Purpose

The supervisory committee (Graduate School reading committee) is appointed to read and approve the dissertation. It is the responsibility of a supervisory/reading committee to (a) ensure that the dissertation is a significant contribution to knowledge and is an acceptable piece of scholarly writing; (b) determine the appropriateness of a candidate’s dissertation as a basis for issuing a committee signature form (formerly known as a warrant) for a Final Examination and; (c) approve a candidate’s dissertation.

Membership

The student proposes members for the supervisory committee at least four months prior to the student’s general examination. One of the members of the supervisory committee serves as the chair of the supervisory committee and acts as the student’s advisor. A student may elect to have co-chairs of the supervisory committee. The student submits a request to establish the supervisory committee to the Information School’s Office of Student Services, at which point the Ph.D. program chair approves the committee membership. Student Services then officially establishes the supervisory committee with the Graduate School. Note: at the iSchool, the dissertation reading committee is the supervisory committee.

The supervisory committee consists of at least voting four members; a majority must be members of the UW graduate faculty:

Chair/supervisor: The chair/supervisor must be an internal faculty member* and be a member of the UW graduate faculty with an endorsement to chair doctoral committees. If co-chairs are selected, one of them must be an internal faculty member.

GSR: The Graduate School Representative (GSR) is an external faculty member** who must be a member of the UW graduate faculty with an endorsement to chair doctoral committees. The GSR must present no conflict of interest (budgetary relationship, iSchool Affiliated Faculty) with the departments of either the student or the supervisory committee chair (dissertation advisor).

Members: At least two additional members of the committee are appointed. At least one of the members must be an internal iSchool faculty member*. One of the two must be a member of the UW graduate faculty with an endorsement to chair doctoral committees.

More Information

• Graduate School Doctoral Degree Policies
• Graduate School Committee Policies
• Supervisory Committee for Graduate Students
• Supervisory Committee Form
• UW Graduate School's Graduate Faculty Locator

* An internal faculty member must be a faculty member holding a tenure-track faculty appointment, a joint faculty appointment, or a research faculty appointment in the School.

** GSR: A University of Washington external faculty member must be a tenure-track faculty member, researcher, or equivalent at the University of Washington.