Oral Dissertation and Defense
Oral Dissertation Proposal Defense
Development of the dissertation is accomplished as a part of the requirements within the required dissertation courses. Under direction of the Faculty Mentor, the student develops a research proposal for submission and approval by the Advisory Dissertation Committee. The proposal provides a thorough description of the proposed study, following proposal guidelines as directed by the Faculty Mentor. The student presents the proposal to the Advisory Dissertation Committee in an oral hearing via a one-hour live teleconference. Any professor or student affiliated with Aspen University may attend but should refrain from participating in the defense process. Upon Advisory Dissertation Committee approval of the proposal, the student is authorized to begin the study. The Faculty Mentor issues written approval to the student using the Approval of the Dissertation Proposal.
Final Oral Dissertation Defense
The Final Oral Dissertation Defense is the last formal step in the dissertation process. The Doctoral student produces and presents the dissertation research before the Advisory Dissertation Committee via teleconference. The Advisory Dissertation Committee determines the general format of the dissertation and the abstract based on the University’s general design guidelines. The Faculty Mentor should ensure that the dissertation is in final form before requesting evaluations from the other members of the committee. All the members of the Advisory Dissertation Committee produce an evaluation report following the Final Oral Dissertation Defense. Any professor or student affiliated with Aspen University may attend the defense process.
The student arranges the Final Oral Dissertation Defense live teleconference and solicits and coordinates the availability of the Advisory Dissertation Committee members. Based upon the student’s presentation, one of three forms of status may be awarded:
- Accepted with no changes
- Accepted with changes
- Acceptance denied
Where changes are required, the student must make any iteration in a timely manner and submit the final copy to the Faculty Mentor. Where acceptance is denied or the student has not met the allotted timeframe, the student must retake dissertation courses. This option may only be exercised once.
Following the oral defense, the Faculty Mentor submits the findings together with the evaluation forms and a copy of the final dissertation manuscript to the Dean with a recommendation for final approval. The Faculty Mentor issues written approval to the student using the approval form provided in Appendix B: Approval of the Dissertation. If the decision of the committee is not unanimous, the case is referred to the Dean for resolution. If the decision of the committee is a failure recommendation, the Faculty Mentor and Dean formulate a course of action that may include re-registration in dissertation courses.
The Advisory Dissertation Committee must evaluate the dissertation and recommend the awarding of the doctoral degree only if the dissertation is judged to demonstrate the following qualities. The dissertation should demonstrate a host of characteristics, including:
- Establish a historical context for the presentation of an innovative and creative approach to the problem.
- Demonstrate understanding of the problem as revealed by analysis and synthesis of a broad literature base.
- Articulate clarity in composition and careful documentation.
- Merit publication in refereed journals or form the basis of a book or monograph.
- Detail the design of the study so that other scholars can build on it in subsequent work.
- Prepare the author to assume a position within the profession.