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Graduates :: Requirements for Admission to PhD Candidacy

After you are admitted to the university as a graduate student, you must complete additional requirements to become a Ph. D. candidate.   The Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) must approve any exceptions to the requirements. In order to apply for PhD candidacy, a student must:

1. Hold a Master's degree in engineering or a related field of study.

2. Submit an academic program consisting of at least 24 semester credit hours of graduate level courses beyond those required for the MS degree. At least 15 of the semester credit hours must be courses from the PGE department. The remaining semester credit hours can be selected from PGE graduate courses or approved courses in science and engineering. Non-technical courses are not approved. We recommend that at least three of the five basic core courses required for the MS degree be taken as preparation for the written PhD qualifying examination (see item 4 below). All courses must be taken for a letter grade and the supervising committee (research advisor) may require additional courses.

   There is one exception to the course requirements: Students who already have obtained a MS degree in petroleum engineering from an accredited US/Canadian university can reduce their PhD course requirements from 24 semester hours to 15 semester hours, subject to required background courses. These five courses must be taken within the PGE department.

   Students are responsible for satisfying the background course requirements in the academic program they submit. These requirements are posted on the PGE website. Please note that undergraduate courses taken in fulfillment of these requirements will not count towards the PhD course requirements of 24 semester credit hours. Graduate courses, however, taken as background courses can count towards the PhD.

   The academic program must be approved by the GSC, although the course work does not have to be completed to apply for candidacy. A student must have a 3.5 GPA upon graduation for all graduate courses taken at UT.

3. Select a dissertation research topic, a PGE graduate faculty member(s) to assume responsibility for the supervision of the research, and a dissertation supervising committee approved by the GSC.

4. Pass a written PhD qualifying examination which consists of several parts, covering topics that the graduate faculty may change from time to time. Currently, the topics are: mathematical analysis; petrophysics and flow in porous media; and transport phenomena.

   1. New PhD students (those with an MS degree from anywhere other than UT PGE Department) who are eligible must take the written qualifying examination the first time it is offered after being in residence

   2. Continuing PGE students (those obtaining an MS degree from the University of Texas at Austin) must take the written qualifying examination the first time it is offered after completion of the MS degree.

   3. A PhD aspirant will be allowed two chances to pass each part of the qualifying examination. An aspirant must pass all three parts of the examination in two attempts to be considered for PhD candidacy. If a PhD aspirant fails any part of the PhD qualifying examination, that part must be retaken the next time the examination is offered.

5. Pass an oral PhD research proposal examination conducted by at least three members of the PhD supervising committee. The exam will consist of an oral discussion of the proposed dissertation research. The purpose of the examination is to determine the student's grasp of the research problem and to assess future plans and goals. It is not necessary to have made significant progress toward solution of the research problem in order to present the research proposal.

   1. A PhD aspirant must complete this research proposal examination by August 31st after successful completion of the PhD written qualifying examinations. (Students who have conditionally passed the qualifying examinations must also take the oral exam within this time frame.) With his or her advisor’s consent, a student may delay the oral examination until October 31st of the same year after successful completion of the PhD written qualifying examinations. Students who do not complete the exam by this date will be required to retake the PhD written qualifying examinations. Any failure on the re-qualification exam will result in dismissal.

   2. A PhD aspirant must prepare a written dissertation proposal (no more than 20 single-spaced pages including appendices) and submit copies to members of the committee at least one week before the oral presentation is made. The student should consult with his/her supervising professor(s) about the detailed content of the proposal, but the proposal should not be significantly edited by their advisor. This is an exam.

   3. The presentation of the research proposal should be no more than 30 minutes, should be clear, concise, and well thought out. Following the presentation, the committee will pose up to, but no more, than one hour of questions to the student. Thus, the entire examination will take no longer than one and half hours. During the exam, committee members will suggest courses of action and make known their own expectations.

   4. A PhD aspirant must bring to the oral examination a completed departmental form (obtained from the Graduate Coordinator) that lists coursework taken and grades achieved. The signed original departmental form must be returned to the Graduate Office so that it can be kept on file.

   5. The committee decides if the student has passed the research proposal examination and makes recommendations to the student regarding additional coursework, if any, which should be taken. Options are pass, no pass, and fail. A no pass requires another oral exam.

   6. A PhD aspirant will be allowed two chances to pass the oral examination, but the exam must be retaken within three months.

In order to be “advanced to candidacy,” the PhD student must go online and submit their Application for Candidacy to the Graduate School. You must present your course plan for your PhD to the Graduate Coordinator, including background course requirements. Please see the Graduate Coordinator or Graduate Advisor if you need assistance.