Area-specific Qualifying Exam: Committee Creation NACS PHD

The Qualifying Examination Committee cannot be established until the PhD Advisory Committee is in place and on record with the Graduate Program Assistant. The Qualifying Exam Committee consists of five members:

- The committee chair, who is responsible for scheduling all exam related meetings, and facilitating each meeting. For NACS qualifying exams, the chair is typically the faculty member serving as the NACS Area Graduate Representative.

- At most two members of the PhD Advisory Committee

- Additional members from the regular graduate faculty on campus, so that the total number of committee member including the chair is five.

- Normally, at least one of the qualifying examination committee members must be from outside the department in which the student is registered. That person may be a member of the advisory committee.

To form the committee, the student’s advisor will email the proposed committee members to the Graduate Program Assistant and then, if there are no problems, to the Department Chair for final approval. Once approved, the advisor will acquire a Qualifying Examination Committee Appointment Form from the Graduate Program Assistant, complete the form, and resubmit to the Graduate Program Assistant. At this point, and not before, the Qualifying Examination process can start. The Graduate Program Assistant will pass instructions to the Chair of the Qualifying Examination on how to proceed.