Ph.D. Course Requirements

The required coursework varies for students entering the Ph.D. degree with a bachelor’s degree or a relevant master’s degree. Students holding a bachelor’s degree must complete all program core/mandatory courses and elective courses outlined in the master’s degree section and are also required to complete the Ph.D. courses below. Students entering with a bachelor’s degree will qualify to earn a master’s degree by satisfying the master’s degree requirements.

Students entering the Ph.D. degree with a relevant M.Sc. degree must complete the requirements below, though additional courses may be required by the academic advisor.

Ph.D. Courses

• At least two 300-level courses
• Graduate seminar 398 (non-credit) – all students are required to register and receive a satisfactory grade for every semester of the program they attend
• Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) – students who completed WEP while earning the M.Sc. are not required to enroll in a full WEP for a second time during the Ph.D.

Ph.D. Candidacy

In addition to the coursework requirements, students must successfully complete the required Ph.D. candidacy milestones to progress towards Ph.D. candidate status. These milestones consist of the Ph.D. dissertation proposal defense and the Ph.D. dissertation data defense. Once students have advanced to candidacy, students are designated as Ph.D. or doctoral candidates.

Ph.D. Proposal Defense Committee

The Ph.D. dissertation proposal defense committee, which must be approved by the program chair and the dean, must consist of at least three members and typically includes no more than six members. The chair, plus one additional faculty member must be affiliated with the student’s program.

Notes:

• Members 1-3 are required, member 4 is optional
• Co-chairs may serve as members 2 or 3
• Adjunct professors and professors emeriti may retain their roles on current committees, but may not serve as chair on any new committees
• Professors of practice and research professors may serve as members 2 or 3 depending upon their affiliation with the student’s program, they may also serve as co-chairs

Once constituted, the composition of the proposal committee can only be changed with the approval of the academic advisor, the program chair, and the dean.

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense

Ph.D. students must submit a written research proposal to the proposal committee two weeks prior to an oral presentation of the proposal by the beginning of the second year. This examination consists of an oral presentation of an original research proposal (similar to candidates’ area of research but not the exact work done in the lab) followed by a question and answer session. The committee will determine whether the proposal is novel and has a possibility of receiving funding from major funding agencies. The proposal committee will likely ask for updates on current research so candidates should be prepared to give a brief update on their current research during their Ph.D. proposal defense.

Ph.D. students must request to present the dissertation proposal defense to the proposal defense committee at the beginning of the semester they will defend their proposal.

There are four possible outcomes from the dissertation proposal defense:

• Pass
• Pass with conditions
• Retake
• Fail without retake

A pass is achieved when the committee agrees with no more than one dissenting vote. In the instance of a pass with conditions, the entire committee must agree on the required conditions and if they cannot, the dean decides. The deadline to complete the conditions is three months after the defense date, unless the committee unanimously agrees to change it. In the instance of a fail without retake, the decision of the committee must be unanimous. Students who fail without retake or who fail the retake will be dismissed from the University.

Students who successfully pass the dissertation proposal defense are deemed Ph.D. candidates.

Ph.D. Dissertation Data Defense

To graduate, Ph.D. candidates have to form a Ph.D. Dissertation Defense Committee, finalize a Ph.D. dissertation, and successfully defend a Ph.D. dissertation.

Ph.D. Final Defense Committee

The Ph.D. dissertation defense committee, which must be approved by the dean, must consist of at least four members and typically includes no more than six members. At least three of the required members must be KAUST faculty and one must be an external examiner who is external to KAUST. The chair, plus one additional faculty member must be affiliated with the student’s program. The external examiner is not required to attend the defense, but must write a report on the dissertation and may attend the dissertation defense at the discretion of the program.

Notes:

• The chair cannot be the academic advisor
• Members 1-4 are required, members 5 and 6 are optional
• Co-chairs may serve as either members 2, 3 or 6
• Adjunct professors and professors emeriti may retain their roles on current committees, but may not serve as chair on any new committees
• Professors of practice and research professors may serve as members 2, 3 or 6 depending upon their affiliation with the student’s program, they may also serve as co-chairs
• Visiting professors may serve as member 6, but not as the external examiner

The only requirement with commonality with the proposal committee is the academic advisor, although it is expected that other members will carry forward to this committee.

Co-supervisors can be considered one of the above four members required, provided they come under the categories listed (i.e. meets the requirements of the position).

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

Ph.D. Final Dissertation Defense

The Ph.D. requires the passing of the defense and acceptance of the dissertation. The final defense is a public presentation that consists of an oral defense followed by questions and may last a maximum of three hours.

Students must determine the defense date with agreement of all the members of the dissertation committee, meet deadlines for submitting graduation forms and inform the committee of their progress. It is the students’ responsibility to submit the required documents to the graduate program coordinator (GPC) at the beginning of the semester they intend to defend. The required documents include (i) the list of proposed committee members, including the external examiner (and a CV of the external examiner, (ii) a current CV of the student, (iii) a current transcript, (iv) a list of publications, and (v) a final draft of the Ph.D. dissertation. Students must submit the written dissertation to the committee one month prior to the defense date in order to receive feedback.

There are four possible outcomes from the dissertation final defense:

• Pass
• Pass with conditions
• Retake
• Fail without retake

A pass is achieved when the committee agrees with no more than one dissenting vote. In the instance of a pass with conditions, the entire committee must agree on the required conditions, and if they cannot, the dean decides. The deadline to meet conditions is three months after the defense date, unless the committee unanimously agrees to reduce it. If the conditions will take three months or more, or more than one member casts a negative vote, one retake of the defense is permitted. The deadline to complete the retake is as decided by the defense committee with a maximum of six months after the defense date, unless the committee unanimously agrees to change it. Students who fail without retake or who fail the retake will be dismissed from the University..

Evaluation of the Ph.D. dissertation defense is recorded by submitting the result of the Ph.D. dissertation defense examination form within three days after the defense to the Office of the Registrar.