Graduate School
Graduate Degree Culminating Projects - 1L8
A culminating project can be a thesis, dissertation, project, or similar endeavor.
Each culminating project must be supervised by a committee of at least three members of the SIUE graduate faculty. The project proposal must be approved by the committee.
All research proposals that involve compliance with any policies or regulations (such as export control, human subjects, animals, or biohazardous materials, including recombinant DNA) must be cleared by the appropriate University committee before data collection begins. It is the responsibility of the student and chairperson of the student's committee to ensure compliance with University policy and guidelines.
Approval of a culminating project by the student's advisory committee is validated and reported to Office of the Registrar. All theses, dissertations, and doctoral research projects must be submitted electronically for review by the Graduate School and must be published electronically and accessible online. Submissions and publishing are conducted through a third party contracted by SIUE. All students must pay the third-party fee published on the Graduate School website. Students will have the option of postponing publication up to a time specified in the third party contract for the purpose of protecting intellectual property. A student's responsibility for fulfilling this degree requirement does not end until the thesis/dissertation has been formally accepted by the student's advisory committee and the Graduate School.
While working on a culminating project at the graduate level, a student must register for a course specifically designated for this purpose. The thesis ordinarily may be counted for no more than 6 nor less than 3 semester hours of credit. Under special circumstances, a student's advisory committee may recommend that a student request permission to apply as many as 10 semester hours of thesis credit toward fulfillment of degree requirements. Dissertation/doctoral project credits may vary and students should check with the program.
If, after completing the required credit hours, the culminating project is not yet finished and all course enrollments are completed, the student must remain continuously enrolled per Policy 1L16.
Approved by Chancellor effective 12/18/24
This policy was issued on December 18, 2024, replacing the July 26, 2021 version.
Document Reference: 1L8
Origin: AAT 87; AAT 116; OP 10/7/91; GR 4/23/12; GR 4/18/13; GR 14/15-15; GR 19/20-16; GR 20/21-18; GR 25/24-04
