Defense Paperwork
Steps to Approving the Defense
DEFENSE COMMITTEE CHAIR AND STUDENT:
Request Defense Paperwork from the Graduate College
Thirty days prior to the thesis defense, the student’s advisor recommends a thesis committee in consultation with the student. This is done by completing the Committee Recommendation Form and returning the advisor-signed copy to dgs-mscs@uic.edu with the outside committee member's CV attached (if not a faculty member at UIC). The thesis committee is approved by the Dean of the Graduate College upon the recommendation of the Department.
Defense Committee Composition
The thesis advisor serves as Chair of the committee and must be a member of the MSCS graduate faculty and the committee must consist of at least five members:
- The Committee Chair must must be a full member of the UIC Graduate College Faculty
- At least three members must be from the Department
- At least two members must be tenured graduate faculty at UIC.
- One member must be from outside the university or from another UIC department.
- The outside committee member must have a PhD, but does not have to be on a tenure track.
DEFENSE COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Reporting the Examination Result to the Graduate College
The committee vote is “pass” or “fail”. A candidate cannot be passed if more than one vote of “fail” is reported. After the candidate’s defense, the Examination Report form signed by all members of the committee must be submitted to the Graduate College immediately.
The committee Chair will receive the defense paperwork electronically from the Graduate College. Using one of the two options below, the Chair should will return the completed Examination Report to Jim Kollenbroich in the Graduate College at jkolle1@uic.edu, CC the DGS Office at dgs-mscs@uic.edu. Whether you receive the paperwork before or after the defense, please return the signed report within 48 hours of receiving it.
Option 1: The committee chair can sign the Committee Recommendation Form and pass it around to the committee members who in turn can sign and pass on the next person. Once the form is completely signed, the committee chair can send it back to Jim Kollenbroich at jkolle1@uic.edu and CCs the DGS Office at dgs-mscs@uic.edu.
Option 2: In the event a committee member is unable to sign the Examination Report, they can request that the committee chair sign for them with an email verification of their vote which must accompany the signed Examination Report. This email should include
Date:
Student name:
Committee member name:
Vote: (Pelim Exam) or (Pass, Conditional Pass, Fail for Masters or PhD defense
Email signature plus or minus electronic signature. For example:
Joan Smith, PhD
Professor of Mathematics
University of Illinois at Chicago
Email: joansmith@uic.edu
The committee chair can sign for all committee members (sign committee member name).
The committee chair compiles these emails into one document and adds the signed Examination Report as a cover page.
The committee chair emails the document back to Jim Kollenbroich at jkolle1@uic.edu and CCs the DGS Office at dgs-mscs@uic.edu.