Academic Advisor

The selected academic advisor must be a full-time program-affiliated professor at KAUST. Students may also select an academic advisor from another program at KAUST. The academic 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.

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

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. Upon approval of the advisor, Ph.D. students are allowed to choose the relevant courses from the entire ErSE curriculum, as well as from the curriculums of other KAUST programs.

Ph.D. Courses

• At least three courses that comprise at least two 300-level courses, at least two courses should be from the ErSE curriculum for students coming with a master’s from another university or a different KAUST program and at least one 300-level course from ErSE curriculum for students with M.Sc. from KAUST-ErSE
• 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 pass the subject-based qualifying examination and Ph.D. proposal defense to progress towards Ph.D. candidacy status.

Ph.D. Qualifying Examination

The Ph.D. qualifying examination (Q.E.) is a subject-based examination – oral and written.

The Q.E. committee consists of three members. If additional expertise is required the committee could be extended. The chair can be any KAUST faculty member familiar with the program rules. At least two committee members should be affiliated with the program.

Once students have successfully completed the qualifying exam, they work towards the dissertation proposal defense under the supervision of the academic advisor.

Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense

The dissertation proposal defense is the second part of the qualification milestones that must be completed within one year after passing the qualifying exam to become a Ph.D. candidate. Students have to submit to the Ph.D. dissertation proposal committee a written research proposal and pass an oral research proposal defense.

The Ph.D. dissertation proposal defense committee, which must be approved by the dean, consists of three members. If additional expertise is required the committee could be extended, subject to dean’s approval. The chair can be any KAUST faculty member familiar with the program rules. Two committee members must be KAUST faculty affiliated with the program and one must be a KAUST faculty outside the program.

Notes:

• 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 both the academic advisor and the dean.

This committee should also make itself available for subsequent periodic review meetings with students. The composition of the committee could change over time.

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

Ph.D. Final Defense

To graduate, Ph.D. candidates have to finalize the Ph.D. dissertation, form a Ph.D. dissertation defense committee, and successfully defend a Ph.D. dissertation.

The Ph.D. dissertation defense committee, which must be approved by the dean, consists of four mandatory members. If additional expertise is required the committee could be extended, subject to the dean’s approval. Three of the mandatory members must be KAUST faculty and one must be an external examiner who is external to KAUST. The chair can be any KAUST faculty familiar with the program rules. At least two committee members must be KAUST faculty affiliated with the program, and one must be a KAUST faculty outside the program. The external examiner must write a report on the dissertation and attend the dissertation defense either in person or remotely.

Notes:

• The chair cannot be the academic advisor
• The chair cannot be the academic advisor
• Co-chairs may serve as either 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 upon their affiliation with the student’s program, they may also serve as co-chairs
• Visiting professors may serve as member 2 or 3 depending upon their affiliation

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.

If students have a co-supervisor, this person can be considered one of the four mandatory 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.