All graduate students completing a thesis or dissertation at the University of Illinois must deposit in the Graduate College Thesis Office. The Thesis Office assures the quality standards established by the Graduate College Executive Committee. In general, manuscripts for doctoral degrees are called dissertations and those for master’s degrees are called theses. For the purposes of this handbook, the term thesis will be used for both.
This guide contains requirements for theses deposited in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is current as of September 2007. Individual graduate programs or departments may have additional requirements. Please consult with your program regarding any departmental requirements. Material relevant to thesis deposit and degree conferral that is referred to in this guide is provided for informational purposes only and is subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, please consult the Web sites and contacts provided throughout the handbook.
The Thesis Office is open from 1:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. every day University offices are open, which includes summer, spring break, and winter break. The Thesis Office does not currently schedule appointments; rather students are seen on a first-come/first-served basis. Prior to deadlines, the Thesis Office generally expands its regular office hours to accommodate the higher volume of deposits. Information about extended hours and printable versions of required forms are posted on the Thesis Office Web site. Some forms are also available in the hall racks outside the Thesis Office.
204 Coble Hall
801 S. Wright Street, MC-322
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Web site:
www.grad.uiuc.edu/thesis/
Phone: (217) 333-6278
Fax: (217) 333-8019
E-mail: thesis@uiuc.edu
In order to graduate, a student must meet (1) the deadline to apply for graduation for the desired degree period, (2) the deadline for taking the final examination or oral defense (usually this applies only to doctoral candidates), and (3) the deadline for depositing the thesis. Deadlines are set each term and are posted at www.grad.uiuc.edu/thesis/deadlines.htm.
For policies regarding degree requirements and final examination committees, please see the Graduate College Handbook at www.grad.uiuc.edu/gradhandbook/.
Students are required to submit the thesis within 1 year of the final examination date. If more than 1 year has elapsed between the date of the final examination and the date of deposit, the student must submit a letter issued by the advising department, and signed by the department chair, indicating that the document being deposited is essentially the same as the work previously defended. The letter must be submitted with deposit materials.
Doctoral candidates who will be using any course work that is more than 7 years old at the time of the degree conferral (i.e., October, December and May) they select, and master's degree candidates who will be using any course work that is more than 5 years old at the time of the degree conferral (i.e., August, October, December and May) they select, must petition the Graduate College asking that the course work be accepted for the degree. The petition must include an explanation from the department regarding how the student's knowledge in the field meets current standards. This justification is needed for degree certification and is required when the student is placed on the degree list. As an example, a master’s student planning to graduate in October 2007 would have to petition to apply coursework taken in the Fall 2002 or earlier semesters. (Please note that this date refers to the date of graduation/conferral not the date of defense.)
Students who will have passed their Expected Graduation Date (EGD) before their degree is conferred, will need to petition for a time extension in order to deposit their thesis. Normally master’s students have 5 years from their first enrollment in the Graduate College. Doctoral students have 6 or 7 years depending upon their previous earned degrees. For more information, see Section C, “Time Limits,” in the chapter for your respective degree in the Graduate College Handbook (Chapter V, “Requirements for the Master’s Degree,” or Chapter VI, “Requirements for the Doctoral Degree”). If you do not know your EGD, your department can tell you.
Information on the graduate student petition process can be found at www.grad.uiuc.edu/admissions/petition_instruct.cfm.
There are several campus resources available to students as they are writing their theses and preparing to begin the deposit process.
The Writers’ Workshop is part of the Center for Writing Studies. Students are encouraged to contact The Writers’ Workshop for help expressing their ideas through writing. Consultants offer free writing assistance to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students from all disciplines and are willing to help students through all stages of the writing process. For more information or to schedule an appointment with a consultant from The Writers’ Workshop, call 217-333-8796 or visit www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/index.htm.
The Dissertation Writing Workshop, facilitated by Greg Lambeth, PhD, from the campus Counseling Center, focuses on some of the difficulties typically encountered by doctoral students writing the dissertation and proposes time management and organizational strategies to solve these problems. Participants evaluate how a variety of issues, including procrastination, perfectionism, adviser conflicts and academic and personal challenges and responsibilities, affect the dissertation and propose specific solutions. There will also be a series of exercises that allow participants to analyze their goals and priorities related to the dissertation, formulate a time management plan and construct a method of monitoring future progress. The primary goal is to help participants identify the obstacles to progress on their dissertation projects and develop realistic, pragmatic solutions. This workshop is usually offered twice a year. Visit www.grad.uiuc.edu/mastercalendar for upcoming dates or call the Graduate College at 333-4610. Advance registration is required.
To help familiarize students with the deposit process and requirements and answer students’ questions, the Thesis Office offers workshops during each deposit period. These workshops cover procedures, deadlines, required deposit materials, and basic formatting rules. While all graduate students currently working on theses are welcome to attend, each workshop is geared primarily toward students who are preparing to deposit during that particular period. Details about thesis deposit workshops, including dates offered, are posted on the Web at www.grad.uiuc.edu/mastercalendar.htm. No registration is required.
Many students, particularly doctoral students, have already moved away from the Champaign-Urbana area prior to deposit. In such cases, the Thesis Office recommends that a friend or faculty member on campus assist with the thesis review and deposit process on behalf of the student. Because this is not always feasible, the Thesis Office also accepts deposits by mail in certain circumstances. Students must contact the Thesis Office at least 6 weeks before the intended deposit date in order to receive permission to deposit by mail, and must explain the reason for needing to deposit by mail. Each case is reviewed independently. The long-distance review and deposit process takes more time and coordination; therefore students will be assigned individualized deadlines and will be expected to submit all materials for deposit 1 to 2 weeks prior to the regular deposit deadline. Please contact the Thesis Office at thesis@uiuc.edu for more information about these options.
If you have a question that is not addressed in this handbook or need additional information, please contact the Thesis Office. Because formatting rules occasionally change and special exceptions are sometimes made on a case-by-case basis, it is important that you do not copy formatting from a previously deposited thesis.