School of Public Policy, Contributing to a Livable World

















Academic Services and Advising

Ph.D. Milestones Guide

I've passed the Comprehensive Qualifying Exam. What's next?
Assemble a Field Research Committee, submit the necessary form,  prepare your statement and take the Field Exam.  Click here for a list of eligible faculty for committees.


I've passed my Field Exam. What's next?
Assemble a Dissertation Committee and submit the necessary form. Click here for a list of eligible faculty for committees.


I'm ready to defend my dissertation proposal. What do I need to do?
To schedule a defense, students should contact Susan McClure to reserve the Finley Large Conference Room and reserve any AV equipment needed for the presentation. Students must submit to the Director of Ph.D. Student Services at least 15 days before the scheduled date of defense:
  • a signed Statement of Readiness for Proposal Defense Form
  • an e-mail listing dissertation proposal title, date and time of defense, all committee members and abstract of no more than 100 words.
  • a copy of the final draft of dissertation proposal


I've defended my proposal. What's next?
Work with your chair to find an appropriate external reader. Once provisionally approved, submit the necessary form signed by your chair and the reader.


I'm ready to defend my dissertation. What do I need to do?
As with the dissertation proposal defense, students should contact Susan McClure to reserve the Finley Large Conference Room and reserve any AV equipment needed for the presentation. Students must submit to the Director of Ph.D. Student Services at least 15 days before the scheduled date of defense:

  • a signed Oral Dissertation Defense Readiness Form
  • an email listing the dissertation title, date and time of defense, all committee members (including external reader) and abstract of no more than 100 words.
  • a copy of the final draft of dissertation

You must also submit a copy of your final draft of your dissertations to the Reserve Desk of the Johnson Center library.  Please see the Fenwick Library website for more details.

NOTE for the day of defense: A "copy" of your dissertation includes a signature sheet, signed by all members of your dissertation committee. Both the library and SPP require their copies to have ORIGINAL copies of the signature sheet (although the copies for your committee members may be photocopies).

  • Bring to your defense enough copies of the signature sheet for your committee to sign (2 on cotton bond, and at least 3 copies on regular paper).
  • Bring a BLACK PEN to your defense and have all committee members sign it. After collecting the signatures, give the form to the Director of PhD Student Services for the program director and dean signatures.
  • If the external reader does not attend the defense and cannot easily sign the signature sheet, you must delete this signature line from the sheet.
  • Append a one page curriculum vitae of the external reader to the end of the dissertation. Should the reader choose to not attend the defense, s/he must submit a written report/critique of the dissertation to your chair.

Once you have defended and made the required revisions to your dissertation, many copies of your dissertation are required in order to safely pass all administrative hurdles and graduate on time. The copies required are:

  • 2 copies on 100% cotton bond paper for the library
  • 1 copy on regular paper for UMI (submitted to the library)
  • 2 copies on regular paper to SPP. These copies should be unbound, but gathered in such a way that they stay together (box, folder)
  • a bound copy for EVERY member of your committee.

 

Field Research Committee
Usually, the chair of the field research committee is the SPP core faculty member who becomes the chair of the dissertation committee. The chair, with advisory input from the student, selects at least two additional committee members, one of whom must be SPP core faculty. The committee should reflect a broad representation of the areas to be covered by the examination. The Field Research Committee Form must be submitted to the Doctoral Program Director for approval. It is the student's responsibility to have the committee sign this form and submit it to the Director of Ph.D. Student Services prior to completing the Field Statement.

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Field Statement
The field statement should describe the general boundaries of the student's area of desired research and teaching expertise; include a narrative description of the range of knowledge needed to be expert in that field; and indicate the central literature from the relevant disciplines. In most cases, the field statement will encompass topics from more than one subject area; for example, organizational theory, government regulatory mechanisms, social welfare policy, economic theory of the firm, international trade, criminal justice systems, survey methodology, etc. In addition to reviewing the literature, the narrative should represent an integration of the diverse literature that makes up the student's field and outline the appropriate advanced methodologies used in this policy area. The goal is to assess and integrate the literature to make the field an organic whole. For example, a student whose dissertation involves the regulation of genetic research might define the field as comprising the topics of health policy, government regulation and experimental research design/methodologies.

The field statement must include a bibliography of the literature central to an understanding of the field. When the student has completed the field statement, s/he should be sufficiently conversant with the literature and methodologies to utilize these resources when writing the dissertation proposal. Students are not expected to be experts in each area, but rather to know the central ideas, information sources and methodologies in that field. The field statement is used by the members of the student's field committee as the basis for preparing the field exam. It is important to emphasize that the field statement has a much broader focus than the dissertation proposal.

Each student develops both a general reading list relevant to his or her field and a specialized reading list focused on the topic of dissertation research. A brief analytical narrative indicating the relevance of the selected materials to the particular field of study must accompany the bibliography. The student should submit a draft of the reading lists and narrative to the field research committee chair. The chair and committee are free to revise this list. The field research committee must approve the reading list before the date of examination.

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Dissertation Committee
In most cases, the members of the dissertation committee will have been on the student's field research committee. The chair, in consultation with the student, selects the other members from among GMU faculty. At least two members of the committee, including the chair, must be from the SPP core faculty; the third member is selected from outside the SPP faculty and must be a tenured or tenure track member of the Graduate Faculty at George Mason University. The chair and those who have agreed to serve must sign the Dissertation Committee Form.

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External Reader Guide
After proposal defense, in addition to the three dissertation committee members, the student and chair must identify an external reader who is selected from outside GMU.

1. Nominees for an external reader may be suggested by the chair, committee members or the Ph.D. Program Director.
2. After the chair and the candidate agree on an appropriate reader, the chair will forward the recommendation, along with the reader's current CV, to the Director of Ph.D. Student Services.
3. The recommendation will consist of a brief written statement (letter, memo, email) to the Ph.D. Program Director verifying that the reader meets the following criteria:
a. The reader has a strong academic and research background (including scholarly publications) in a field relevant to the dissertation;
b. The reader is currently active in the field and is working in an academic or research setting;
c. The reader has no present or past relationship with the candidate that might hamper objectivity (e.g., formal supervisory or employer role); the relationship should be "arms length."
4. If one or more of these criteria are not met, the chair should offer a rationale for why this reader should be approved.
5. After approval by the PhD Program Director, the recommendation will be reviewed and approved by the Dean.

The external reader is invited to the dissertation defense, but is not required to attend. If the external reader cannot attend the defense, s/he is asked to write a short report and recommendation that comments on the quality and appropriateness of the candidate's dissertation and research. This report and recommendation is submitted to the student's chair and Doctoral Program Director.

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