Your Final Dissertation and Defense

The second EPOL 599 course will culminate in an oral presentation and defense to your committee.  You should only register for this course once a final defense date has been established. 

Refer to the Thesis Resources pages for specific details and recommendations regarding your final defense and deposit.

Planning Tip

Be sure to pay attention to the thesis deposit deadlines for the relevant semester. Your committee may have some feedback for you that you’ll need to apply in your final thesis manuscript. These timelines allow you some time after your defense to make final revisions before the thesis deposit deadline, which is usually a month prior to the end of the semester.

Community Updates

Admin Updates with a prefix of 6

EDS Survey

  • Complete the EDS Survey

Milestones

  1. Send your advisor-approved final dissertation Word document to the Dissertation Advisor for dissemination to your committee. Ensure that the document is free of comments, change notes, tracked changes, etc.
  2. Send your presentation PPT to Dr. Francis and Dr. Kalantzis for approval
Examination: Committee Presentation

In addition to your full dissertation manuscript, you will present to your committee your final defense

  1. Prepare a 15-minute oral presentation and present to your peers (30-minute peer session). Their feedback will help you prepare for your final defense committee presentation.
  2. Present your final defense (15 minutes) to your committee in a 60-minute session.
  3. Revise your work based on your committee feedback during the final defense oral exam.
Planning Checklist

Planning

  1. Admin Updates completed
  2. Draft of Chapters 1 to 5 in the Graduate College format with proper filename (your name, work type, brief description, date) sent to Dr. Francis for preliminary review
  3. Title page approved by the Graduate College
  4. Tentative approval from Dr. Francis to schedule final examination
  5. Draft reviewed by a copy editor
  6. Check your transcript to confirm there are grades for all previous courses (except any 599 credits – those aren’t updated until after your final deposit). You should have 64 credits in time for graduation.
  7. Register for 599 during the term/semester when you have been approved to schedule your examination. The number of credits will depend on how many credits you need to reach 64. If you have surpassed 64 credits, then register for zero credits. (Reminder, you need permission in order to register.)
  8. Apply for graduation using Self Service. If you miss the deadline to apply for graduation through Student Self-Service, you will need to fill out two forms. Complete and submit both the ‘Graduate Student Request Form (Petition)‘ to request a late add to the upcoming Degree List and the ‘Add/Remove from Degree List‘ form.
  9. Final draft reviewed by a copy editor
Final Manuscript and Approval for Defense Checklist

Final Manuscript and Approval

  1. Final draft sent to Dr. Kalantzis for final approval with correct filename convention (your name, work type, brief description, date) 
  2. Dr. Kalantzis’ approval to proceed to examination
  3. Final exam committee form filled out (your committee details can be found on your EDS Progress Report and the Final Dissertation and Defense Checklist Form)
  4. PPT sent to Dr. Kalantzis and Dr. Francis, and receive approval
  5. Confirmation of examination date and time
  6. Committee-version of manuscript sent to Dr. Francis at least two weeks prior to the examination – make sure no change notes, no tracked changes, no comments, etc.  Correct title page, etc. A clean version ready for committee’s eyes with the correct filename convention (your name, work type, brief description, date) . She will then distribute your work to your committee.
  7. Monday night’s peer presentations per schedule (our normal zoom link)
  8. Tuesday’s* committee presentation (different zoom link; in the calendar invite)
  9. After your defense, refer to the Deposit page
Post-Final Defense Review Cycles and Deposit

Each review cycle could take up to a week depending on the timing of your submission and volume of other submissions.

  1. Submit your final (final) dissertation to your faculty advisor for deposit approval; revise accordingly.
  2. Submit your final dissertation to the department contact as a PDF for deposit approval; revise accordingly.
    • Online-coded students: Jena: jrooseve@illinois.edu
    • On-Campus-coded students: Linda: ls9@illinois.edu
  3. Submit your final dissertation to the Graduate College as a PDF for deposit approval; revise accordingly.
  4. Send a PDF copy of your final deposited dissertation and your final defense presentation slides to the Dissertation Advisor to be added to our LDL Alumni Dissertation page.

IMPORTANT

Be sure to leave time between your first Graduate College deposit and the deposit deadline just in case the Graduate College has any required edits. All edits MUST be completed and approved by the deposit deadline.

Maintain your Checklist