PROGRAM OF STUDY FOR PHD DEGREE IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES

The Program of Study is a formal statement of the course work for a graduate degree and should be carefully designed to reflect the interests of the student as well as the requirements of the student's advisory committee, the Department of Infectious Diseases, and the Graduate School. Only graduate courses may be included in the Program of Study, and the grades must be C or above with a minimum GPA of 3.0. A grade of C- will not be accepted by the Graduate School. The program of study should show all graduate courses relevant to the doctoral program and not just courses satisfying the minimum degree requirements. At least 30 hours must be included on the program of study. Students entering with a Master's degree are required to take 16 of the total 30 credit hours at the 8000- or 9000-level, [excluding Research (IDIS 9000) and Dissertation (IDIS 9300)]. The same holds for students entering with a Bachelor's degree, except that 20 of the 30 credit hours must be above the 8000- or 9000-level. The curriculum contains core courses that enhance training in multiple disciplines encompassing infectious diseases and promote social networking among graduate students who progress through the program concurrently. Requirements for all doctoral students include:

• After being admitted to candidacy (discussed below), students must enroll for at least 2 additional semesters and at least 10 additional hours of dissertation or other appropriate course credit prior to graduation.
• Students must enroll for at least 3 hours of credit in any semester when using University facilities, faculty, or staff time.
• Students on 1/3 time or higher assistantships must register for a minimum of 12 hours in the fall and spring semesters and 9 hours for the summer.
• Students must be registered for a minimum of 3 hours during the semester they complete their degree requirements.

Students accepted to the Department of Infectious Diseases with Departmental assistantship will do laboratory rotations to select a faculty mentor. The rotation procedure can be viewed here.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

A PhD advisory committee consists of a major professor and 4 additional members.

Major Professor
Only faculty who have full or joint/adjunct appointment in Infectious Diseases and who are also members of the UGA Graduate Faculty can serve as a major professor for a PhD student in Infectious Diseases. This person chairs the advisory committee. Major Professors are expected to provide research supervision as well as the necessary funding to carry out the experiments for students under their guidance.

Additional Committee Members
The student's advisory committee members are selected in agreement between the student and the major professor. The role of the advisory committee members is to provide support and guidance about the student's research as well as the student's course work (Program of Study). Recommendations from committee members for students to take specific classes must be taken into consideration as this material may be part of that professor's expectations for the student to pass the preliminary exam.

Advisory committee meetings have to be scheduled regularly by the students and attendance of the full committee is necessary. A guide to planning committee meetings can be viewed here.

Who may be part of the committee?
If the major professor is not a core member of the department's faculty, then the majority of the advisory committee must hold full appointments in Infectious Diseases. A majority of members must also be full members of the UGA Graduate Faculty.

An advisory committee form for a PhD student should be submitted before the end of the first year, but must be submitted before or with the program of study.

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	• Committee Meeting Planning Guide

RESEARCH PROJECT

The major professor and the student will plan the research project to be completed with the approval of the rest of the advisory committee members. Students in the PhD program are required to submit two first authored publications in a peer-reviewed journal before their final defense. The submitted publications have to be original research articles and not reviews or short communications. This requirement will only be circumvented under extraordinary circumstances and with the approval of all other members of the advisory committee.

PROSPECTUS

For a PhD student, a prospectus describing the student's proposed research project must be approved by the advisory committee. A final copy, signed by each committee member to indicate their approval, must be submitted to the graduate assistant and held on file in the Graduate Program office.

The format for the prospectus must consist of the following general guidelines. The total prospectus should be typed single space in 12 point fonts.

Title Page
This will include the title of the project, student's name, date and the names of the committee members.

Specific Aims
This should be a one to two page summary of the proposed work outlining the importance of accomplishing the project, the void in knowledge that will be filled, the hypothesis and the specific aims that will be used to address the hypothesis.

Literature Review
This section should be as comprehensive as the student may wish because (once revised and updated) it is often used in the final dissertation as one of the chapters. Students should thoroughly review the work that has been done in their field with special care in referencing this work accordingly. This may take at least 2-3 pages and no more than 7.

Preliminary Studies
This is a description of the experiments the student has preformed in the lab that substantiate the hypothesis. Figures and figure legends must be complete to understand exactly how the experiments were performed. This is called preliminary and thus, students may include experiments performed only once if they (and their major professor) agree that they may add relevance to the proposed studies.

Research Design and Methods
In this section the student will describe the experimental approaches taken to complete the Specific Aims of the proposed research. This should include potential problems and their solutions and all the necessary references.

Time Table
This is a one page diagram of each of the aims and their individual experiments that depicts how much the student has accomplished, how much remains to be done and expected completion dates.

References
A thorough list of complete (all authors, etc) referenced work needs to be included.

The approved prospectus should be submitted to the Graduate Assistant within the first 18 months of a program but must be on file before a student can be admitted to candidacy. Students are welcome to ask the graduate assistant to look at the accepted prospectus from previous students in other laboratories.

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION FOR PHD STUDENTS

PhD students are required to pass a written and oral comprehensive examination as designed by the advisory committee. Although another approach may be used, in general each member of the advisory committee poses a series of essay questions to the student and allows a day for the student to formulate written responses. One day is usually allotted to each committee member for their portion of the written exam. The questions for the written part of the preliminary exam may originate from the courses that the student has taken, from general research methodology or may reflect expected knowledge in other areas. Students are encouraged to meet individually with members of their advisory committee prior to the exam to delineate possible study strategies and maximize the possibility of success.

Once the student has passed the written exam, an oral exam is scheduled. The Graduate School requires that all members of the student's advisory committee be present for the entire period of the oral exam. The oral comprehensive exam is announced by the Graduate School and is open to all members of the graduate faculty at UGA. The Department graduate assistant must notify the Graduate School of the time and place of this exam in writing at least two weeks before the scheduled date. For this reason, the student or major professor must notify the graduate assistant of the time and place of the oral exam at least two weeks before the date of the oral exam, but after the written has been passed. Email is the preferred method of notification. After notification, the Graduate School provides a form to the graduate assistant to give the major professor so that the advisory committee may report the student's performance on the comprehensive examination. Following the exam, each member of the advisory committee must cast a written vote of pass or fail. An abstention is not an appropriate vote for the comprehensive exam. Approval of each exam (written and oral) can have no more than one dissenting vote. The results of both examinations are reported to the Graduate School.

ADMISSION TO CANDIDACY

A PhD student is admitted to candidacy via this form after successful completion of the comprehensive examination. Admission to candidacy requires that the student has a cumulative 3.0 GPA on all graduate courses, no grade less than a "C" on any course on the final program of study, has passed the written and oral comprehensive examination, and has an approved dissertation prospectus on file in the Department Graduate Program office. Please submit the completed form to the graduate assistant at least one week before the graduate school deadline (please check www.grad.uga.edu for exact deadline date for a given target graduation date).

After being admitted to candidacy, a student must enroll for at least 2 additional semesters and at least 10 additional hours of dissertation or other appropriate course credit prior to graduation. A student must enroll for at least 3 hours of credit in any semester when using University facilities, faculty, or staff time.

APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION

A PhD student must submit a completed application form directly to the Graduate School before the deadline (please check www.gradsch.uga.edu for exact deadline date for a given target graduation date). The application form must be submitted no later than two full semesters prior to anticipated graduation.

DISSERTATION DEFENSE AND FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION

The Department graduate assistant must notify the Graduate School of the time and place of the defense in writing at least two weeks before the scheduled date. For this reason, the student or major professor must notify the graduate assistant of the time and place of the defense at least two weeks before the scheduled date. Email is the preferred method of notification. The student will be expected to schedule a seminar room within the College of Veterinary Medicine, preferably in Room #363 or S175 Coverdell.

The major professor must approve the dissertation before it is submitted to the committee. The committee members must have three weeks to read and evaluate the dissertation. The final defense is announced by the Graduate School and is open to all members of the graduate faculty at UGA. Following an oral presentation of the work described in the dissertation, the student should be prepared to defend the contents of the dissertation before any member of the faculty as well as in an oral examination administered by the advisory committee.

The Graduate School requires all dissertations be submitted electronically. Deadlines can be found at www.uga.edu/gradschool/academics/deadlines.html

The Graduate School must receive the completed Doctoral Dissertation and Final Oral Examination Approval Form and an electronic submission of the corrected dissertation no later than two weeks prior to graduation.

A graduate student may not submit a dissertation to the Graduate School for format checking or the dean's approval between the last day of classes and late registration of the following term.

FINAL CLEARANCE FOR GRADUATION

All requirements for the degree must be completed and reported to the Graduate School no later than one week prior to graduation. A student must enroll for a minimum of three hours of credit the semester in which he/she completes degree requirements.

FORMS REQUIRED FOR PHD

All forms are downloadable from the Graduate School website. Once signed and completed, the student must turn the form into the graduate assistant who will make copies and forward the forms to the Graduate School.

1. Advisory Committee Form. Download this form from the Graduate School.
2. Preliminary Program of Study. This form is held on file in Department Graduate Program office, not submitted to the Graduate School.
3. Final Program of Study. The advisory committee form must be submitted before or with the final program of study.
4. Results of Written and Oral Comprehensive Examination. This form is provided by the graduate school when the oral comprehensive examination is scheduled (must schedule the oral examination with the graduate school through the graduate assistant at least 2 weeks ahead). Approval of each exam can have no more than one dissenting vote.
5. Application for Admission to Candidacy. This form is due to the graduate assistant at least one week before the graduate school deadline.
6. Application for Graduation. Submit this form to the Graduate School directly before the deadline.
7. Approval Form for Doctoral Dissertation and Final Oral Examination. Once the advisory committee approves the dissertation and the student passes the final defense (must schedule the final defense with the graduate school through the graduate assistant at least 2 weeks ahead), the major professor sends this completed form within 14 days after the Final Defense, to the Graduate School.
8. Dissertation Submission Form. Located here.

UGA Late Fee Policy
"A graduate student who misses a graduation deadline by failing to file the Application for Graduation, Advisory Committee Form, and/or completed Program of Study Form will have the option of paying a single fee of $50 (check or money order in U.S. dollars) for late processing of all required forms. A completed Late Filing for Graduation Form, all required graduation forms, and the late fee payment must be submitted to the Graduate School Office of Enrolled Student Services within 45 calendar days of the original deadline. After the 45 day late period, no students will be added to the commencement roster for the current semester."

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