Important Policies

Each student will be assigned an academic advisor who has a primary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  The academic advisor serves as the primary source of information regarding BME requirements and procedures.  In particular, students work with the academic advisor to plan a program of study (POS) that takes into account departmental and university requirements, as well as the student’s research needs and career goals.  

Each student will also have a research advisor with whom they plan and conduct their research project.  The research advisor is typically responsible for the financial support of Ph.D. students and some M.S. students.  The academic advisor may also serve as the research advisor, or a student may have a research advisor with a primary appointment outside the BME department.  All research advisors must have a Case appointment (regular, secondary, or adjunct).  

The primary day-to-day responsibility for monitoring and guiding each student is held by the academic and research advisors. The academic advisor is the primary contact for issues regarding departmental requirements, while the research advisor takes primary responsibility for the research aspects of the student’s training.  The student’s Guidance Committee provides feedback and advice on research and professional development aspects of the student’s program.  Students are expected to meet with the Guidance Committee each semester.  Overall oversight of student progress is performed by the BME Graduate Education Committee (GEC), which must approve programs of study (both M.S. and Ph.D.) and ensure completion of other degree requirements. Students who are failing to meet timelines or normal milestones will be contacted by the Chair of the BME Graduate Education Committee and required to communicate a plan that describes how and when milestones will get back on track.

Committee Formation and Filing

Each student must have a Ph.D. Guidance Committee. Normally, the Guidance Committee will also serve as the Examination Committee for the Ph.D. research proposal and final dissertation defense.  The Committee should meet formally with the student each semester, beginning in the Fall Semester of the student’s second year.  To fulfil this requirement, a simple majority of the committee members must be present. It is the student’s responsibility to arrange this meeting. The student should also print and bring the Committee Meeting form (see Forms and Resources ) to this meeting; once signed by all the faculty in attendance, the student should upload this form to Canvas to indicate that a committee meeting has taken place (canvas.case.edu). Do not submit original documents to your advisor or to the GEC chair. ALWAYS SAVE ORIGINALS IN YOUR PERSONAL RECORDS. Please check Canvas regularly to ensure that there are no questions or comments on the documentation that has been submitted.

Committee Composition

The Guidance Committee consists of four or more faculty members, all of whom must have Case appointments at a faculty level.  The student’s academic and research advisors are members of the examination committee.  The academic advisor must hold a primary faculty appointment in BME.  The research and academic advisor can be the same person.  

As of October 2015, the role of Thesis Committee Chair has been added. The role of the Chair is to lead the formal committee meetings, and meet with the student "regularly" as their advocate.  The chair can be the Academic advisor if different from the research advisor, but MUST NOT be the Research Advisor. Finally, the Thesis Committee Chair MUST be a primary BME faculty member.  

At least two members of the guidance committee must be BME primary faculty members and at least one member must be from outside the BME department (the external member).  The external member of a student’s Ph.D. Guidance and Examination Committee must not have a primary appointment in BME, must have no involvement or immediate interest in the outcome of the student’s research project, and must not be a collaborator with the student’s research advisor on any project.  For example, faculty members who are (or are likely to be) paper co-authors, who are co-investigators on the same project funding the student’s work, or who have other research collaborations with the student’s research advisor are not acceptable as external committee members.  Faculty members with secondary or adjunct appointments in BME qualify as external members if the above conditions are met.  By signing official academic forms (e.g., POS, research pre-proposal, etc.), the academic advisor, the research advisor, and the external member verify that these conditions are met.  

Faculty with adjunct appointments at Case may serve as voting committee members.  Graduate Studies does permit additional individuals without a Case appointment to serve as Guidance Committee members, but these members cannot vote on the final defense.

Committee Changes

A student's Guidance Committee may be changed if a Committee member can no longer participate or if different faculty expertise is needed.  Any changes in the Guidance Committee should be requested by the student in a memo signed by the Academic Advisor and submitted to the GEC.  The memo should include a list of the current Committee membership, a list of the new Committee membership, and the reasons for the change.  A revised Graduate Committee Form with the signatures of the new guidance committee must be submitted to the GEC.

M.S. and Ph.D. students should be familiar with requirements and guidelines of the university, the School of Graduate Studies, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  Many, but not all, of these requirements are described in this document.  There are several other useful documents and websites that describe the opportunities and requirements associated with graduate study at Case:

• The “General Bulletin” of the university provides a comprehensive description of university and Case School of Engineering requirements, currently found at http://bulletin.case.edu/schoolofengineering/.  

• Policies of the School of Graduate studies, along with links to other relevant sites can be found at http://bulletin.case.edu/schoolofgraduatestudies/.

• Links to a number of important forms can be found at https://case.edu/gradstudies/current-students/forms/. 

As noted above, students will be allowed to attempt each of the three parts of the Ph.D. qualification process twice.  Students who fail any section of the Ph.D. qualification requirements after both of these tries will not be allowed to continue in the Ph.D. portion of the BME graduate program.  With this consequence in mind, students and their faculty advisors should design and implement appropriate remediation plans so that the student is confident of their ability to pass the failed section at the second attempt.  Remediation is automatic in the “Core competency” component – the student retakes the course(s) for which a grade of B or higher was not achieved. Remediation for the “Research competency” component is also clear – the student will be provided with a critique of their proposal and their oral defense of that proposal and given 4 months to revise and improve the proposal and their ability to defend it. Remediation for the “Knowledge integration and problem solving” component is at the discretion of the student and their academic and research advisors, but students are required to submit a formal remediation plan for review and approval by the GEC that acknowledges that the student has only one more opportunity to pass the oral exam. 

In very rare special circumstances, an appeal for a 3rd attempt will be allowed.  The facts of the student’s case will be presented to the entire BME primary faculty by a representative of the GEC.  The student’s academic advisor will be given a chance to justify the basis for the appeal.  The appeal will only be granted if a 3/4 majority of the entire BME Primary Faculty vote in favor of the appeal.   Note that any appeal must be made within 3 months of the notification of failure to the individual requirement.

Students admitted to the BME graduate program will be obligated to fulfill the requirements described in the handbook dated at their matriculation into the program. Students in the BME graduate program when new rules are implemented will be given the option of continuing with the old requirements or adopting the new requirements, but they must adopt one of the two sets of rules in their entirety.

There are mandatory timelines to meet major departmental requirements. The policy pertains to completion of the completion of the oral qualifying exam, completion of the R21 proposal defense, and completion of at least one committee meeting per semester.  Each requirement should be completed by the below defined timeline.  Failure to complete the requirement by the pre-defined deadline results in an automatic “strikes” towards expulsion from the program. After three strikes in any one requirement area, the student will be removed from the Ph.D. program. 

Oral Qualifier Exam (Due Summer of 1st Year)

• Students are expected to take the Oral Qualifying Exam in the first scheduled testing session after passing all EBME core courses with a grade of B of better. 

• Failure to do so will result in a grade of “Fail” for this examination

• Students will only have one additional opportunity to pass this examination. 

R21 Written Exam (Due 1 year after completion of the Oral Qualifier Exam)

• Failure to complete the R21 Proposal exam by the end of the subsequent Summer term (before the first day of classes of the Fall term) after passing the oral qualifier exam will result in a first strike.

• After each strike, a three-month extension will be provided before receiving a second strike. 

Committee Meetings (Due Starting Fall Semester, 2nd Year)

• Student must have at least one meeting each Fall or Spring semester.

• Meetings are not expected to longer than 1 hour.

• Committee meetings taking place over the summer will count toward a Fall semester meeting.

• Failure to complete a thesis committee meeting by the last day of classes of the second Fall term will result in a three-month extension before a second strike is issued. 

• Beyond the first required meeting, failure to meet during a semester will result in a strike and in a three month extension prior to receiving a second strike.  

• Note:  each time a committee meeting is held, the number of “strikes” for this requirement is reset to zero. 

• The committee meeting requirement is checked at the end of each semester, and strikes for this requirement as issued at this time. 

First Strike

The first “strikes” results in the student receiving official notice from the GEC of the “strikes.” At that time, the student will receive a new deadline (defined below per each requirement) describing when the second strike will be issued if that requirement is not completed. 

Second Strike

After the second strike is issued, the student is required to discuss in person with the GEC why the requirements have not been met on time.  At this meeting, if justified, the GEC may give an extension to complete the task before the third and final strike is issued. In addition, upon receiving the 2nd strike any student over stipend Tier 1 will be lowered back to stipend Tier 1 until the next semester that the student is back in full compliance with all department requirements.

Third Strike

If over the course of a Ph.D., a student receives three “strikes” for failure to meet the initial and/or GEC extended milestone for a given requirement, the student will be removed from the Ph.D. program. The student AND academic advisor can petition to the BME Department Chair to be re-admitted to the Ph.D. program.

Counting of “strikes” is done per requirement and not cumulative across all department requirements; once in good standing for a specific requirement (i.e. committee meetings), the strike count is reset.