Once the thesis or dissertation has been drafted, it is time to defend the work to the committee. The committee will evaluate the content of the work and hopefully, approve the thesis or dissertation. As part of the completion of the thesis/dissertation requirements for graduation, students must notify the Graduate School that the work has been fully approved by the committee. This approval also verifies that the work has been scanned using iThenticate.

It is the responsibility of the candidate to get the signatures of all of the committee members.

As the Submission process discusses, the acceptance of a thesis or dissertation is not official until the approval form has been delivered to the Graduate School.

The Graduate School only accepts the submission of ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations); however, individual committees/departments may require their students to submit a traditional bound hard copy to them. If that is the case, and/or if the student wishes to obtain a hard copy for themselves or family/friends, the VOLShop recommends using a third-party vendor PhD Book Binding as no printing services are available on campus.