Dissertation Procedures

Students who have successfully defended their dissertations must complete all steps outlined on the PhD Candidate check list.

PhD Dissertation Check List – Candidacy through Graduation (pdf)

Students are required to apply for graduation to Enrollment Management (Registrar’s Office) prior to graduation to be eligible for a scheduled graduation date in May, October, and January (Click here to view the Registrar Office’s deadlines).

PhD Candidates planning to participate in the May commencement ceremony must send notification of their date to defend their dissertation to the public by March 15th. Candidates are expected to defend their dissertation by the latest, 30 days before Commencement. Candidates who have not defended their dissertation by or before 30 days before Commencement, will not be eligible to be hooded at the commencement ceremony in May. These students are eligible to be hooded at the commencement ceremony the following year.

Please see below the required candidacy forms. Approved forms should be forwarded to the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs as they are completed.

Candidacy Forms Using Docusign (For Dissertation Committee Chairs)
Please see below instructions for Docusign for the above listed forms as well as the Final Dissertation Approval Form.

1. Sign into Canvas to access Faculty Forum.
2. Select the Faculty Forum course.
3. Look for the Student Affairs section.
4. In this section, you will see the link to access the four dissertation forms.

After students have successfully defended and made all required post defense edits, an email should be sent to Douglas Lomonaco (lomonado@rutgers.edu) advising they are ready to move onto the next step. Students will then be advised to submit their dissertation thru RUetd. Once approved for formatting, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs will contact the student to advise of the final requirements (see below):

Student Affairs will send an email to the student advising the following is needed and should be delivered directly to Student Affairs (student will not be cleared for graduation until all required materials are submitted):

• Submit via email the final dissertation file (send to lomonado@rutgers.edu)
• Submit via email Dissertation Abstract (electronic copy acceptable).
• Submit Proquest Doctoral Dissertation Agreement online with Proquest as well as Purchase 5 copies of bound dissertations (instructions will be sent from Assistant Dean for Student Affairs).

After students have received their bound copies, additional copies may be purchased through ProQuest (Rutgers orders may be placed for May 2014 graduates and beyond).

ProQuest Orders. Orders may be placed for additional copies by visiting ProQuest’s website by clicking here, calling 1-800-521-0600 or emailing disspub@proquest.com