Doctor of Philosophy University Degree Requirements
The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is designed to prepare students for research careers in academia and industry. Students are expected to follow the program requirements outlined in the program guide of the academic year they started their program. Students should be aware that most core courses are offered only once per year.
There is a minimum residency requirement at KAUST of three and a half years for students entering with a bachelor’s degree and two and a half years for students entering with a master’s degree. A minimum GPA of 3.0 must be achieved to graduate. Individual courses require a minimum of a B- for course credit.
Once admitted, Ph.D. students are required to designate an academic advisor. The selected academic advisor must be a full-time, program-affiliated professor at KAUST. Students may also select an advisor from another program at KAUST. This advisor can only become project affiliated for the specific dissertation project with program-level approval. Project affiliation approval must be completed prior to commencing research.
The Ph.D. degree includes the following components:
- Designate an academic advisor
- Coursework (as listed in the program-specific guidelines)
- Advancement to candidacy
- Pass the qualifying examination (if applicable)
- Pass the dissertation proposal defense
- Successful defense and submission of a doctoral dissertation
View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.