1- For a student who has passed the Doctoral Qualifying Exam, a Thesis Monitoring Committee is appointed by the relevant Department Chair within one month. The members of the Thesis Monitoring Committee approved by the Institute Executive Board are notified to the student by the Institute Secretariat.
2- A student who successfully completes the doctoral qualifying exam must, within six months at the latest, defend orally before the Thesis Monitoring Committee a thesis proposal covering the purpose, method and work plan of the research to be carried out (for the Thesis Proposal Writing Guide, click here.)The student distributes a written report on the thesis proposal to the committee members at least fifteen days before the oral defence.
3- The Thesis Monitoring Committee decides by an absolute majority whether to accept, require revision of, or reject the thesis proposal submitted by the student. One month is granted for revisions. At the end of this period, the decision taken by absolute majority to accept or reject is reported to the Institute in writing by the Department Chair within three days following the completion of the process. (For the Doctoral Thesis Proposal Defence Report Form, click here)
4- A student whose thesis proposal is rejected has the right to choose a new supervisor and/or thesis topic. In this case, a new Thesis Monitoring Committee may be appointed. A student who wishes to continue in the programme with the same supervisor is taken into the thesis proposal defence again within three months, while a student who changes supervisor and thesis topic is taken into the defence again within six months. A student whose thesis proposal is rejected in this defence as well is dismissed from the University.
5- A student who does not attend the thesis proposal defence without a valid excuse is deemed unsuccessful and their thesis proposal is rejected. Article 4 applies to students whose thesis proposal is rejected.
6- For a student whose thesis proposal is accepted, the thesis monitoring committee meets twice a year, once between January and June and once between July and December. The student submits a written report to the committee members at least one month before the meeting date. This report sets out a summary of the work carried out to date and the work plan for the following period. The student's thesis work is assessed by the committee as successful or unsuccessful.
7- For the thesis of a student whose thesis proposal has been accepted to be finalised, at least three successful Thesis Monitoring Committee reports must be submitted to the Institute Directorate by the Department Chair. (For the Doctoral Thesis Monitoring Report, click here.) If thesis monitoring procedures are not carried out on time, the student is deemed unsuccessful in the thesis monitoring for that term. A student found unsuccessful by the committee twice consecutively or three times in total is dismissed from the University.