As you approach the completion of your Ph.D. program, you will need to following the appropriate process for graduation. The procedure for May and December graduation is different than the procedure for a summer graduation.
General Procedure
- The dissertation examination committee needs to consist of five or more approved faculty members, the majority of whom are CDG graduate faculty (not necessarily faculty of the two departments per se).
At least one CDG graduate faculty member of the committee must be from Carolina and at least one from Duke. The chair/primary advisor can be from either institution but must be affiliated with CDG.
All tenured/tenure track graduate faculty of both German departments are considered CDG graduate faculty and can serve as chair/primary advisor and should make up the majority of the five-person committee. Affiliated, adjunct, and non-tenure track faculty can be the other two committee members but should not serve as chair/primary advisor or count as the CDG majority.
If there are academic needs for exceptions here, both Graduate Schools are very willing to entertain hearing them.
- The format of the dissertation follows UNC guidelines for electronic dissertations. Please follow the UNC guidelines through the ETD Resources and Guide:
- The dissertation is to be electronically submitted to and approved by the UNC Graduate School. When you upload to ProQuest from the UNC site, use the UNC program called "Carolina-Duke Joint Program in German Studies".
- The UNC Graduate School will take responsibility for getting the final, approved dissertation to the Duke Graduate School for archiving. The student does not need to be involved in this.
After you submit your dissertation at UNC, it will be deposited in UNC’s ProQuest archive and UNC Library databases, and it will also be archived in DukeSpace (Duke Library computer archive). Duke’s Graduate School must have the DSpace License for students to load the dissertation; please complete this form and submit to the Duke Graduate School.
- Each Graduate School organizes a hooding ceremony for its doctoral graduates, in which the student receives their hood from their advisor or another faculty member. The hooding ceremonies typically take place on a Saturday in May; the university-wide commencement events typically take place on the following Sunday.
Students will have to choose to attend one or the other if they occur in the same timeframe (scheduling can vary each year). The faculty suggest that the student be hooded at the university where the faculty member doing the hooding (usually the dissertation advisor) has their primary appointment. We urge students to talk with their advisor early about this.
Students will be required to wear the academic regalia of the university holding the hooding ceremony they choose to attend, without any special adornment signifying the joint nature of their degree program. UNC-CH regalia is to be worn at the UNC hooding, and Duke regalia at the Duke hooding. Students may be able to borrow or rent regalia instead of purchasing both.
- While we attempt below to provide the proper deadlines and expectations, you should always check deadlines at both UNC and Duke, and always comply with the earlier deadline for the term (fall, spring, or summer) in which you wish to defend and graduate, regardless of your academic home:
- http://gradschool.unc.edu/academics/resources/graddeadlines.html
- https://gradschool.duke.edu/academics/preparing-graduate/graduation-deadlines
- CDG Graduation detailed Timeline