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Saturday, 2010-07-31

The process to a Ph.D.

The doctoral program in Expressive Arts combines two Summer residential training's at EGS leading to a Certificate of Advanced Post-Graduate Studies (CAGS) with individualized dissertation research in the student's home country.

The program consists of two parts:

Qualifying Period

Here the student completes the requirements and writes a Qualifying Paper. If it is accepted, the student can proceed to Doctoral  Candidacy.

Candidacy Period

The student establishes their Doctoral Committee and writes their Dissertation with the help of their Senior Advisor. The Doctoral Committee must approve the Dissertation Proposal.

When the Dissertation is completed and accepted by the Committee, the Doctoral Examination and Defense will take place. Upon successful completion of the Doctoral Defense, the student will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). The degree will be formally conferred during the Summer school subsequent upon the completion of the Defense. Students are encouraged to attend the Ceremony of Conferral of the Degree and celebrate the occasion.

Guidelines for the Qualifying Paper

The qualifying paper consists of one or more essays based on questions put to the student by his/her advisor.

  1. The essays should total no less than 15 and no more than 30 typewritten, double-spaced pages.
  2. The essays should show an ability to think clearly and coherently and to write well.
  3. The essays should explore options for further research.
  4. The essays will be evaluated by the student's advisor, in terms of a judgment of the students ability to do doctoral work.
  5. The essays must be accepted, i.e., evaluated as good or better, in order for the student to proceed to doctoral candidacy.
  6. If the essays are not accepted, the student may ask for an opportunity to re-write them.
  7. If the essays are still not accepted, the student may appeal for a second reader. The second reader will be from the list of senior advisors chosen by the core faculty council (or Doctoral Program Council).
  8. If both the student's advisor and the second reader do not accept the qualifying paper, the student cannot proceed to doctoral candidacy.
  9. The fee for application for doctoral candidacy is 900 CHF. This fee must be paid before the qualifying paper is presented to the student's advisor.

Dissertation Proposal

The purpose of the Dissertation Proposal is to demonstrate the relevance of the dissertation topic and the student's competence to undertake the research.

The Dissertation Proposal must be approved by the Senior Advisor (First Reader) and the other members of the Doctoral Committee before the student can commence dissertation research.

The Dissertation Proposal should have the following form:

  • Working title
  • The research question or topic on which the dissertation will focus
  • Rationale for the research
  • Methodology
  • Sketch of outline with some narrative about possible contents
  • Projected timeline
  • Sample bibliography

Upon approval, a copy of the Dissertation Proposal must be sent to the Director of the Doctoral Program.

Doctoral Program Council

The Rector of EGS appoints the Doctoral Program Council (DPC). The DPC responds to all questions connected to the Doctoral Program at EGS. The DPC decides about the admission of a doctoral student, as well as the examination and graduation procedure. The DPC also has to approve the Senior Advisor (First Reader), Second Reader, other members of the Doctoral Committee and the Examination Committee.

The DPC consists of 5 members. Each cooperating institution is offered a seat in this council. The other members are recommended by the Program Directors of EGS. Three members must have had Senior Advisor status in other accredited Doctoral Programs. All of them must have a terminal degree and teaching experience in higher education. They are elected for 4 years. Reelection is possible. Decisions are made by a simple majority.

Doctoral Committee

A Doctoral Committee (DC) serves the student as an advisory board during Phase I and II. The DC consists of a Senior Advisor (First Reader) and one or two members. If qualified, one may later serve as Second Reader. The DC has at least three members including the student. The Senior Advisor is responsible for the advising and is the academic Chair of the committee, while the student convenes the meetings.

The Senior Advisor may invite adjunct faculty members if the discourse makes it necessary. The student can include one peer in the DC. Adjunct faculty members preferably are from cooperating programs.

Senior Advisors

Senior Advisors are faculty members of EGS who have experience as Senior Advisors in other accredited Doctoral Programs or have a terminal degree and extensive experience as faculty members in accredited Graduate Schools and in Doctoral Committees. They are appointed by the Doctoral Program Council.

Dissertation Readers

Usually the Senior Advisor is also designated to serve as the First Reader of the dissertation. The Second Reader must meet the same criteria as a Senior Advisor. Second Readers may be from a faculty other than EGS. The Senior Advisor or doctoral student may request a Third Reader who may be a professional who does not meet the criteria of a Senior Advisor but has expertise in the field of study. The Senior Advisor, after consultation with the Doctoral Student, makes a recommendation for the one or two additional readers. The Doctoral Program Council must approve the readers.

Evaluation & Acceptance of the Dissertation

Examination: The Dissertation Readers give a written evaluation of the Dissertation and a grade: very good - good - satisfactory - unsatisfactory. If the Dissertation is of exceptional quality, it may be evaluated with "summa cum laude". A Dissertation is accepted, if all evaluations are at least satisfactory.

The Doctoral Program Council will intervene if one reader (not the Senior Advisor) has judged the Dissertation to be unsatisfactory. If the dispute cannot be resolved after such an intervention, the council will follow the suggestions of the Senior Advisor for another reader and then form an average of all submitted grades.

The Dissertation may also be returned to the candidate for revisions, if all readers agree to such a procedure. The suggestions for the revision, however, must be concise and clear. If two readers have judged the dissertation to be unsatisfactory, the dissertation will be rejected and the examination can not be taken.

Examination Committee

For each Doctoral Examination, an Examination Committee (EC) will be elected. The EC consists of the readers and an additional member of the faculty. The Doctoral Candidate may submit suggestions for the additional member. The Doctoral Program Council (DPC) will, whenever possible, follow the suggestions and make the final decision. The DPC will also designate one of the readers as the Chair; usually it will be the Senior Advisor.

The Examination Committee will be responsible for the Defense Meeting and will evaluate the outcome. The EC will also grade the entire Doctoral Work taking the readers' evaluations of the Dissertation into account. The decision of the EC is final and will be presented to the Doctoral Program Council for referral of the degree to the Rector of EGS.

Defense

The Chairperson of the DPC will announce to the candidate the date of the defense after the Dissertation is accepted. The date is determined in consultation with the candidate. The Defense must focus on the Dissertation and the questions that arise from dissertation-related research. The Defense session will start with a short presentation by the candidate that introduces the dissertation research, content and results.

The Defense is convened by the Chairperson of the Examination Committee, who also designates the taker of the minutes. The session will normally not last longer than two hours and the presentation by the candidate must be within a time-frame of 20 minutes. The Defense is public.

Examination Results

The Examination Committee will decide the outcome immediately after the Defense in a non-public meeting. The EC will also decide the final qualification. Compared to the Defense, the evaluation of the dissertation will have double weight in determining the final qualification.

The Defense must be judged to be satisfactory at least.?It may be repeated if the grade is unsatisfactory and must happen, at the earliest, within three months and, at the latest, by two years after the first attempt. A third attempt is not possible.

The EC will announce the results to the Doctoral Program Council for approval. The Rector will then hand a letter of completion to the candidate that includes the final grade.

Publication of the Dissertation

The Dissertation has to be published in some form within a year after the completion of the examination. A partial publication that represents the?essence of the work may be approved by the Doctoral Committee. The deadline may be extended by the Rector.

The dissertation must be available to the public. To confirm this, the candidate will deliver a total of five bound copies of the dissertation to EGS free of charge. (Three for the examination file, two for the library). In addition, the candidate has to demonstrate that

  1. an abstract in English and German (approved by the Senior Advisor) with the "International Library Code" was sent to the relevantpublications database
  2. the Dissertation was distributed publicly with a minimum edition?of 80 copies or one copy with a master was delivered to EGS with a supplement of an electronic database.


Currently EGS offers students a new option to have the Dissertation on record at EGS. In order to have your dissertation on record you should submit your dissertation either on PC-formatted 3 1/4" disks or on a burned CD-ROM. EGS will only accept your dissertation-file in Microsoft Word format either WinWord 95 (or higher) for Windows or MacWord 5 (or higher) for Mac. Make sure you submit your Dissertation combined in only ONE file, but you may prefer to have your file compressed (or spanned to multiple disks) in a self-extracting file format. Students may choose between a minimal "only text version" or a "complete version including scans of pictures". Students who are not able (or not able to afford it) to include scanned images should leave in the "only text version" a little space and/or add a text where the picture should be included. You also may mention on the text page your address and offer a complete illustrated Dissertation for sale or loan. Formatting details are available through the EGS office.

EGS plans to store your electronic dissertation file in a big dissertation database, which will be accessible in all the affiliated programs. In addition, according to copyright reasons, you will have to give EGS permission. Mention on the coverpage: "Hereby I give EGS the copyright to send the Dissertation file on CD-ROM to people who are interested in my thesis and for download on the EGS homepage." In this case the author gives all the rights for copying and distribution to EGS.

Conferral of the Ph.D. Degree

After the conditions, Publication are met, the degree will be conferred by the Rector. The Doctoral Diploma will show the degree title and the evaluation. It will be signed by the Rector and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. The Diploma will include the date of the doctoral examination and the seal of EGS. It will also show the signature of the representatives of the cooperating Graduate Schools in the graduate council and list these institutions. The use of the terminal degree title, Ph.D., is not permitted before the Diploma is received.