Final Oral Review Scheduling

The dissertation committee members, and in particular the committee chair, should be consulted regarding assistance prior to obtaining it. In addition, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) application requires, among other things, detailed specification of the process of collecting data from participants. This is expected to include descriptions of who will be conducting the actual data collection, what the qualifications of such individuals are, and how they will be supervised by the author of the dissertation. The students should seek their guidance regarding how much assistance is appropriate and how much might exceed acceptable levels in the judgment of the committee. The student must identify in the dissertation those individuals who provided approved assistance and describe what was provided.

Failures to comply with this policy should be referred to the Committee on Academic Integrity as described in the policy on Academic Honesty.

Policy Revised 01/01/2009

The Final Oral Review (FOR) is designed for the doctoral candidate to present his/her research. The FOR has two major purposes:

• It's an evaluative checkpoint for the student and the committee. • It's a respectful celebration of scholarly research.

Students are encouraged to complete their FORs via web conferencing or similar technology if the school/program allows. FORs may also occur at a regularly scheduled Fielding event, such as national/research/clinical sessions, professional development seminars, cluster meetings, or New Student Orientations. Prior to an FOR being scheduled, the full dissertation committee must have reviewed and recommended approval of the dissertation upon the completion of revisions. It is permissible for the dissertation draft incorporating the required revisions to be reviewed only by the chair, and not the full committee. The chair of the committee and one committee member (determined by individual schools) authorize the scheduling of the FOR.

FORs held at a venue outside National Sessions (e.g., at a professional development seminar) should take place no sooner than 6 weeks after the developed dissertation has been sent to full committee review. The deadline for distribution of students' dissertations to full committee review prior to any planned FOR being held at a National Session will need to be earlier to accommodate session scheduling needs. The student must consult the University Master Calendar for current relevant deadlines.

The FOR is announced to the Fielding community and is open to all members of the Fielding community and invited guests. The announcement should include the date, time and place where the FOR is to be held. The minimum number of committee members in attendance at the FOR should include the chair and one faculty committee member (additional requirements are left to each School's discretion). All committee member(s) can be present either in person or through teleconferencing/video conferencing.

The chair may elect to sign the dissertation title pages at the FOR or may choose to wait until any requested revisions have been completed before signing. In the latter event, it is the student's responsibility to see that the signature pages are signed by the chair before submitting the final version of the pages to Fielding administration.

Specific scheduling requirements per doctoral program/school appear below:

Clinical Psychology Program

Final oral reviews need to be conducted at a Fielding residential event (e.g., national session, professional development seminar, or regional meeting) with one or more Fielding faculty being present in person. A minimum of two committee members, including the chair, must attend either via video conferencing or in person.

This policy only applies if the chair and student are in agreement to hold the FOR in this manner. The Chair is not required to agree to this FOR format. When the chair does not agree to attend virtually, then the Chair will need to be physically present at the FOR. Thus, such discussions should occur early in the dissertation process- especially when chair and student do not reside in the same area.

When the FOR occurs at a professional development seminar, the faculty member would need to agree to host the event at a time convenient to the student attendees.

EdD Program

This policy is designed to encourage the scheduling of Final Oral Reviews (FORs) outside of National Sessions.

The University and EdD program requires that the chair plus one other member of the core committee is to be in attendance at an FOR. The committee members may be in attendance virtually.

In addition to Fielding's University-wide policy that the FOR should take place no sooner than 6 weeks after the developed dissertation has been sent to the full committee review in the case of FORs not held at National Sessions, EdD policy is that there must be 30 days between the date the chair authorizes the student to schedule the FOR and the date on which the FOR actually occurs. This 30day period allows for the student, staff, and faculty members to complete all the logistical work needed to support an FOR (e.g., making the required announcement, completing any needed phone or video conference training and scheduling, and producing the FOR booklet when an audience will be present). This also provides dissertation committee members time to re-familiarize themselves with the dissertation draft before the FOR is held.

HD, HOS, IECD, Media Psychology, and OD&C Programs

This policy encourages the scheduling of FORs outside of National Sessions. FORs may be virtual, via video-conferencing, or in-person at cluster meetings or other Fielding sessions. The University and the above listed programs require the dissertation chair plus at least one other faculty member of the core committee to be in attendance either in-person or virtually.

In addition to Fielding's University-wide policy that the FOR should take place no sooner than 6 weeks after the developed dissertation has been sent to the full committee review in the case of FORs not held at National Sessions, and the above listed programs require that there must be 30 days between the date the chair authorizes the student to schedule the FOR and the date on which the FOR actually occurs.

Notification of the date, time, and location of FORs should be posted to the Fielding community at least one week in advance of the FOR.

Policy Revised 01/01/2020