Milestone 3: Oral Preliminary Examination

Upon submitting their original GPAS and it being approved, students will become eligible to formally declare their preliminary oral examination committee to the Graduate School. This is a required step to hold the oral preliminary exam itself later. If members on the committe need to be changed after submission, students can return to the same webpage to swap out names and resubmit.

Students can begin preparing for their oral examination by checking with their advisor(s) or program Coordinator about program-specific requirements. The Comparative and International Development Education (CIDE), Education Policy and Leadership (EPL), Evaluation Studies (ES), and Higher Education (HE) tracks all require “Special Papers.” The Human Resource Development (HRD) track does not require a Special Paper prior to the Oral Examination.

Students prepare the special paper under the guidance of their advisor(s). The special paper is a critical review of the literature in the of the student’s scholarly interest. It is not merely an annotated bibliography, but rather a conceptually organized synthesis of the relevant literature. The special paper may explore areas for possible dissertation research by locating gaps in knowledge in a particular area of inquiry, or it may serve as an integrative background piece for dissertation research that the student already has in mind. The paper should conclude with a set of research questions that represent potentially fruitful lines of research in the area of inquiry. The special paper is normally between 40 and 80 pages in length.

Students may begin planning for the Oral Examination immediately after passing their Written Preliminary Examination. If often takes 1-2 semesters to prepare for the Oral Examination after passing the Written Preliminary Examination. Students who delay in preparing for the Oral Examination for three or more semesters after their Written Preliminary Examination may have registration holds placed on records until the next milestone is scheduled.

Once the student’s advisor(s) has cleared the student for the Oral Examination, scheduling should begin. All committee members must be present at an Oral Examination, and these events can be held on campus or virtually. Students are responsible for sending calendar holds for all committee members or scheduling meeting rooms for these events (please contact Savannah Greaves at greav022@umn.edu or 206 Burton Hall for help with room scheduling). Examinations require a two-hour block of time. Students frequently use an electronic scheduling tool or use faculty UMN Google calendars to check committee availability.

The Oral Preliminary Examination must then be scheduled with the university’s Graduate School. This must be done online as soon as a date is confirmed, but must be done at least one week in advance of the examination. The Graduate School must approve the exam for it to be valid. Approval is based on:

• Active status in the Graduate School (i.e., student is currently enrolled).

• The student’s GPAS has been approved by the Graduate School (including all information related to minor fields of study, if any).

• The student has passed the Written Oral Examination (and this result has been recorded by the Graduate School).

• The student has an approved Oral Preliminary Exam committee on file with the Graduate School.

• Once the exam has been approved, the advisor will be sent an electronic evaluation form to be completed at the examination.

Preliminary Oral Examinations, which are closed exams, are typically chaired by the student’s advisor. All committee members must be present for the Preliminary Oral Examination to take place. If, in a very rare circumstances, a committee member is unable to participate in the exam on the day it is scheduled, the student may want to opt to reschedule the exam or make a committee substitution. Should such a circumstance arise, the student should immediately contact the faculty advisor (or the Coordinator of Graduate Studies if the advisor is the person who is unable to attend) to discuss possible options for finding an appropriate substitute committee member on short notice. If a substitute committee member cannot be found on short notice, then the exam will need to be postponed. If a substitute committee member is found and approved by the Coordinator of Graduate Studies, the student will need to revise the preliminary examination committee to reflect the change before the start of the examination or immediately thereafter.

In a typical Preliminary Oral Examination, the committee chair will meet for a few minutes to go over procedures with committee members without the student present at the outset of the Examination. This will either occur by asking the student to leave the examining room (if on campus) or by taking committee members into a separate Zoom room (if virtual). After the committee fully understands the procedures, the student is then asked to make a short presentation of their work. Students should check with their advisors about the length of this presentation. Following the student presentation, committee members ask oral questions to the student, with sign language interpreters or other assistive technologies provided as needed. Once all committee members (including the advisor) exhaust their questions, a second private meeting occurs among committee members. At this time, committee members will evaluate the student either as “Pass,” “Pass with Reservations,” or “Fail.” This evaluation is entered into the electronic form that advisors were sent prior to the meeting when the student scheduled the examination. Advisors are expected to complete this form within 24 hours. Implications of these evaluations are described in the following Step.

Finally, some students choose to bring refreshments to Oral Examinations. Refreshments are neither required nor expected, but if a student wishes to bring refreshments, they should abide by the guidelines below:

• Refreshments should be limited to Preliminary Oral Examination and Final Oral Defenses only.

• Students should limit refreshments to a single beverage and snack item for the student and committee members only.

• Coffee, tea, and water are available in Rooms 206 and 211 Burton Hall. Please confirm with Rachel Bloom-Brovold (brovo023@umn.edu) if you wish to use these resources.

As noted in the section above, three evaluation outcomes are possible for the Oral Preliminary Examination: “Pass,” “Pass with Reservations,” and “Fail.” These evaluations are assessed through majority votes in the committee. Preliminary Oral Examination chairs (the student’s advisor) must follow all procedures related to voting based on Graduate School Policy. A student’s next steps for their program depends on Preliminary Oral Exam results. Each of these are outlined below.

• Pass – students who pass their Preliminary Oral Exam may consider themselves Doctoral Candidates (but not before). Students may also begin registering for Thesis Credits (OLPD 8888) and pursue planning their Dissertation Proposal meeting in consultation with their advisor. In some circumstances, a student can also register for thesis credits prior to taking the Preliminary Oral Examination. Please see “Thesis Credits” section in the “Important Policies and Resources for Graduate Students” section below for guidelines. Dissertation Proposal (Prospectus) meetings can occur any time after a student has received a “Pass” evaluation for their Preliminary Oral Exam.

• Pass with Reservations – Students who receive an evaluation of “Pass with Reservations” are immediately informed of the committee’s reservations. The committee chair then has one week to convey its reservations to the student by written letter and to specify the steps that must be taken to remove these reservations. A copy of this letter will be sent to the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office. When the student has satisfied the committee’s reservations, the committee chair is required to write a second letter to GSSP informing the student and the Graduate School that the reservations have been addressed and that the student may proceed toward the degree. Both letters should be written by the committee chair. The final oral examination may not be scheduled until the GSSP office has received a copy of the letter indicating that the reservations have been removed. Students may still register for thesis credits with a “Pass with Reservations” assessment, and may still consider themselves Doctoral Candidates, but must work to remove reservations as quickly as possible. Both letters should be written by the committee chair. If the Preliminary Exam committee chair is not be chosen to serve on the Final Examination committee, but still works at the University, that person must still be the individual to inform GSSP about the reservations being removed. If the committee chair leaves the University altogether during the revision period, another member of the original committee can write the notification letter in consultation with the GSSP office. 

• Fail – Students who receive an assessment of “Fail” are not considered Doctoral Candidates. Upon unanimous recommendation of the examining committee, however, students may retake the examination later, providing the re-examination is conducted by the same Preliminary Oral Examination committee. In no case may the re-examination take place before 10 weeks have passed from the original exam date. No more than one re- examination is allowed.

Students can visit the University of Minnesota’s Graduate School Degree Completion Steps document at any time for abbreviated explanations of degree steps.