Doctoral Comprehensive Examination, Candidacy, and Dissertation

All doctoral students must complete and successfully pass a Doctoral Comprehensive Examination. The comprehensive exam has both a written and oral component and is usually taken after two years of coursework is completed. The written and oral exam evaluates students’ mastery of their specialization and the counselor education and supervision core curricular areas. The exam can include but is not limited to, content from core doctoral coursework, the student’s field of specialization, and research interest areas.

The Ph.D. in Counselor Education at Ohio University is a research doctorate intended to prepare scholars in the sciences, humanities and the arts to carry out significant research and produce scholarly work. To this effect, all doctoral candidates must complete a dissertation, a scholarly account of research in the new area of knowledge. Students are required to complete at least 10 credit hours of dissertation.

To be admitted to Doctoral Candidacy, a doctoral student must complete the coursework listed in their program of study, successfully pass a comprehensive exam, and have an approved dissertation proposal. Specifically, the following criteria must be met:

1. Program of Study courses successfully completed, including all courses with a prior grade of PR.
2. Scholarly Tools Courses on Program of Study successfully completed.
3. Comprehensive Examination successfully completed.
4. The Dissertation Committee Approval form was completed and submitted to The Patton College Office of Graduate Records.
5. The Dissertation Proposal was successfully defended and the Proposal Defense Report was completed and submitted to The Patton College Office of Graduate Records.
6. IRB approval or waiver must be obtained and submitted to The Patton College Office of Graduate Records.

Forms indicating completion of the above steps are available on the Patton College of Education forms page. Doctoral students should also consult the Patton College of Education Doctoral Handbook and Thesis and Dissertation Services (TAD).

Doctoral students are not permitted to schedule the oral examination of the dissertation until they have met all requirements for formal admission to candidacy. Formal notification of admission to candidacy will be provided by the PCOE Office of Student Affairs. A copy will be sent to your advisor and kept on file in the Office of Student Affairs in The Patton College of Education.

After formal admission to doctoral candidacy, all doctoral students must successfully complete a final dissertation defense followed by The Patton College dissertation submission process, and, to graduate, meet the TAD requirements for dissertation submission associated with the academic term in which graduation is intended.

Additional information can be found in the Appendices.