5. Graduation Process

During the final semester of completing your dissertation, you must begin planning for graduation.

5.1 - Admission to Candidacy

To be officially admitted to candidacy for a doctoral degree, you must have satisfied the following requirements:

The "Doctoral Degree Candidacy Form" and “Apply to Graduate Application" must be filed by the deadline on the Graduate School website.
The student must have at least a "B" average on all course work listed on the candidacy forms as well as on any other graduate work taken at The U of M within the ten-year time limit. Grades of "D" or "F" are not accepted for any graduate degree credit, but these grades will be computed in the No more than six (6) credit hours of grade "C" will be counted toward degree requirements.
All coursework offered for the doctoral degree must have been completed within a ten-year time frame ending at the date the degree is conferred. For information about Course Validation, please refer to the Academic Regulations section of the Graduate Catalog. Please refer to the Transfer Credit section of the Graduate Catalog for the rules to count hours earned outside of the University of Memphis. Transfer credits must be approved by the PhD coordinator in your concentration.
The student's entire program, including the dissertation, must be acceptable to the dissertation committee, and approved at all the appropriate levels as per the Dissertation Proposal Defense Form.

Use the following checklist for meeting graduation deadlines, published each semester on the Graduate School website:

Apply for graduation through myMemphis
Submit the Doctoral Degree Candidacy
Defend the dissertation and complete all required
Submit Dissertation Final Defense Results form to the Graduate
Submit the dissertation to the Graduate
Order cap and gown (if participating in commencement). Regalia orders must be received no later than three weeks before commencement Late orders will not be accepted.