A student who has been accepted by the Graduate School is formally admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. by the University at the recommendation of the student's supervisory committee. Admission to candidacy occurs after the student:
An application for candidacy must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than the last day preceding the semester of graduation. For the degree to be conferred, the approved Program of Study form must be completed and the dissertation completed and publicly defended.
Each of these steps is described below. Most of the steps involve completing and submitting a properly signed form. Forms and assistance are available from the Graduate Coordinator.
Supervisory Committee. Each student forms a supervisory committee whose members guide the student's research program. The committee conducts the student's written qualifying examination, oral qualifying examination, and dissertation defense. A Ph.D. supervisory committee consists of five faculty members. At least three faculty members must be from the School, and at least one member from outside the School of Computing. Any School of Computing regular faculty member may serve as a supervisory committee chair. Research or adjunct faculty may chair supervisory committees if accorded that privilege by the regular faculty. Individuals who are not faculty members may serve on supervisory committees if nominated by the regular faculty on the committee, and endorsed by the Graduate Studies Committee and School Director.
Final approval of all supervisory committees is granted by the Dean of the Graduate School. Students must form this committee by the end of the second semester of study, although a committee may be revised later by petition to the Graduate Studies Committee.
Required Courses.
Ph.D. students must demonstrate core knowledge in computer science by
passing 5 specified courses, prior to the start of their fifth
semester of study, with grades of B or better in each course and an
overall GPA in the specified courses greater than 3.5. The specified
courses consist of CS 6100 (Foundations of Computer Science), CS 5460
(Operating Systems), and CS 6810 (Advanced Computer Architecture),
plus two of the following four courses: CS 5470 (Compiler Principles
and Techniques), CS 6480 (Data Communications and Networking), CS 6520
(Programming Languages and Semantics), and CS 6210 (Advanced
Scientific Computing). At most 9 credits of the 27 semester hours of
regular graduate course work required of Ph.D. candidates can consist
of the specified courses listed above.
Students may not place out of this requirement by substituting or transfering courses from other institutions. However, with approval of the Graduate Studies Committee, a student may replace one or more of these courses with a more advanced course in the same or related subject areas. Substitute courses must be ``regular'' classes with exams and/or assignments, not seminar, readings, or independent study classes. The Graduate Studies Committee has a list of pre-approved substitutions given in below. Other substitutions require approval ahead of time. Notice that a student must have 5 distinct courses that satisfy the Ph.D. course reqiurements. Each advanced course can be offered as a substitute for only one required course.
Program of Study. Course work listed on the approved Program of Study form must comprise at least 50 semester hours of graduate course work and dissertation research, exclusive of independent study. Graduate course work applied toward an M.S. degree may be included. At least 14 semester hours of dissertation research (CS 7970) and 27 semester hours of graduate course work must be included. Up to 20 hours of graduate level coursework already applied to other degrees may be used in the program of study. See Section 2.5 for more information on this.
CS courses on the Program of Study must be at the 6000 level or above, excluding independent study, seminars, and research credits. Of the required 27 semester hours, up to 6 may be graduate courses outside of CS.
Neither courses CS 6930-CS 6944 (Computer Science Seminars) nor Independent study (CS 6950 and CS 7950) can be included in the Program of Study for the Ph.D. degree.
One year of study must be spent in full-time residency at the University (i.e., the student must enroll for a minimum of nine hours per semester for two consecutive semesters, summer optionally excluded). After the residency requirement is fulfilled, registration for three semester hours of CS 7970 (Ph.D. Dissertation Research) is considered a full load.
A student may register for CS 6020 if that student writes and publishes a peer-reviewed article based on research performed in the University of Utah School of Computing. The contribution of the student to the article should be equivalent to that conferred by first authorship. The paper should be published in a respectable outlet. It is the responsibility of the student's advisor to determine whether the student has made such a contribution, and whether the outlet is of sufficient quality. This paper must be accepted for publication prior to the end of the second year of study.
The Program of Study form should be filed with the School in the second semester of study and with the Graduate School prior to taking the qualifying examination. The Program of Study form must be submitted to the Graduate Records Office no later than the last day of the semester preceding the semester of graduation.
Dissertation Proposal. The student should prepare and receive approval for a dissertation proposal by the end of the sixth semester of study (not counting summers). A copy of the dissertation proposal must be in the student's file. For guidelines on preparing proposals, consult Discussion on Ph.D. Thesis Proposals in Computing Science, by H. C. Lauer. Copies are available from the Graduate Coordinator or from the Thesis Editor. The dissertation proposal must be approved at least one semester prior to the semester of the dissertation defense.
Qualifying Examination. After passing the Comprehensive Examination, all Ph.D. students must pass a Qualifying Examination, as specified by the Graduate School. The Qualifying Exam consists of a written part, to be conducted first, and an oral part.
The written part of the Qualifying Examination will cover the candidate's general area of specialization in sufficient depth to demonstrate his/her preparation for conducting Ph.D.-level research. Each member of the student's supervisory committee will contribute one or more questions to this exam. The supervisory committee will provide a written evaluation of this part of the exam, including an indication of whether or not the student will be allowed to proceed to the oral part of the Qualifying Examination.
The oral part comprises the dissertation proposal defense. At the supervisory committee's option, it may also include follow-up questions relating to the written part of the exam. All members of the supervisory committee should certify that the proposal is ready to be defended prior to conducting the oral part of the Qualifying Exam.
Students should pass their Qualifying Examination by the end of their sixth semester of study, not counting summer enrollment. The Qualifying Examination must be completed no less than one semester prior to defense of the dissertation.
Completing Program of Study. A Ph.D. student is expected to devote the necessary time to courses and research in order to make satisfactory progress toward the degree. Satisfactory progress includes personal participation in the research and teaching environment of the School on a day-to-day basis.
Dissertation. The completed dissertation must be published either in its entirety (through a legitimate publisher of the student's choice or through University Microfilms) or as one or more articles accepted for publication in approved scholarly journals. An abstract of each dissertation must be published in University Microfilms' Dissertation Abstracts International. Other requirements are common with the M.S. degree program and are discussed below.
| Required course | Approved substitutes |
| 6810 Advanced Computer Architecture | 6820 |
| 6830 | |
| 6710 | |
| 6720 | |
| 6770 | |
| 6740 | |
| 5460 Operating Systems | 6460 |
| 6480 | |
| 6960 (Advanced Networking) | |
| 6100 Foundations of Computer Science | 6110 |
| 7120 | |
| 7960 (Advanced Algorithnms) | |
| 5470 Compiler Principles and Techniques | 6470 |
| 6820 | |
| 6480 Data Communications and Networking | 6460 |
| 6960 (Advanced Networking) | |
| 6520 Programming Languages and Semantics | 6470 |
| 6210 Advanced Scientific Computing | 7240 |
| 6220 | |
| 7120 |