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.

Ph.D. Course Requirements

The required coursework varies for students entering the Ph.D. with a bachelor’s degree or relevant master’s degree. Students holding a bachelor’s degree must complete all program core 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 may also qualify to earn a master’s degree by satisfying the master’s degree requirements. However, it is the students’ responsibility to declare their intentions to obtain the master’s degree before the proposal defense.

Students entering the Ph.D. with a relevant master’s degree must complete the minimum requirements below (note: additional courses may be required by the academic advisor):

• Students with an ERPE master’s degree: at least two 300-level courses.
• Students with a KAUST master’s degree but not in ERPE or with a master’s degree from another university must take a minimum of four ERPE courses: two must be core courses, and two must be 300-level courses.
• Transfer students: students transferring from another university’s Ph.D. program may receive coursework credit on a case-by-case basis, upon the recommendation of the academic advisor and the approval of the dean. Transfer students must still take a minimum of four ERPE courses and satisfy the qualifying exam and dissertation proposal defense requirements at KAUST.
• Graduate seminar 398 (non-credit): all students are required to register and receive a Satisfactory grade for every semester of the program they attend, except for the last semester of graduation. The attendance of the graduate seminar 398 is optional for the graduation semester.
• Winter Enrichment Program: students are required to satisfactorily complete at least one full Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) as part of the degree requirements. Students who completed WEP requirements while earning the master’s degree are not required to enroll in a full WEP for a second time in the Ph.D. degree.

Ph.D. Qualifying Examination

The purpose of the subject-based qualifying exam is to test students’ knowledge of the subject matter within the field of study. All students entering the Ph.D. program with a bachelor’s degree must take this examination within two years of their admission. Students with a master’s degree must take the qualifying exam within one year of arriving at KAUST. Students who “fail with no retake” or fail the retake will be dismissed from the University.

The subject-based qualifying exam is built on the courses completed by Ph.D students during their studies at KAUST in the current program they are enrolled in. The exam has a written and an oral component, based on three ERPE courses, taught by three different faculty members. Students must select the courses in communication with the academic advisor, with at least one being a 300-level course. A relevant course from another program may be substituted for an ERPE course, but only upon approval by the program chair. Both the written and oral components of the exam have to be completed within a time frame of six weeks (in total). The oral examination in all three subjects will be held on the same day.

The qualifying exam is scheduled twice per year in January and June. A call for registration will be sent via email to eligible Ph.D. students. The email will include the exam date and instructions to register for the exam.

Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal

Students must successfully complete a Ph.D proposal defense. The purpose of the dissertation proposal defense is to demonstrate that students have the ability and are adequately prepared to undertake Ph.D.-level research in the proposed area. This preparation includes necessary knowledge of the chosen subject, a review of the literature, and preparatory theory or experiments as applicable.

The dissertation proposal defense is the second part of the qualification milestone that must be completed to become a Ph.D. candidate. Ph.D. students are required to complete the dissertation proposal defense within one year after passing the qualifying examination.

The dissertation proposal defense includes two aspects: a written research proposal and an oral research proposal defense. The dissertation proposal defense is not a pre-defense. The written proposal should be about ten pages, which include (1) background and motivation; (2) aims and objectives; (3) research plan and methodology; (4) significance and potential impact; and (5) dissertation structure and time schedule. The duration of the oral presentation should be about 30 minutes, followed by a 30-minutes Q&A session. During the Q&A session, the committee can ask questions related to the novelty, impact, plan, and feasibility of the proposed work.

Ph.D. students must request to present the dissertation proposal defense to the proposal dissertation committee at the beginning of the semester that they intend to defend their proposal. Students must submit the written research proposal to the committee at least two weeks prior to the defense date.

The Ph.D. dissertation proposal defense committee, which must be approved by 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 ERPE 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 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.

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

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 Defense Committee

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

The Ph.D. dissertation defense committee must consist of at least four members (typically no more than six members), and must be approved by the dean. At least three of the required members must be KAUST faculty: (1) the chair, plus one additional faculty member must be affiliated with the student’s program, and (2) one must be from another program. The external examiner is external to KAUST and must attend the defense and write a report on the dissertation.

Dissertation Defense Committee

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 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, 3 or 5 depending upon their affiliation with the program. They may also serve as co-chairs.

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-academic advisor, this person 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).

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

The Ph.D. requires the passing of the defense and acceptance of the dissertation. The final defense starts with an approximately 45-minute long public presentation, followed by questions from the audience. The oral defense then continues behind closed doors. Only the student and official committee members are allowed during this phase of the defense.

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's 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.

Ph.D. Dissertation Submission

The submitted written dissertation must comply with the University formatting guidelines which are available on the KAUST Library website.