Comprehensive Exam Committee

Students select a Comprehensive Examination Committee during the fall semester of their second year.  The Comprehensive Examination Committee for each student shall consist of 5 faculty members (4 members must be tenure track) who will usually be the same as members of the Thesis Committee, with the exception that the thesis advisor is replaced by exam committee chair to be selected by the student. The thesis advisor does not participate in the Comprehensive Examination.  The exam committee chair must be a tenure track faculty. At least 3 of the 4 members of the CBIO PhD Program (Full or Associate members of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center).  To represent a reasonable diversity of research interests, no more than 3 of the 4 chosen members may be from any one department. 

  • One tenure track Chair who is not the mentor

  • No more than 3 of the 5 can be members of the same department

  • Four Committee members, of whom:

    • 3 must be Full or Associate members of the Cancer Center 

    • 1 may be non-tenure track (needs approval)

  • Non-UI faculty can be part of the committee if there is a specific need or expertise (needs approval)

 

Comprehensive Exam

The comprehensive exam proposal will focus on the student’s thesis research topic. The proposal will have at least two specific aims: an on-topic aim and a novel aim. This proposal will be submitted to the comprehensive exam committee by June 1 of the second year. 

The exam committee will evaluate the proposal and provide either an “acceptable” or “unacceptable” rating. If the proposal is deemed unacceptable, the student will be provided feedback by the exam committee chair and allowed to submit a revised proposal. If the revised proposal is also deemed unacceptable, the student will have failed the comprehensive exam.

When the exam proposal is deemed acceptable by the committee, the oral comprehensive exam will be scheduled, typically in the summer following the second year. During the oral exam, the exam committee with evaluate the student’s general understanding of concepts related to the written proposal and determine the student’s ability to defend the written proposal.

The exam committee will then confer to determine the outcome of the comprehensive exam and provide a “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” rating. Students whose performance is considered unsatisfactory may be provided a single opportunity to retake the comprehensive exam, as specified by the Graduate College guidelines.

Thesis Committee

The thesis committee consists of the members of the student’s comprehensive exam committee with the student’s mentor replacing the exam committee chair.

The Thesis Committee has three principal roles:

  1. To review the organization and progress of thesis research.
  2. To review the written thesis.
  3. To conduct the PhD Thesis Defense (Final Examination).

All students must meet the following requirements prior to scheduling the oral thesis defense:

  1. Complete 72 semester hours of coursework.
  2. Have at least one primary author manuscript published, or accepted for publication, at a peer-reviewed journal. A co-first-authored peer-reviewed publication will count towards this requirement.
  3. Obtain consent of the thesis committee to schedule the final oral thesis defense.

Thesis Defense

The student is required to present to each member of the Thesis Committee a complete copy of the thesis at least two weeks prior to the oral thesis defense date.  

During the Thesis Defense, the student will answer questions relating to the thesis work.  These questions can cover a wide range of topics including the development of the hypotheses in the thesis, the relevant literature, experimental procedures, interpretation, and future directions.  Intensive questioning on areas of knowledge constituting the immediate context of the investigation is expected.