Formation of the Dissertation Committee: The university has strict requirements for the Dissertation Committee. Besides the three department members and one University of Oregon outside member, the department encourages an "external member" who shall be a leading researcher in the candidate's field, not at the University of Oregon. The proposed committee should be approved by GEC. When informed of the committee, the Graduate Program Coordinator will submit the information online to the Division of Graduate Studies for final approval. It must be submitted to The Division of Graduate Studies at least one (1) month after the Area exam and in no case less than six (6) months before the dissertation defense.

The Dissertation Proposal: When the student feels they are ready to start dissertation research, they submit a written dissertation proposal to their committee for approval. The dissertation proposal presents the research problems to be tackled, related research, research methodology, anticipated results, and work plan. The committee may request an oral presentation similar to the Area Exam to allow the student to explain and answer questions about the proposed research. The APPROVAL FOR THE DISSERTATION PROPOSAL FORM should be signed by the members of the dissertation committee and the head of GEC and returned to the Graduate Program Coordinator. This form should be filed within six months of the completion of the Area Exam. When the written dissertation is finished and approved by the committee, the student will schedule a public defense. THE CONFIRMATION OF AGREEMENT TO ATTEND FORM is done online in GradWeb by the Ph.D. student, and the APPLICATION FOR FINAL ORAL DEFENSE is initiated by the Graduate Program Coordinator, also in GradWeb. Once in the Oral Defense Module, the student is informed of the guidelines and deadlines for abstract submission and oral defense. In addition to the abstract copies that go to the Division of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Program Coordinator should be copied. Once THE CONFIRMATION OF AGREEMENT TO ATTEND FORM is completed (online), the Division of Graduate Studies will send a CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION to the Chair of the committee.

After the actual defense, the committee may accept the dissertation as defended, request minor changes, or require the student to make major changes and schedule another defense. The Chair of the committee should give the signed CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION to the Graduate Coordinator to be sent to the Graduate School. The student then must submit their Dissertation to CS archives.