuscript (of the same title) published in Chromosoma 103: 459-467 (1994). The authors were Beth A Sullivan, Daynna J Wolff, and Stuart Schwartz.
Last Chapter
Discussion and Future Directions. The last chapter of the thesis document is not to be an afterthought, and in fact, is one of the most important chapters of the entire thesis. The Discussion/Future Directions chapter is the place in which the student puts their thesis studies in a broader biological/medical/translational context and expands on the future possibilities for the studies. This chapter should easily be more than 10 pages (double-spaced) and should reflect the imprint of the student’s own thoughts. What are the implications of your studies to your specific field and more importantly, to biology in general? How have you contributed a vertical step in knowledge to the field? If you could stay in the lab for 5 more years, describe the next experiments you would do. What would be the predicted results of those experiments, what would they mean, and in which direction could that then lead the project?
Oral Presentation/Defense
All MGM students are required to give a dissertation seminar. This seminar is open to the public. A "closed session" with the committee begins after the seminar.
Format of the Dissertation Seminar
The dissertation presentation should be conducted as a professional seminar around 40-50 minutes in length in which the student presents their thesis research, including background, gap in knowledge, goals of the thesis, experimental approaches, and resulting data. Importantly, rather than presenting the data as a laundry list of experiments, the student should strive to tell a scientific story. What was the research question, how did you test the question (or existing paradigms), interpret the results, and how does your data fit into existing or new models? Students should view the dissertation seminar as a way to showcase their growth into a more mature scientist, public speaker, and scientific communicator.
* Students should keep in mind that the public thesis defense is a seminar presentation to be conducted in a professional manner, similar to a postdoctoral job talk. However, the program recognizes that the acknowledgment section for this presentation may be expanded to also include friends and family. As a guideline to maintain an overall sense of professionalism, the thesis acknowledgments made during the public defense should not exceed 3-5 minutes. Please note that additional acknowledgments can also be made at celebrations occurring after the seminar and defense.
Oral (Private) Defense:
Questions asked on the final examination should concern the candidate's dissertation and related matters. The examination is oral and normally extends for two hours, but not more than three. After the examination, the candidate will be excused from the room, and the committee will discuss the dissertation, oral presentation, and answers to questions both in the public and private defense.
Successful completion of the final examination requires at least three affirmative votes (including that of the dissertation supervisor) and not more than one dissenting vote. Assuming all members vote affirmatively, each signs their name via T3 to the first copy of the abstract title page, and on the certificate of examination to the Dean (doctoral exam card). These signatures signify that the abstract of the dissertation is suitable for publication in Dissertation Abstracts.
After the Defense
Forms
The signed final examination certificate and one copy of the signed dissertation pages must be submitted to the Graduate School. The originals of these forms are kept in the Graduate School office as your official record.
Revisions to the document
The student then has the lesser of 30 days or until the semester deadline to complete all corrections for the dissertation. If the committee requests additions or changes to the document, revision deadlines should not be used as an excuse to submit an incomplete or unsatisfactory document. Remember, giving the document to the committee 3 weeks before the defense date will provide ample time to receive and make major changes to the written document.
Terminal Master's Degree
In the event that a student leaves Duke or MGM before completing the Ph.D., a Terminal Master’s Degree may be an option.
- The regulations in the Graduate School Bulletin on “Degree Regulations--The Master’s Degree,” and
“Additional Master’s Regulations” will apply. Note, although there is no specified number of course
units required for the Ph.D., the M.A. and M.S. program requires a minimum of 30 units of degree credit,
at least 24 of which must be graded coursework, and the preliminary examination or a final examination
administered by the student’s M.A. or M.S. committee. - Forms
- Committee approval form
- Intention to receive degree form. This form is online through the Graduate School.
- Thesis format--see the requirements in the booklet “Guide for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations.”
- Final examination certificate--signed by your committee members and returned to the graduate school after the exam.