PhD Course Requirements

Students entering the PhD Program must complete the requirements below:

• At least four 300-level courses* (12 credits)
• Graduate Seminar (non-credit)
• Winter Enrichment Program (non-credit) 

The Academic Advisor may request the completion of additional courses. Courses taken while pursuing the KAUST MS degree cannot be counted towards the PhD course requirements. Courses must be technical courses and cannot be substituted with Research, Internship, or Broadening Courses to fulfill degree requirements.  

* Two courses (6 credits) must be AMCS courses.

Winter Enrichment Program (non-credit)

All students must register for WE 100 and successfully complete one Winter Enrichment Program (WEP), usually taken in the first year of study. Students who completed WEP as part of their KAUST MS must take the program again.

Graduate Seminar (non-credit)

Students must register for AMCS 398 and receive a Satisfactory grade for two Semesters during their PhD.

PhD Candidacy

In addition to the coursework requirements, students must successfully complete the required PhD candidacy milestones to progress toward PhD candidate status. These milestones are as follows:

• A subject-based qualifier
• PhD Proposal Defense

Qualifying Exam

The purpose of the qualifier is to test the student's knowledge of the subject matter within the field of study. It is offered twice a year. Students have up to two attempts to pass the qualifier. All PhD students must successfully pass the qualifier within three semesters and one Summer Session after commencing the PhD program. Students who fail with no retake or fail the retake will be dismissed from the University. The qualifier consists of three written subject exams, one in each of the core courses of AM or CSE listed below:

The choice of qualifier must be approved by the Advisor and Program Chair and communicated to the GPC within the first month of the Semester in which the student intends to complete the requirement. Students have two attempts to take each exam and can pass them in any combination.  

Students in the CSE track can replace one of the three qualifiers with a CSE-related qualifier in another program. Students on the DS track can replace one of the three qualifiers with a related qualifier in another program. If the overall grade of a course determines the passing grade in that qualifier for the other program, the student must score 70% or more in the final exam (in addition to satisfying all other requirements for that program) to obtain credit for the corresponding AMCS qualifier.

The qualifier is offered twice a year: during the final exams of the Fall Semester and immediately after the final exams of the Spring Semester. The Fall Semester qualifier is the final exam of each of the above mentioned courses given during the Fall Semester. The Spring Semester exam is a three-hour exam per subject prepared by the Faculty representative. Students are encouraged to take all three qualifiers in their first semester of the PhD program. For MS students, the exams taken while enrolled for the first time in Core Courses during the MS do not count towards the number of attempts, but successful completion (score at or above 70% in the final exam) will fulfill the corresponding qualifier requirement. 

Dissertation Proposal Defense

The Dissertation Proposal Defense aims to demonstrate that students have the ability and are adequately prepared to undertake PhD level research in the proposed area. This preparation includes necessary knowledge of the chosen subject, a literature review, and preparatory theory or experimentation. The exam consists of two parts:

• Proposal: submission of a 10-page (suggested length) proposal describing the proposed topic of research, relevant survey of the literature and any preliminary results. This should be submitted to the examining committee at least 10 days prior to the scheduled presentation.
• Presentation: approximately 30 minutes on the dissertation topic presented to the examining committee followed by questions to cover a total period of an hour.

The Dissertation Proposal Defense is the second part of the qualification milestones that must be completed to become a PhD candidate. PhD students must successfully defend the Dissertation proposal by the end of their fifth Semester after commencing the PhD program.

The 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 student's Program. The Committee is as follows:

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 both the academic advisor and the dean. 
• The affiliation status, within program/outside program refers to primary affiliation.  

View a list of Faculty and their affiliations here.

Proposal Defense Results

At the end of the proposal Defense, a PhD Proposal Results Form must be completed and submitted to the GPC. There are four possible outcomes : 

• Pass: Indicates that the student is prepared to proceed with the thesis research. Must be agreed on by all but at most one committee member 
• Pass with conditions: The committee requires some additional evidence of the student’s preparation. The entire committee must agree on the required conditions and deadline, at most three months after the proposal defense. Conditions must be met before the end of the student’s fifth Semester.
• Retake: The student must retake the exam, at most three months after the original exam and before the end of the student’s fifth semester. If the student does not pass the retake, they will be dismissed.
• Fail: The student will be dismissed from the university. This requires a unanimous vote of the committee.

Students who successfully pass the Dissertation proposal Defense become PhD Candidates. 

Dissertation

The Dissertation is the final milestone of the PhD program. Students must complete the following:

• Petition to Defend Dissertation/ Form Dissertation Defense Committee 
• Defend Dissertation 
• Archive Dissertation

Petition to Defend Dissertation

Students must determine the Defense date with the agreement of all members of the Dissertation Defense Committee. It is the sole responsibility of students to submit the required documents in consultation with the GPC and the Academic Advisor by the deadline published in the Academic Calendar and at least 2 months prior to the Defense date.

Students must defend their Dissertation and obtain the final approval of the Dissertation Defense by the end of their fourth year (8 Semesters and 4 Summer Sessions). Students must follow the Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines available on the KAUST Library webpage when they write their Dissertation.

Formation of Dissertation Defense Committee

The PhD 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 not KAUST. The chair, plus one additional Faculty who 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:

• Members 1-4 are required; members 5 and 6 are optional 
•  Co-chairs may serve as members 2, 3 or 6
• Professors who become adjunct or emeritus may retain their role 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 whether they are affiliated 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 of commonality with the proposal committee is the academic advisor, although it is expected that other members will carry forward to this committee. 

View a list of faculty and their affiliations here.

Dissertation Defense

The dissertation defense is a public presentation that consists of an oral defense followed by questions, and may last a maximum of three hours.  The student must: determine the defense date with the agreement of all the members of the Dissertation Committee, meet deadlines for submitting graduation forms, and inform the committee of his/her progress. It is the responsibility of the student to submit the required documents to the Graduate Program Coordinator at the beginning of the semester in which they intend to defend. It is also expected that the student submit the written dissertation to the committee at least two months prior to the defense date in order to receive feedback. 

The outcome of the Dissertation Defense must be recorded by submitting the Dissertation Defense Evaluation Form within 2 days after the Defense to the Office of the Registrar. There are 4 possible outcomes of the dissertation defense.

• Pass: the Committee must agree with no more than one dissenting vote. In the case of a Pass, the Dissertation must be archived within 2 weeks.
• Pass with conditions: the entire Committee must agree on the required conditions.  The deadline to complete the conditions is three months after the defense date, unless the committee unanimously agrees to change it. If the conditions will take more than three months, or more than one member casts a negative vote, one retake of the defense is permitted. The deadline to complete the retake is decided by the Committee with a maximum of six months after the original Defense date. If this requires the student to exceed their duration of study, they must apply for an extension following the Time Limit and Extension Policy. All conditions must be met by the end of the extension period which prevails over the date set by the Committee.
• 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.

Dissertation Document

Dissertations must be prepared in accordance with the Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines available from KAUST Library.

Dissertation Archiving

Students must archive the Dissertation in the KAUST Library two weeks from the submission of the final result form. This must not exceed the deadline published in the Academic Calendar.