7.221, Sum: Ph.D. Committees

The Linguist List linguist at tam2000.tamu.edu
Sat Feb 10 20:26:05 UTC 1996


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LINGUIST List:  Vol-7-221. Sat Feb 10 1996. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  662
 
Subject: 7.221, Sum: Ph.D. Committees
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu> (On Leave)
            T. Daniel Seely: Eastern Michigan U. <dseely at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: lveselin at emunix.emich.edu (Ljuba Veselinova)
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 06 Feb 1996 18:00:12 CST
From:  eubank at jove.acs.unt.edu (Lynn Alan Eubank)
Subject:  Survey of 'external member' requirements
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Tue, 06 Feb 1996 18:00:12 CST
From:  eubank at jove.acs.unt.edu (Lynn Alan Eubank)
Subject:  Survey of 'external member' requirements
 
This internet survey was carried out by several personal requests
and by a more general request distributed over three discussion lists
(LINGUIST, E-GRAD, SLART). The general request read as
follows:
 
     Here at the Univ of North Texas, the administration
     has dropped the requirement that PhD committees
     include an  outside' member (i.e., a faculty member
     from some other department); individual
     departments may elect to retain the  outside'
     requirement. As one might expect, the whole affair
     has generated a good deal of heated debate. I would
     like to hear from folks at other PhD-granting
     institutions on what their policy is. Specifically,
 
     1. What institution are you affiliated with?
     2. Does your institution require an  outside' member
     on PhD committees?
     3. Is the  outside' requirement a departmental option
     only?
 
I have received responses from 89 individuals at 68 institutions.
Most responses were complete; some were less complete. (The off-the-
cuff nature of the questionnaire itself probably didn't help much
here.) Incomplete or ambiguous information is indicated either with
ND (no data) or with an asterisk. Many respondents included
interesting and potentially valuable commentary. Any notes that
directly relate to the interpretation of data are included below the
response. Commentary of an evaluative nature is included at the
end of the survey.
   To those of you who sent information, I thank you. If you would
like to receive a hard copy of this survey, please let me know.
Lynn Eubank
EUBANK at JOVE.ACS.UNT.EDU
North America:
Institution              Required  Option
 
Univ of Alberta          Yes*      No
     "... our graduate school policy requires not only a member on
     each PhD committee from outside the department, but also an
      external examiner' (from another institution) as well. This is the
     policy for most, if not all, Canadian universities. the member
     from another institution submits a written report on the thesis
     prior to defense, especially if that person is unable to attend the
     defense in person.
 
     "In the past,we have paid for external members to attend the
     defences, but with budgetary constraints, this is no longer
     possible. Yet the input from an external member is still a
     requirement of the university."
 
Boston Univ             Yes*      No
     "The  outside member' requirement is not a departmental option
     -- it applies to all doctoral students in the School of Education.
 
     "PS These requirements may not be the same for the Graduate
     School, so I hope somebody from there also answers your
     question."
 
Bowling Green State Univ Yes       No
 
Univ of Calgary          ND*       ND*
     "Our dept. doesn't have a PhD program, but I know the
     institution can bring in outside members for PhD defenses."
 
Univ of California, Berkeley  Yes       No
     applies to both comprehensive examination committee and the
     dissertation committee
 
Univ of California, Davis  No        Yes
     "...whether or not someone from outside the dept. can be on
     either the exam or diss committee has to be approved by the
     department."
 
Univ of California, Los Angeles    Yes       No
 
Carleton Univ (Canada)   Yes       No
     "At Carleton University there is the requirement that there be a
     member from outside the department. If there is no one qualified
     enough from a neighbouring discipline, a member is sought from
     outside the university."
 
Univ of Cincinnati       No        ND
 
Univ of Colorado, Boulder Yes       No
 
Univ of Delaware         No*       Yes*
     "I don't know about other department[s] for sure, but I think
     they require them as well."
 
     "This is a college level requirement for [Arts and Sciences] and
     a departmental level requirement in Educational Studies."
 
Univ of Denver           Yes       ND
 
East Texas State University   Yes*      No
     "Our policy here at ET requires that one member of the doctoral
     thesis committee be from a department other than the home
     department of the student. Additionally, the Grad School
     requires that each proposal and final defense include an
      observer' chosen by the Grad Dean's office from among all
     grad faculty members."
 
Florida State Univ       Yes       No
     "...attendance is mandatory for Comprehensive Orals and
     Dissertation Defense--any of the others may be absent, including
     the Major Professor, as long as a quorum is in attendance."
 
Georgetown Univ          No        ND
 
Harvard                  No*       Yes*
     "Harvard requires two readers, no formal defense. The primary
     reader must be full faculty in the ... department, the second
     reader can be junior faculty in the department or full faculty in
     another department (at Harvard or not). The formal requirements
     are minimal; the idea is that in adequate work is caught much
     earlier in the game."
 
 
Univ of Hawai'i          Yes*      No
     "...the outside member cannot be from another university, i.e., it
     must be an outside member from within the University of
     Hawai'i graduate faculty."
 
Univ of Idaho            Yes       No
 
Univ of Illinois, Champaign   No        Yes
 
Indiana Univ             No        Yes*
     "I'm not sure whether any departments impose this requirement
     or not. The [area] department ... do not impose such a
     requirement.  Outside' committee members for either PhD
     exams or the dissertation generally correspond to  outside'
     minors that PhD students can elect to take."
 
Indiana University of Pennsylvania No        ND*
     "...the only situation which I know of when an outside person is
     brought in is when there aren't enough faculty here who are
     scholars of a particular area."
 
Univ of Iowa             No*       Yes*
     (These represent my extrapolation from two, apparently
     conflicting responses.)
 
Iowa State Univ          Yes       No
 
Univ of Kansas           Yes       No
 
Louisiana State Univ     Yes       No
 
Univ of Massachusetts, Amherst     Yes       No
 
McGill Univ              Yes       No
     "At McGill ..., every PhD or MA thesis must be sent to an
     outside examiner - meaning not only outside the university. This
     is a University requirement. In our department, we usually
     choose someone well-known in the field.
 
     "In addition, on the PhD defense committee, there must be
     someone from outside the department (and since we often cannot
     find someone within the university who will understand a [area]
     thesis, we often find someone from another [area] dept. in
     Montreal). Finally, there is also a pro-dean at the defense who
     chairs the defense and represents the university. These, again,
     are university requirements."
 
Univ of Michigan         Yes       No*
     "The outside member I believe was required by the Graduate School ..."
 
Michigan State Univ      No*       Yes*
     "...in at least the Colleges of Arts and Letters, and Social
     Science, the dean will appoint somebody from outside the
     department to sit in on the dissertation defense."
 
Univ of Montana          Yes       No
 
Univ of New Mexico       Yes       No
     "... we have an option (kind of)--the outside reader can be
     someone from another department on campus or from another
     [X] dept on another campus."
 
City Univ of New York    No        Yes
 
State Univ of New York, Albany     No        Yes*
     "If it is considered appropriate, a department may request
     someone from another department, or even from another
     institution ..."
 
State Univ of New York,   Binghamton University
                         Yes*      Yes*
     [Does your institution require an 'outside' member on PhD
     committees?] "Not exactly. It does require an  outside examiner'
     at the time of the final oral examination (= defense) of the
     dissertation, which must receive the unanimous approval of the
     department committee prior to scheduling the defense.  To be
     sure, the candidate might still fail the oral exam -- by failing to
     present its contents coherently -- but in this event the oral is
     simply rescheduled.  Also, the committee may require
     substantial revisions of the text, but these revisions cannot go
     beyond issues of rephrasing or relatively minor additional
     analysis without contradicting the letter and spirit of the
     committee's prior approval of the dissertation.  Furthermore, the
     outside examiner's approval of the dissertation is NOT required
     for receipt of the degree; the O.E. role therefore becomes one of
     keeping everyone honest and providing an educated outsider's
     commentary on the dissertation."
     [Is the 'outside' requirement a departmental option only?] " This
     sounds like the same question as the second 1 above, unless you
     mean to refer to outside members of the committee proper,
     which are not required but are allowed as long as at least two
     members of the Binghamton faculty serve on the committee.
     Most departments also require that the chair of every dissertation
     committee be a regular member of the department faculty (no
     adjuncts, no faculty from other departments or institutions) and
     some require that at least two members be from the awarding
     department, but these stipulations are subject to department
     judgment, if memory serves (this note is being done without
     benefit of the university documents in my office).
 
State Univ of New York, Buffalo    Yes*      ND
     "Generally, it's someone outside of the dept., not the university,
     although some students do use readers from other institutions."
 
 
State Univ of New York, Stony Brook
                         Yes       No
 
Univ of North Dakota     Yes*      ND
     "... the [X] dept. requires an outside member (I think all depts
     do) ..."
 
Univ of North Texas      No        Yes
 
Ontario Institute of Education/University of Toronto
                         Yes*      No
     "Along with the core members (three) from the Institute, the
     candidate must have an internal-external and an external-external. The ext
ernal-external most be someone entirely outside
     the OISE-University of Toronto community. The internal-external must be so
meone who is a part of the University of
     Toronto, but NOT CROSS-APPOINTED with the Institute."
 
Univ of Oregon           Yes       No
 
Univ of Pennsylvania    No*       ND*
     1. Any member of a "graduate group" may serve on the
     committee. "... graduate groups are those entities that grant
     graduate degrees and therefore decide admissions, requirements,
     exams. The also teach grad courses and are the ones that may
     serve on dissertation committees." Departments are distinct:
     "[departments] are budgetary units -- you get paid thru them and
     everyone has to belong to some dept. they are what hires and
     fires". "Having some university faculty NOT a member of [the
     student's] grad group on one's committee would be VERY
     unlikely -- the student would have to give a long story about why
     this person was (a) fit and (b) relevant. Having someone
     OUTSIDE the university altogether, e.g. at another university, is
     far more doable and not uncommon. In computer science ...
     every committee MUST include one member who is NOT at
     Penn. (Computer science brings them to Penn for the proposal
     defense and the final defense plus usually pays for the student to
     go see them once or twice.)"
     2. "Each school within the university sets its own requirements.
     In the School of Arts and Sciences and in the Graduate School of
     Education, the answer is no [outside member required]."
 
Univ of Pittsburgh       Yes*      No
     "The exact wording in the  Regulations' is,  The proposal
     committee should include at least one representative from
     another Dept. in the University of Pittsburgh or from an
     appropriate graduate program at another academic institution, to
     serve as [sic] the doctoral committee.' So SHOULD I guess is
     not MUST. But in practice, I think it is interpreted as requiring
     an outside member."
 
Purdue Univ              No        Yes
 
Univ du Quebec a Montreal Yes*      No
     "Here in Canada the PhD committee is composed of members of
     the department delivering the degree, an external examiner who
     is from a different university (I say a different university, not
     department or school or faculty), and a representative of the
     Dean of Graduate Studies. And in the evaluation process, the
     position of the external examine is predominant, for one
     presumes that he or she should have a more objective look at the
     work, given the fact that he does not have any nattachment
     neither to the candidate, nor to the department."
 
Rutgers Univ             Yes       No
 
San Diego State Univ     Yes*      ND*
     "We have required outside members for the MA thesis ..."
 
Univ of South Alabama    No*       ND*
     "There is no institutional policy. In the College of Education the
     committee is all powerful. Most of the committees indeed do
     have a member from another  specialty" (not necessarily from
     another department). For example, the PhD is in Instructional
     Design and Development which is administered by the
     Behavioral Sciences and Educational Technology. Some
     candidates have selected a committee member from Curriculum
     Design, others from the College of Business or the College of
     Medicine, or even from the Dept. of Foreign Languages!"
 
Univ of South Carolina, Columbia   Yes*      No
     "... possible to have an outside committee member from another
     institution, but special permission has to be granted."
 
Univ of Southern California   Yes       No
     appears to apply to both examinations and dissertation
 
Univ of South Florida   Yes       Yes*
     "... apparently here it may well be an OPTION..."
 
Southern Illinois Univ   Yes*      No*
     "The committee should include an external member -- but this
     person need only be someone outside the student's department --
     there is no requirement that this person should be from another
     university."
 
Univ of Texas, Arlington No*       Yes*
     "We ... currently have a PhD [in] Humanities ... option. It always
     requires three areas. One of these is from Humanities. So, for
     that reason all committees have members from  outside' the
     department. ... We are applying for a PhD in [area]. It will not
     require an side member."
 
Univ of Texas, Austin    Yes       No
 
Texas A&M Univ           Yes       ND
 
Univ of Utah             No        Yes
 
Univ of Washington       Yes       No
 
Univ of Wisconsin, Madison    Yes       No
     "This ... is a relatively recent change ..."
 
     "This person is not required to be a reader of the dissertation,
     but must be present for the conference. Obviously, such a person
     serves a  watchdog' function."
 
Outside North America:
Institution              Required  Option
 
Australia, Northern Territory Univ Yes       No
 
Finland (and Scandinavia) Yes       No
     "In Scandinavia, not just Finland, the PhD thesis is submitted to
     public debate under very strict rules. One of the rules is that you
     must have an  opponent' who is not just outside the department,
     but outside the country! However, said opponent must be a
     recognized expert in the field (often very narrow) of the thesis.
     Similarly, all PhD theses must be submitted in draft form to at
     least two readers, one of whom should be from another
     university but also an expert in the field in question. The third
     reader is your thesis supervisor. The draft must be accepted and
     revised AND PRINTED, i.e.,  published', usually in a university
      series') BEFORE the PhD public debate. Anyone can attend the
     public debate and a couple I've seen have been downright
     nasty."
 
France (with a comment on Spain)   Yes       No
     "In France, where 95% of the universities are state universities,
     there is a LAW requiring that at least two members of the jury at
     the viva be from an outside university. The same law requires
     there to be at least 3 members but the general rule is that 4
     people sit on the committee, which means that outsiders are
     between two thirds and one half. In Spain, there is a nice rule
     which just forbids the supervisor to belong to the board of
     examiners. S/he usually sits among the public, and, being a
     doctor, s/he's entitled to say a few words after the committee
     have their own bit."
 
Germany, Univ Hamburg    Yes       No
 
Germany, Univ Potsdam    Yes*      No*
     "I've now re-read the actual Ordnung, and it doesn't actually
     specify where the Gutachter has to come from. The committees
     that I have been on so far have all involved people from outside
     the university. Since the regulations don't specify, I assume that
     the thesis director and the dandidate decide who the second
     Gutachter should be on the basis of the contents of the thesis.
     Normally (given the way things work around here) that would
     invariably require someone from outside the same university, but
     presumably not always. Since the externals never show up for
     the defense, it makes no difference from the university's
     perspective, i.e., no one is being flown from anywhere for the
     defense."
 
Germany, Univ Stuttgart  No        Yes
 
Holland, Leiden Univ     Yes       No
     "PhD dissertations in Leiden (Holland generally) are publically
     defended. There is a committee of minimally 5 people, the
     majority of which has to be from outside the department, the
     majority of which has to consist of full professors. Of course, this
     committee has a different role from the committee supervising
     the students' work."
 
Ireland, Univ College Dublin  Yes       No
     "All PhDs in the Arts Faculty ... MUST be passed by an external
     examiner in addition to the college examiner(s)."
 
Israel                   Yes*      No
     "Here's the Israeli procedure (same for all universities, I guess):
     There are 3 evaluators of PhD theses, one internal, two external.
     The external can be from another univ. in Israel, or abroad,
     depending on the decision of the dept PhD committee and the
     univ Graduate Office. The selection of evaluators depends on the
     topic. All evaluators must hve the rank of Senior Lecturer at
     least. All universities in Israel are associated with one another
     for that purpose. Each evaluator may require rewrites, wehther
     recommended or conditional. In the latter case, s/he gets the
     thesis again after the correction. All evaluations are received by
     the PhD committee, and in case of discrepancies, yet another
     external evaluator may be suggested."
 
Norway                   Yes       No
     "At the University of Bergen, as at other Norwegian universities,
     regulations require that at least one of the members of a doctoral
     committee must come from an institution outside the university
     in question. The regulations also state that one member, if
     possible, should be from an institution outside Norway."
 
United Kingdom           Yes       No
     "...in Britain ... the requirement was that there be at least one
     external examiner from outside the awarding university, to
     ensure comparability of standards across universities."
 
     "As far as I know, all of Europe includes an academic from
     another institution on final PhD examination committees. Here
     in the UK, the external examiner is the head of the examining
     committee: if your PhD dissertation isn't good enough for the
     standards of another University, it isn't good enough: it may
     have to be revised or it can be awarded a lesser degree or it can
     fail outright. The exam, which can be rough, is private: the
     candidate, one or two internal examiners (one of whom may be
     from another department) and the external examiner are the only
     people present. In northern Europe, the exam is a public defense
     and the external examiner is an  opponent', though the degree of
     peril the student is actually under seems to be a good deal less
     than in the UK.
 
General Commentary:
 
"I think it's an awfully good idea to [have external members],
particularly in departments ... in which faction generally
outpaces community. Should an unsupervised group of three ...
faculty be allowed to confer the highest academic degree on a
candidate? The idea makes me nervous, to say the least!"
 
"... should keep that requirement - otherwise there might be too much
'in-house' b.s."
 
"The idea, of course, is to maintain university level standards.
In the (dark, distant) past we had instances of programs where
one individual essentially determined who would get a degree,
what the degree requirements where (flexible--and based,
apparently, on how much the professor liked the student), whether
the dissertation was adequate."
 
"Supposedly, [the requirement] is to prevent your department from
screwing you over at any stage of your independent work' (i.e.,
beginning at quals and continuing through the defense). Some of
them are even knowledgeable about the subject and can actually
help you along the way."
 
"I DO believe in the concept of AT LEAST having the option of an
OUTSIDE reviewer-committee person to offer questions at the
defense. My reason(s) is(are) as follows: We now live in an
INTERDISCIPLINARY AGE where multiple abilities can often make one
more marketable. A dissertation which is coherent in multiple
applications can be perhaps a better -springboard- to a career."
 
"I do know that I'm having a hard time trying to find someone who
can read [foreign language] and would be interested in [topic]
who is not in my dept."
 
"I can't speak for others, but I've found the experience [of
having an outside member] entirely positive."
 
"Let me add as my personal opinion that I think that this kind of
requirement is extremely important. It is needed in order to
retain a high and comparatively uniform standard for doctoral
degrees across universities and countries. Dropping the
requirement will easily cast suspicion on doctoral degrees from
the university in question."
 
"...most people think of them as an advantage."
 
"When I came to the US, I must confess I was surprised at the
looser requirement of an outside member from another department
of the same university. If the requirements get any weaker, I
wonder how the outside world will judge such PhDs!"
 
"We view this procedure as a protection for the candidate, to
ascertain that s/he is being treated professionally by the
committee, and also for the graduate college, to make certain
that the degree that is awarded was duly earned. ... I think it
adds a lot of credibility to the degree process."
 
"I think what typically happens is that departments have a short
list of faculty who may know little about the area but are deemed
to be sympathetic, and these guys get recycled over and over."
 
"While there seems to be some attempt to pull outside readers
from somewhat-related departments, the [X] Dept. and the
candidate have no say in the choosing of the reader. They want to
keep the veneer of objectivity intact."
 
"I believe the outside member is intended to be a safeguard for
the student against sloppy or highly biased dept. profile. I am
glad to have been able to choose a friendly' outside member."
 
"[the outside membership] occasions a lot of uncertainty, and an
occasional unpleasantness. (Then again, inside members can be
worse.)"
 
"I am currently a doctoral candidate at [institution], and we do
not require outside readers, indeed they seem to be against it. I
personally would like to have someone from the outside because 1)
there is too much internal politics inside the department to find
3 people who will work together in a productive way, and 2) there
is no one in my department who knows enough about my dissertation
topic to truly help me."
 
"It is seen as protection for the student from departmental
politics and bias. The Grad School sees it as somewhat of a
holdover from days when students tended to take more classes
outside of their own department."
 
"I've been on several committees outside our department ... and
find it a very broadening intellectual and scholarly experience.
[I've often made] contributions to the student's research design
that her/his advisors hadn't thought of, from points of view they
don't [have] in their disciplines. I've made a few boners', but
[it was] intellectually broadening!" [The hard copy of this
e-mail message was partially swallowed by my printer; hence the
fill-ins. LE]
 
"Since our dept. is so small, students usually take at least some
courses outside the dept. Students in the [speciality] track
usually take 90 percent of their classes outside of the dept. ...
Because most hispanic [specialty] students develop close
relationships with professors in the [different] dept., (which at
this time does not grant PhD-only MA], and especially since two
professors in the [different] department are hispanic [different
specialists], many students want [specialty] profs either on
their exam committees, or as dissertation directors. So far, we
have not had a problem with out dept. allowing outside profs on
exam and diss committees, but no one has been able, thus far, to
have one as the diss director."
 
"If UNT as a whole is foolish enough to drop it, [the
departmental faculty] should reinstitute it at the departmental
level."
 
"I'm in favor of theoutside member on committes--very often that
member can provide the influence that makes a project make better
sense. ... In an ideal world we'd be ... removing the need for
these cross-check' mechanisms, and we'd be looking to specialists
in other departments to supply needed expertise. ...
Interdisciplinary efforts were quite comon. And they remain a
good, healthy idea."
 
"... [graduate students] get lots to say, I wanted a [area] prof
as mine and got him, a friend wanted a prof in [area] studies and
that was approved as well. It was nice to load' the comm. with at
least one prof who I liked, I had worked with and who comes from
a [location] background wherein profs do NOT interfere with the
dissertation writing"
 
"Although it's always nice when the outside member can bring
substantive expertise to a student's work, one of the outside
member's responsibilities is in effect to keep a department
committee 'honest', to insure that the department members are
requiring rigorous work of its students."
 
"Here at [US institution], we have submitted a proposal for an
interdisciplinary PhD .... in [area] ... where the nature of the
degree would seem to preclude the classification of outside'
member--since it will be housed in the college rather than in a
department."
 
"When one looks at the way PhDs are delivered in some US
universities, one can't help but thinking of a bunch of stars
signing autographs to their fans."
 
"The way we proceed [in Canada] makes the students more
confident, not in endoctrinating them, but in confronting them
with others; they fgeel very proud of it afterwards. I myself
defended my dissertation ... at [university] on [topic]. Up till
today, I still feel very proud of it, for my external examiner
was [professor] of the [different university], one of the most
brilliant [specialists] America has produced. I think it's worth
keeping the option of having an external member on your jury. It
gives your graduates more credibility.
 
"Sounds MUCH easier to get a PhD in Texas."
 
"For what it's worth, as a Briton I find it fairly mind-boggling
that a PhD committee should not have to include an outside
member--all British PhDs are assessed by an examiner from a
different university as well as one or two from inside."
 
"... students usually consider it a pain in the butt and try to
find somebody who is a [specialist], but happens to have a title
like prof of german, etc."
 
"Even though it's a requirement [to have an external member],
it's not clear to me that it accomplishes anything at all.
Instead, I think it's mostly a nuisance, often resulting in a
faculty member who has no interest in a topic and knows nothing
about it taking up valuable space on a committee."
 
"I'm shocked that your U[niversity] has decided to remove outside
members, having served as an outside member on one or two
committees where I was the one who refused to sign."
 
"The idea [of the European public defense] seems to be that you
cannot achieve the distinguished degree of doctor unless you have
tested an opponent in academic argument in public. However quaint
all this may seem, it makes it plain that the final stage for
academic activity is broader than the individual department. It
influences the way we supervise our students, and the way they
write up their work: if they look over their shoulders it is not
at the internal politics of their own department."
 
 
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