Satisfactory Progress

Guidelines in Brief

All requirements, including outside minor statistics, required course work, Professional Seminar, and first-year project will be explained to incoming students at orientation. All incoming students beginning the program are required to attend.
A first-year project is required of all doctoral students. The completed project is to be presented at the required Professional Seminar (“prosem”) at the end of the first calendar year or within the second year. A completed manuscript submitted for publication must serve as a project in-lieu-of thesis for those doctoral students entering the program who have not completed a master’s thesis.
All requirements, including outside minor, statistics, presentation of first-year project at Professional Seminar, required course work within the department, and removal of grades of Incomplete must be completed prior to taking preliminary examinations.
Students should expect to take preliminary examinations about 28 months (two calendar years plus one semester or equivalent) after beginning the doctoral work.
A prospectus for the dissertation should be completed and approved by the dissertation committee of the student no later than two semesters after the semester in which the preliminary examination was taken.
The dissertation can be either an original single piece of research or a collection of cumulative first-author publications that are thematically linked. The exact form is to be determined by the student’s dissertation committee and must conform to Graduate School rules.

The Graduate School requires that you take your final oral examination and deposit your dissertation within five years of passing preliminary examinations (view requirement).
It is expected that the doctoral degree should be awarded within 3-5 years after entering the program with a master’s degree.

Official Regulations

The Faculty of the Department of Communicative Disorders views the doctoral degree as a scholarly academic research degree. In addition to the general University regulations for the doctoral degree stipulated in the Graduate School catalog, the following doctoral regulations are specific to the Department of Communicative Disorders.

Admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree is obtained after successful completion of the following requirements: Master's thesis or equivalent research project, course work within the department as specified in a plan of study, outside-the-department minor, statistics requirement, and a preliminary examination.

The following are minimum requirements. In view of a student's particular needs and at the discretion of the advisor, additional course work may be required.

A. Demonstrated Research Ability

A first-year project is to be completed by all entering doctoral students. This research project will be done in collaboration with the student’s advisor. The completed project will be presented at the required Professional Seminar during the fall semester of the student’s second year in the doctoral program. An entering student who did not complete a Master's thesis or an equivalent research project is required to do a research project equivalent to a Master's thesis, and this project can be performed to satisfy the first-year project requirement. This in-lieu-of thesis project is to be completed within the first year of study. This research project will be directed by a member of the departmental graduate faculty. At the option of either the student or the faculty advisor, the student may have a committee of three graduate faculty members oversee the research project. The student shall be required to get advisor approval for the project. A written paper must be submitted to the faculty advisor and committee (if appropriate) describing in detail the completed research project. If the paper is approved by the advisor, the student will be considered to have demonstrated research ability. As noted, the first year project may satisfy in-lieu-of thesis requirement if it is approved by the advisor.

B. Course Work within the Department

A program advisor will be assigned to each entering student. If at any time in the program a student and/or faculty member believe that it is not in the best interest of the student to continue that advising relationship, a different advisor may be assigned. Students are required to submit a written plan of study in the department, approved by the program advisor, before the end of the first year of study. This approved study plan shall be available for review in the student’s file. The program of study may be altered at any time during the doctoral program with consent of the major advisor. The plan of study must be completed prior to taking the preliminary examination.

The plan of study must encompass an area of specialization chosen from speech pathology, audiology, language disorders, and normal aspects of speech, hearing and language. Although there are no specific course requirements for the major, the study plan should be comprehensive in scope and should be tailored according to the student's research and academic needs.

Students must also satisfy a core requirement by taking the following seminar/courses:

Grant writing (3 credits)
Research methodology (3 credits), called “Theory-to-Practice”
Professional seminar (prosem) (4 semesters; 8 credits)
Teaching methods (1 credit or audit).

It is recommended that the grant writing course be taken in the last year of course work, or as determined via consultation with the advisor. Also, during the second year of study, one of the required prosem semesters may be satisfied by attending weekly prosems elsewhere on campus. The decision to attend an alternative prosem must be made in consultation with the student's advisor.

The teaching requirement can be a 1-credit seminar taught within or outside the department, a 1-credit independent study with the advisor that involves lecturing or developing course materials or student projects, or an independent study with the major advisor that involves reading and discussing scholarly writings that concern teaching. The form of the teaching credit should be discussed with the major advisor and must have the advisor’s approval.

The spirit of the core requirement is to ensure that doctoral students have a foundation for applying their area of specialization to undertaking effective research and other forms of scholarship expected of persons who hold a doctoral degree.

C. Statistics

All doctoral students are expected to become proficient in statistical methods. Students are required to have 9 credits of statistical methods at a minimum, which must also include a course on experimental design. Many students satisfy this requirement by courses in the Educational Psychology department or the Statistics department. For instance, a rigorous and worthwhile statistics sequence could be two 4-credit statistics classes in the Statistics department (Stat 571, 572) plus an experimental design class, such as Clinical Trials, or Ed Psych 762. Students should discuss the stat sequence with the advisor and have the advisor’s approval. A grade of “B” or better is required for acceptable fulfillment of the statistics requirement.

D. Preliminary Exam (“Prelims”)

Each Student must meet with her/his faculty advisor to prepare for the Preliminary Examination. The purpose of the doctoral comprehensive preliminary examination in the Department of Communicative Disorders is to assist the faculty in determining whether a student's knowledge of pertinent facts, theories, and methods is sufficient to render the student generally capable of (1) undertaking effective research in an area within communicative disorders, and (2) undertaking other forms of scholarship required or expected of persons who professionally use the doctoral degree. Research and other scholarly work require the ability (a) to apply terminology, facts, concepts, relations, procedures, theories, and issues accurately and appropriately, (b) to invoke facts, reasoning and other evidence to support observations and opinions, (c) to identify, organize, analyze and integrate information, (d) to evaluate one’s own work and that of others critically, and (e) to communicate effectively.

The Preliminary Examination Committee (the “Prelim Committee”) should be composed of at least three graduate (academic) faculty (Assistant, Associate or Full Professors). The student should invite members of the faculty to serve on the Prelim Committee the semester before the exam is anticipated. In many cases, the committee will be formed earlier in the student’s program and this is acceptable. At least one semester before the preliminary examination, the Prelim Committee and student must meet to discuss the manner in which prelims will be implemented for that student. Immediately following the meeting, the student will write a report summarizing this meeting, which will be placed in her/his file in the office of the Graduate Studies Coordinator.

Students are required to write a 9-hour preliminary examination with at least 6 hours devoted to their major area of study. The types and direction of the questions included in the exam are at the discretion of the Prelim Committee. Three of the 9 hours can be written outside of the context of the preliminary examination, if approved by the Prelim Committee. These three hours can be devoted to writing a grant application (with or without actual submission of the grant, as determined by the Advisor), focused review paper, or research paper. The choice of writing mechanism, the requirements, and scoring are to be determined by the Prelim Committee. No more than three hours of the 9-hour preliminary examination can be satisfied via an outside paper or grant. In reality, writing a grant application or research paper will require more than three hours to complete. However, only three hours may be “credited” to the 9-hour preliminary examination using these alternative mechanisms. Accordingly, if the student uses an alternative mechanism for three hours of the exam (as described above), the remaining six hours must be completed in the traditional manner of writing answers to questions provided by the Prelim Committee.

The major advisor will be the head of the Prelim Committee and will approve the Preliminary Examination process for each student.

Preliminary Examination questions must be submitted by the Prelim Committee to the Graduate Studies Coordinator one week prior to the scheduled Preliminary Examination.
The student is responsible for obtaining the “warrant” from the graduate school (this is the form that the Prelim Committee must sign to indicate that the Preliminary Examination requirement has been met and that the student may be advanced to Candidacy).

Students may specify the distribution of the number of hours to write per day, over a two or three day period. The days may be disbursed over no more than a three week period. A student may choose to handwrite, type, or word process responses to the examination questions, subject to equipment and space availability. The examination will be proctored and no reference materials or other materials are allowed in the examination room, and may not be accessed on the student’s computer or via the internet during the exam.

A two hour oral exam will be administered approximately one week after successful completion of the written exam.

The student shall be informed at least two days before the oral examination as to whether the written examination resulted in pass or fail; in the case of failure, no oral exam will be held. The written and oral portions should be considered as one complete examination. The oral examination may cover material included or not included in the written examination. A student failing the preliminary examination may rewrite once. The student may be required to rewrite the entire examination or the portions failed dependent on the judgment of the Examination Committee. Pass or fail will be determined by overall GPA on the exam, computed from the average grade for each section weighted by the number of hours per section, with a 3.0 overall required for passing.

E. Outside-the-Department Minor

Consistent with Graduate School regulations, students within the Department of Communicative Disorders are required to take an outside minor, approved by their major professor.

The specific course requirements for fulfillment of a minor must be negotiated by the candidate with the participating department(s). The minor options are described by the Graduate School as follows: (paraphrased from the Graduate School Handbook)

Option A

Requires a minimum of 10 credits in a single department/major field of study. Refer to the individual department for specific requirements; many departments require more than 10 credits. Option A requires approval from the minor department, and the approval of your major advisor.

Some departments such as Chemistry, Economics, History, and Mathematics offer internal minors. If your major department offers an internal minor, indicate the area of concentration of your major and minor. For example, MAJOR: Mathematics: Algebra; MINOR: Mathematics: Topology.

Option B: Distributed

Requires a minimum of 10 credits in one or more departments and can include course work in the major department. Option B requires signatures of your major advisor and major department chairperson.

F. Recent Changes in Residency, Continuous-year Requirements, and Transfer Credits

Students should note the following Graduate School Statements:

Effective September 1, 1997

The Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC) recently voted to abolish the Graduate School residence requirement and to replace it with a UW-Madison minimum credit requirement. The new credit policy requires a minimum of 32 UW-Madison graduate level credits (≥ 300) to be taken in order for the degree to be considered a UW-Madison degree.
The Graduate School no longer requires doctoral and MFA students to fulfill a two full-time semester requirement. However, the Department of Communicative Disorders has voted to retain this requirement.
The minimum credit requirement for doctoral and DMA students must be completed prior to achieving dissertator status.
It is no longer necessary for departments to request that the Graduate School accept transfer of graduate work done at another institution to fulfill the residence requirement (note: transfer credits never appeared on the student’s transcripts). Departments are free to transfer whatever amount of work they wish to fulfill department course requirements. The Graduate School will not transfer any graduate work done at another institution toward fulfillment of the minimum UW-Madison credit requirement.
All graduate level credits, including those taken during the summer, will count toward fulfillment of the minimum credit requirement. Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA in their graduate course work in order to graduate.
Students who receive Graduate School approval for a credit overload will be able to count all graduate level credits toward fulfillment of the minimum credit requirement. Except during summer sessions, graduate students must register for a minimum of 2 credits.
A graduate level course taken at a distance will count toward the minimum credit requirement only if the course is considered a UW-Madison course.
If you have comments or questions, feel free to contact the Graduate School Office of Admissions and Academic Services.

It is the responsibility of the student and his/her advisor to make sure that all requirements are completed. The dated and signed requirements checklist provides this record.

G. Final Oral Examination Over Dissertation Project

The final examination committee will examine the candidate over the research project and other aspects of the doctoral program. The final exam committee is composed of at least five members of the graduate faculty. Graduate faculty status is defined as: All tenure-track faculty holding professional (full, associate or assistant) rank in any department with graduate program authority. Tenure-track faculty members are automatically permitted to retain graduate faculty status for one year after their retirement or resignation. Annual extensions of graduate faculty status for retired or resigned faculty may be recommended by the departmental executive committee for consideration and approval by the Graduate School dean or designee.

Rules for filing the doctoral dissertation are published by the Graduate School. Students are encouraged to review the document entitled “Deadlines, Defending, Depositing Your Doctoral Dissertation,” published by the Graduate School.

Without prior Graduate School approval, the executive committee of departments with graduate program authority may appoint either a tenure track faculty member from a department without graduate program authority or a visiting professor to serve as one of five faculty members on a doctoral committee, or one of three faculty members on an M.S. examination committee. However, no more than one member of a master's or doctoral committee may be a visiting professor, retired professor, or professor from a department without graduate program authority.

The executive committee of a department may believe that an academic staff member other than a visiting or emeritus professor should be appointed to an examination committee. The executive committee can without approval of the Graduate School appoint such an academic staff member (e.g. scientist or CHS staff) to serve as a sixth member of a doctoral examination committee or the fourth member of a master’s examination committee. Such an appointed committee member has the right to vote and sign the warrant like other members of the committee. Department executive committees should consider academic staff for membership on an examination committee only if the academic staff member has a doctoral or other terminal degree and has research or practical experience relevant to the degree candidate's thesis or dissertation.

The major professor will be the chairperson. One of the members must be from outside the major department. Pass must be by unanimous vote. If one of the committee members signs the warrant on the DISSENT line, then a pass/fail determination is made jointly by the Graduate School and the Department of Communicative Disorders.

H. Appeals: Doctoral-Degree Program

Appeals for exceptions to the Satisfactory-Progress Rules shall be directed to the Chair, Doctoral-Program Committee. The following procedures apply to all appeals:

The specific satisfactory-progress rules(s) pertinent to the appeal must be identified.
The student's academic advisor must provide written support for the appeal.
All course work substitutions and equivalencies will be decided by appropriate area-group faculty.
Appeals for changes in Research and Examination Committees that have been approved by the Doctoral-Degree Graduate Committee and the five-member Graduate-Faculty Examining Committee must be forwarded to the Dean of the Graduate School whose decision is final. (Note: Permission from the Graduate-School Dean is NOT necessary for adding members to the five that are required.)

I. Special Committee Doctoral Programs

Prospective students who may have an interest in a special committee doctoral degree should apply to the department of the degree program that is closest to their major interest.

When a department receives such an application, it should treat it as it would all other applications for admission to that department (i.e., all relevant departmental criteria should be invoked). Since there can be no assurances of an alternate degree route for the student at this stage, the department must assume full normal responsibility for any student it admits, including guidance toward completion of the departmental degree.
Students who wish subsequently to move from departmentally designated degrees to interdisciplinary special committee degrees must meet the Graduate School conditions for such degrees. These conditions derive from the unique character of degree work that proceeds beyond the reach of normal departmental monitoring mechanisms. Since such degree work is akin to honors work at the undergraduate level, it is open only to students of superior academic distinction.

The application for the special committee degree must be submitted on behalf of the student by the proposed major professor. This should clearly state: a) the reasons the special committee program is needed and an explanation of why the student's needs cannot be met within existing programs; b) the exact title of the proposed degree; c) the proposed course and seminar program envisaged; d) any tool requirements of the dissertation (language, etc.); e) the nature and scope of preliminary examinations; f) the nature of the dissertation (general subject area); g) the five faculty willing to serve on the committee and its chairman.

In all cases the Graduate School will carefully review applications to determine whether the program can be carried out within an established department or program with joint majors, appropriate use of minors, or other available mechanisms. The suitability and degree of commitment of the committee for the proposed program will be examined.

The chairman of the committee (i.e., the major professor) should be a member of the department to which the student had originally been admitted. That department should remain the keeper of the student's records and should make all appropriate nominations for financial aid.

The Graduate School is very much concerned about maintaining active participation by all members of special degree committees in the ongoing doctoral programs of the student, and asks the individual members of the committees to assume individually all of the responsibilities that a department provides institutionally in a conventional program.
Proposals should come to the Graduate School at the end of the first year's graduate work. They must come to the Graduate School in a timely fashion, i.e., when there is a substantial portion of the program ahead of the student. "After the fact" proposals will not be considered.

Faculty members who declare themselves willing to serve on these committees should be prepared to participate fully in all aspects of the student's program from the beginning, especially where they must provide the necessary expertise in their particular areas of interest. Only in this way can the committee maintain the quality and the unique character that is expected of and associated with the concept of the special degree program.

Additional Doctoral Student Activities

In addition to course work and research, doctoral students are expected to participate
actively in the department Professional Seminar and Doctoral Student Colloquium. The Professional Seminar will be taken for 2 credits for each of four semesters.

Approved by the Faculty, May 1979, and Amended October 1979, May 1981, May 1984, June 1986, May 1987, April 1990, May 1991, July 1994, July 1995, May 1996, May 1997.

Leaves of Absence

Students in the graduate program may apply for a leave of absence from the program for up to one calendar year. Leaves typically are granted for medical or personal reasons, but also may be requested by M.S./Ph.D. or Ph.D. students who plan to complete a clinical fellowship during their graduate program.

Leave requests should be first discussed with the student’s advisor, and then submitted in writing to the Department Chair. If the leave request is not granted, the student must complete the regular application process if he or she decides to return to the program, and will be considered as a new applicant. If students have pre-enrolled for a future term, they must be sure to drop all courses before the first day of class.

Students who are absent for one or more terms must re-apply to the program through the Graduate School. To apply for readmission, graduate students should first contact their program and then the Graduate School Office of Admissions and Academic Services.

The readmission process accomplishes two goals:

assures the Graduate School that a student is in good standing with his/her academic program; and
activates his/her enrollment eligibility.

There is no application fee if reapplication is made within five years of the last semester of enrollment (see Graduate School Academic Policies and Procedures > Leave of Abssence).

Dissertators who take a leave of absence (break in enrollment) will be assessed a degree completion fee before being allowed to deposit their dissertation (see Graduate School Academic Policies and Procedures > Continuous Enrollment Requirement).

This fee may be substantial and is waived if the student enrolls for four subsequent terms (see Graduate School Academic Policies and Procedures > Degree Completion Fee).

Students receiving financial aid should contact the Financial Aid office for information regarding loan-deferment guidelines. In-school status for the purpose of loan deferment requires pre-dissertators to take at least 6 graduate-level credits per term and dissertators to take at least 3 graduate-level credits per term (see Graduate School Academic Policies and Procedures > Financial Aid).

International students should check on their visa status with International Student Services.

This departmental leave policy was approved March 1, 2010.