Full membership on the graduate faculty is a prerequisite to chairing a doctoral dissertation committee. A doctoral dissertation committee must consist of a minimum of four members. One of the four members must be an external committee member whose primary appointment is outside the candidate’s program or department, or may be outside the University. The external member must be familiar with the standards of doctoral research in the field of the dissertation and should be in a field related to the student’s dissertation topic. Those committee members who are tenured or tenure-track UToledo faculty must be members of UToledo’s graduate faculty. An expert from outside the University may serve on the doctoral dissertation committee upon the recommendation of the committee chair, and approval by the department chair and the graduate dean. The request, along with the Graduate Faculty Membership Application and reader’s curriculum vita, must be submitted to the College of Graduate Studies for approval prior to committee appointment.

The composition of the doctoral dissertation committee is recommended by the chair of the committee in consultation with the student; it requires concurrence by the relevant department/program director, the dean (or designate) of the academic division, and approval by the dean of the College of Graduate Studies.