Final Exam Form

The Final Exam form is for doctoral students seeking votes from their examination committee at their final defense. 

Students must schedule their final oral exam (final defense) as soon as the dates are set, but no later than one week prior to the examination. 

Students are responsible for scheduling and confirming the time and place of the exam with all committee members and program staff. 

Once you have met all of the requirements below except the Reviewers’ Report, your doctoral degree program will be reviewed for completion. You will receive an email from GSSP outlining any remaining coursework requirements and reminding you to initiate the Reviewers’ Report form. You may receive this email a long time before your planned final. If you have not received this email within one week after the final exam committee has been completely approved and processed, reach out to GSSP for assistance.

Once you are eligible to take the exam, you will receive an email from GSSP confirming your eligibility and containing the link to the Final Exam Form for Graduate Students. You will schedule your exam directly with your committee and program staff, following your program’s internal scheduling procedures.

GSSP verifies that all examination requirements have been completed before releasing the Final Exam Form for Graduate Students. If you have completed all of the eligibility requirements and have not received this email, reach out to GSSP for assistance.

If you have misplaced the email containing the Final Exam Form for Graduate Students link (how the results of your exam are recorded), you can find a copy by going to your Communication Center in MyU.

For changes to your exam committees, view the examination committees page for more information. If you have questions or want to cancel or reschedule your exam, contact GSSP.

Final oral exam requirements: 

The following requirements must be met with GSSP before the Final Oral Examination can be authorized. 

1. The students must hold active status. 

2. The final oral exam must be taken within the eight year time limit for doctoral students or an approved Request for Extension to the Maximum Time Limit: Doctoral Degree form must be on file.

3. If the preliminary oral exam was passed with reservations, a letter notifying the student and GSSP that those reservations have been removed must be on file. 

4. The student must be registered for 24 semester doctoral thesis credits (8888)

5. All coursework and programmatic requirements on the doctoral degree must be complete. 

6. The reviewers report form must be on file with GSSP before the examination.  

Timing

Students should initiate this form before their final defense, at least one day before their final exam date. The committee chair needs time to prepare and be able to access the form at the final defense. The committee chair should complete the form at the final exam following the student’s defense.

Students in doctoral programs will receive an email with a link to complete the Final Exam form workflow after they have completed all eligibility requirements and been cleared by the Office of the Registrar (OTR) to take their final exam. If a doctoral student has misplaced the email containing the form link, they can find a copy by going to their communication center in MyU.

Once the student completes the Final Exam form, the committee chair will receive an email from gssp@umn.edu with a link to the form. The chair will need a computer at the final exam in order to complete the form following the defense. The chair must record the votes of each committee member listed on the form. If there are any alternates, the chair can record their names and votes on the form. 

Once the chair submits the form, OTR processes the form and updates the student’s record. The student and all committee members will be notified once OTR has completed processing.

If there are committee changes, instructions on addressing last minute committee changes are available.

Graduate Program Coordinators will receive copies of each email generated by the system, including those sent to students and reviewers. Most emails will come from gssp@umn.edu. Reminder emails will come from noreply@umn.edu. Depending on your preferences, you may want to set up email filters to capture these.

Emails include:

• Student receives a confirmation when they submit the form

• Committee chair receives a request to complete the form following the defense

• Committee chair receives a reminder every 10 days, whether the exam has taken place yet or not

• Committee chair receives a confirmation when they submit the form 

• Student receives confirmation of the committee’s final decision

• Committee members (including the chair) receive confirmation of the committee’s final decision when OTR has updated the student record

• Student receives a confirmation when OTR has updated their student record