After the successful completion of both written (Part I) and oral (Part II) qualifying examinations, an Annual Research Advisory Committee (commonly referred to as “Thesis Committee”) must be formed.
The role of the Thesis Committee is to (1) evaluate the progress of the thesis research, (2) to make suggestions about research directions as appropriate, (3) advise the student prior to writing their thesis to agree on a possible thesis date, and (4) conduct the final examination and thesis defense.
FORMING AN ANNUAL RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Most often, the Oral Examination Committee that served in the Oral Qualifying Examination goes on to constitute the Thesis Committee, but the student can choose to recruit a different roster. The committee shall consist of at least four members, of whom at least three are active members of the Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, which may or may not include the student’s advisor. One member should be an "Outside Member.”
An Outside Member may not be a member of the thesis advisor’s department or institute, reside in the same building, or have close personal or professional ties with the student or advisor. An Outside Member may be a Rutgers faculty member or someone from outside the University, but must hold an earned doctoral degree. (See “Policy on the Outside Member” below.)
The student and research advisor will set up a Thesis Committee within three months following completion of both qualifying exams.
Written approval from the Program Director is required for all committee members. Any committee structure changes also require the Program Director's approval. The Thesis Advisory Committee chairperson must be a full graduate program faculty member and may not be the student’s advisor.
ANNUAL RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Annual Research Advisory Committee Meetings are mandatory and the responsibility of the student.
Students must meet with their Thesis Committee formally at least once a year, and about six months before the anticipated date of degree completion, to discuss their progress. Students in off-campus labs, usually with an on-campus mentor of record, should have two meetings a year. Students are also encouraged to consult with their committee members informally.
The Annual Research Advisory Committee Meeting form, documenting each meeting, must be completed and submitted via the instructions listed at the bottom of the form. Students should fill out most of the form before the meeting and then let the Thesis Committee Chair complete the evaluation sections. Students are encouraged to circulate the form for signature via DocuSign. The Graduate Program Administrative Assistant’s email for submission is
An informal progress report may be requested by the Research Advisor or Thesis Committee Chair prior to the meeting, but is not required.
Should a member of the Committee be unavailable, the Chair of the Thesis Committee should appoint either a temporary or permanent replacement.
*No student will be allowed to register without documentation of having taken the Qualifying Examinations or held their Annual Research Advisory Committee meeting within the past 12-month period.
Go to Academic Forms for the Annual Research Advisory Committee Meeting form and instructions for submission.
*Policy on the “Outside Member”: The School oof Graduate Studies requires that one member of a Ph.D. dissertation committee be an individual who is not a member of the student’s degree program. This individual may be a Rutgers faculty member or someone from outside the university. Outside members are intended to bring a fresh perspective to the supervision of a student’s research and to bring an unbiased look at the quality of the work. Therefore, they must be people with no conflict of interest with regard to the assessment of the student’s work. In some fields, especially the biomedical sciences, there is such a broad inclusion of relevant individuals on program faculties that it has become quite difficult to find a Rutgers faculty member to appoint as an outside member of a dissertation committee who is not already a member of the program faculty. At the same time, the membership of these programs is drawn from a wide range of units within Rutgers and RBHS, such that there can easily be faculty members of a program who have little professional contact. It is, therefore, permissible, in such situations, that the “outside member” be drawn from within the program faculty when it can be shown that that individual has no personal or professional ties to the student, the advisor, and other members of the committee. In these cases, the outside member may not be a member of a department already represented on the committee. In addition, the “outside member” may not serve as dissertation committee chair. Requests for these exceptions will have to demonstrate that this is the case and will require approval by the School of Graduate Studies.