Doctoral Dissertation
All departments require a dissertation in partial fulfillment of the PhD. The dissertation should constitute an original work of a scholarly nature. The student must meet with the advisor to determine the appropriate paperwork and establish a timeline to meet all requirements of the academic department, academic college, and College of Graduate Studies. Students are required to submit their dissertation electronically by uploading to the OhioLINK ETD Center and to publish their document with ProQuest by selecting the transfer paper option in the OhioLINK ETD Center submission process. The deadline for depositing the dissertation with the OhioLINK ETD Center is by 11:59 pm on the last Friday of each term (Fall, Spring, Summer). No extensions are given. If a student fails to meet the submission deadline, they will need to register for the following term and reapply for graduation. The dissertation must be successfully defended and approved prior to submission. The defense process is directed by the student's committee and department. Procedures for proper submission of a dissertation, including The Manual for the Formatting of Graduate Dissertations and Theses, templates, and other resources are all available on the College of Graduate Studies website and the Graduate tab of the myUT portal.
Dissertation Committee
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 Vice Provost of Graduate Affairs/Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.