The IDP policy changes listed below have been approved by the IDP Advisory Board and/or Graduate Education Advisory Council.  Appropriate revisions will appear in the next edition of the IDP Student Handbook.  Questions or comments may be directed to Dr. McCormack.

Supervisory Committee Membership, June 2002
      The supervisory committee shall consist of no fewer than four members selected from the Graduate Faculty. Composition of the Supervisory Committee is as follows: the mentor will be the committee chair, at least one additional member from the same advanced concentration will constitute the internal membership; additionally there will be at least one external member from the UF Graduate Faculty outside the student’s chosen concentration. External membership cannot include any faculty member who is a member of the student’s chosen advanced concentration at the time of committee appointment.

Qualifying Examinations (Ph.D.), July 2002
      The successful completion of the first year course work qualifies the student to be forwarded to the second year of study. It is the responsibility of the Graduate Studies Committee to review each student’s record following the first semester and completion of the first year, and make a formal decision regarding passage of the student into the second year of study. Administration of the qualifying examination is the responsibility of the Advanced Concentration with which the student is affiliated and the student’s Supervisory Committee. Qualifying examinations must be completed by November 1 of the third year of graduate studies. Students will not be allowed to register for the Spring semester of the third year without having taken the qualifying examination.
      The examining committee will consist of the student's Supervisory Committee who MUST ALL BE PRESENT at the exam. The chair of the Supervisory Committee (the mentor) will be present during the oral defense, but will be asked not to intervene on the student’s behalf. The Supervisory Committee will elect or appoint from its ranks an examination chairperson other than the student’s mentor to moderate the examination (see "Appointment of Supervisory Committee", section V, item D, above).
      The qualifying examination consists of a written part and an oral part. The written part is an NIH-type (Appendix J) predoctoral grant proposal about the student’s proposed dissertation research project. The oral part consists of a defense of the proposal in front of the Supervisory Committee. Copies of this proposal will be distributed to members of the student’s Supervisory Committee and the Advanced Concentration Director at least ten working days before the scheduled examination. Students are responsible for scheduling a time and location of their exam that is suitable to their Supervisory Committee. The advanced concentration secretary should be notified of the oral exam at least ten days prior to the exam and given a copy of the proposal for the student’s file.
      The student should schedule at least two hours for the qualifying examination. The actual examination will begin with a short (15-30 minutes) formal presentation by the student summarizing his or her proposed research and experimental approach. This presentation may be public or private with the Supervisory Committee only, as determined by the Advanced Concentration. Questions from the examining committee will follow (in closed session). The student will be examined both on the importance and feasibility of the proposed research, on the suitability of the proposed experiments to answer the questions posed, and on his or her general knowledge of biomedical science. The student can expect extensive excursions into topics from proposed experiments. For example, the use of hybridoma technology in an experiment would certainly invite questions concerning immunoglobulin gene structure, HAT-media selection, and purine metabolism. Refer to Appendix K for additional instructions for the oral examination. At the end of the examination, the examination chairperson asks for comments from all present regarding the student's presentation, his or her knowledge of principles, and the suitability and scope of the research proposal. Substantial agreement among the examining committee will determine whether the student has passed the oral examination.A student who fails the examination may petition the Advanced Concentration Director or the Associate Dean for Graduate Education to have a second examination according to UF policy.

Dissertation Defense and Final Examination, July 2002
      Final dissertations must be submitted electronically according to UF Graduate School guidelines for electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) in the Graduate Catalog. More information is also available on the web at http://gradschool.rgp.ufl.edu/etd, and from the Graduate School Editorial Office.
      After first written submission of the dissertation draft to the Graduate School and completion of all other prescribed work for the Ph.D. degree, but not earlier than the term preceding the semester in which the degree is to be conferred, the candidate will be given a final examination, consisting of completion of a written dissertation (according the UF guidelines for ETD), a public dissertation defense seminar, and a closed oral exam by the Supervisory Committee. The time and location of the defense should be scheduled by the student, in agreement with the attending supervisory committee members. At least two hours should be scheduled for the defense and committee meeting that follows the defense. The defense will take the form of a formal, public one hour presentation of the work to the full faculty and students. Proper announcement of the defense should be made on the Announcement of Examination form (see Appendix N), which is processed by the Graduate Secretary assigned to the advanced concentration. Copies of which are distributed to Supervisory Committee members and Associate Dean for Graduate Education. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that this announcement precedes the actual defense by at least ten business days and that committee members receive copies of the dissertation at least ten business days in advance of the defense. Following the formal presentation, the student will meet privately with his or her Supervisory Committee members for a final oral examination on the dissertation. At the time of the final examination, all members of the Supervisory Committee MUST BE PRESENT and must sign the ETD Submission Approval form and Final Examination Report (Report on Thesis or Dissertation form) (see Appendix O). The Graduate Secretary assigned to the advanced concentration prepares these forms, which may be retained by the Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee pending acceptable revision of the dissertation. Also, committee members may withhold signature of the dissertation pending acceptable revision.All work for the doctorate, including the final examination, must be completed within five calendar years after the qualifying exams.

last revised 7/30/02
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