Department of Civil Engineering
The Graduate Program













Roger Meier, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Graduate Studies
Room 112C, Engineering Building
rwmeier@memphis.edu

Protocol for the Administration and Evaluation of Comprehensive Examinations

M.S. Thesis

Students, in consultation with their advisor, are to select a thesis committee consisting of at least three faculty members. Students are required to provide their committee members with a final copy of their thesis at least two weeks before their scheduled time of thesis defense. The thesis advisory committee approves the results of the thesis defense. The student’s advisor will complete the forms and send them to the Graduate School. Students must be enrolled in at least one hour of CIVL 7996 in the semester they defend their thesis.

M.S. Project

Students must pass a 4-hour written comprehensive exam covering coursework taken while in the program.  Typically the exam is open-book, open-note and the student has to answer 5 of the 20 to 25 questions submitted, including one each from CIVL 7001 and CIVL 7012. Selected members of the faculty will participate in grading the written exam.  The results of the exam are communicated to the student and the student’s advisor in a memo signed by the Graduate Coordinator.  The Graduate Coordinator completes the Comprehensive Exam Form and sends it to the Graduate School with a copy of the signed memo indicating the results of the exam.  The comprehensive exam is conducted twice every year, typically in November and April. The Graduate Coordinator proctors the written exam. 

Ph.D.

  1. Candidates, in consultation with their dissertation advisor, are to select a dissertation advisory committee consisting of at least five faculty members. 
  2. Candidates are required to take a qualifying exam after the first semester in their Ph.D. program.  The qualifying exam is a closed-book, closed-notes exam consisting of 12 questions provided by the members of the thesis advisory committee. One of the questions must be related to engineering ethics. The candidate is given three hours to answer 10 of the 12 questions. The candidate’s major advisor administers the qualifying exam and the advisory committee members grade their respective exam questions. The results of the exam are communicated to the student and the Graduate Coordinator in a memo signed by the advisor. The advisor completes the Qualifying Exam Form and sends it to the Graduate School with a copy of the signed memo indicating the results of the exam. 
  3. Candidates must pass a written and oral comprehensive exam covering the coursework they have taken while in the program as well as their dissertation research. The written portion of the comprehensive exam is to be scheduled by the candidate’s advisor and will be a take-home exam in which the candidate will be required to demonstrate comprehension and proficiency of the topics covered in the coursework. Candidates will be given as many questions as the dissertation committee members require and will be given a week to complete the exam.  For the oral portion of the comprehensive exam, candidates will present their proposed research and answer questions posed by the dissertation committee. Candidates are required to write a proposal and provide it to their dissertation committee members a week before the date of oral presentation.  The candidate’s dissertation committee will evaluate written and oral parts of the exam results. The candidate’s advisor will complete the Comprehensive Exam Form and send to it the Graduate School with a copy to the Graduate Coordinator. 
  4. After the completion of the dissertation, candidates must provide each member of their dissertation committee a final copy of their dissertation two weeks before their scheduled defense. At the conclusion of the defense, the candidate’s advisor completes the necessary forms and submits them to the Graduate School with a copy to the Graduate Coordinator.