The Dissertation Defense. When the candidate's dissertation committee judges that the dissertation is complete, the student must defend it orally in a final dissertation defense, subject to rules governing Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University graduate study. At least two weeks before the final dissertation defense, the student must submit an abstract of the dissertation to the program director, who will issue an announcement of the scheduling of the candidate's dissertation defense. Any interested faculty member or graduate student may attend the examination and participate in the discussion. At the completion of the oral defense, members of the dissertation committee will vote on the dissertation's approval or disapproval.
Unanimous approval is required.
Regulations for the Degree Joint Oversight. Scholastic Warning and Termination. Standards of Performance. To continue in the program, a student must make reasonable and timely progress toward the degree in terms of coursework completed and examinations. A determination that a student is not making satisfactory progress and should be terminated from the program may be made at several points in his or her program, including failure to achieve and maintain a doctoral GPA of at least 3.00, failure to pass 12 credit hours within a twelve-month period, failure of the comprehensive qualifying examination, or failure to successfully defend a dissertation proposal or dissertation.