Graduation Requirements for Doctoral Students

Graduation Process: From Defense to Hooding

Step 1: Plan your defense - check with your school or graduate support staff for deadlines and guidelines in planning and scheduling your defense.

Step 2: Review KU Thesis & Dissertation Formatting Requirements early! See our formatting page for more details. All dissertations must meet these requirements prior to publication in ProQuest and KU ScholarWorks. Students are strongly encouraged to attend a formatting workshop prior to the defense.

Step 3: Submit the following University-level requirements for graduation. 
Individual schools verify submission and completion of all graduation requirements, and maintain their own methods for collection of required materials. Contact them (see table below) with any questions.

1. Application for Graduation
   • Submission method: Enroll & Pay
   • The Application for Graduation (AFG) notifies the University of your intent to complete all requirements for a degree within a given semester. Apply early to ensure you receive important information for graduates! The AFG also provides KU with your preferences for how your name appears on your diploma, method of delivery, and privacy preferences for graduation ceremonies.
   • If you have submitted an AFG and need to postpone graduation to a later semester, contact your department's graduate support staff member to cancel your initial AFG. Once cancelled, you can resubmit the AFG for the correct semester.
2. Dissertation Acceptance Page
   • Submission method: Directly to your School/College contact person
   • The purpose of the signed acceptance page is to certify that your committee chair has approved the final version of your dissertation. By signing the page, your chair is confirming you have completed all required edits and your dissertation is ready for final electronic submission to ProQuest.
   • The acceptance page must be signed by your committee chair (and co-chair, if applicable)
   • Formatting requirements, sample documents, and templates for this page are available on the KU Libraries Thesis & Dissertation Formatting Guide.
3. ScholarWorks Thesis/Dissertation Release (Embargo) Form
   • Submission method: Directly to your School/College contact person
   • You own the publishing rights to your thesis; this form gives KU permission to publish your work in KU ScholarWorks
   • ScholarWorks Thesis/Dissertation Release Form
   • ScholarWorks Thesis/Dissertation Release Form for Creative Writing MFA/PHD students ONLY: 
4. Doctoral Completion Surveys 
   • Submission method: The surveys are completed online. The certificate of completion is submitted directly to your School/College contact person
   • The Doctoral Completion Survey (DCS) is the result of a collaboration between AAU institutions and the Association of Graduate Schools (AGS) to develop a concise set of questions to graduating doctoral students. 
   • Upon completion of the Doctoral Completion Survey (DCS), you will be taken to an external site to complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). 
   • Please complete both surveys, print/save the certificate of completion after completing the SED, and submit that certificate to your school/College. You are not required to submit any documentation that reveals your answers, which are anonymous.
   • Start the Doctoral Completion Survey 
5. Submit your final, approved, & correctly formatted thesis to ProQuest
   • Submission method:Directly to ProQuest
   • Further details about submitting the thesis electronically are available on the Submission page.

Step 4: Plan and register to participate in recognition ceremonies and commencement (optional, see below).