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Graduate School

Oral Defenses of Theses and Dissertations

Master’s students completing a thesis and doctoral students completing a dissertation are required to engage in a final oral defense of the document by their thesis or dissertation committee. 

Information on defense policies and procedures is available in the PSU Bulletin:
Please review the thesis section for details about thesis defenses.
Please review the dissertation defense section for details about dissertation defenses.

Preparation in advance of the defense

  • The thesis or dissertation committee must be approved by the Graduate School via a GO-16 prior to  holding a thesis or dissertation defense.
     
  • Students must be registered for at least 1 graduate credit in the term of the defense.
     
  • Defenses should be held during regular academic terms, i.e., not between terms. However, if there is a need to hold a thesis/dissertation proposal or final defense in the period between terms, and all faculty involved in the defense have agreed to participate at this time, graduate programs are allowed to schedule defenses between terms provided certain requirements are met. See Enrollment for Defenses/Exams Held Between Terms for details. 
     
  • Defenses may be held in-person, remotely via videoconferencing (e.g., Zoom), or in a hybrid format with both remote and in-person participation. Please review the Remote Thesis/Dissertation Participation guidelines for defenses in which the student or at least one committee member is participating remotely. 
     
  • Thesis defenses are open to the University faculty and may be open to the public at the department’s discretion. Dissertation defenses are open to the public. Students should check with their department for internal policies regarding scheduling and announcing thesis and dissertation defenses.

The defense

  • All appointed committee members must participate in the defense, even if the committee has more than the minimum required members. Refer to the approved GO-16 or DARS audit to confirm committee membership or contact Graduate Academic Services at grad@pdx.edu. Any changes to committee membership must be made in advance of the defense. 
  • The student should not be expected to provide food or beverage for attendees of the defense. 
  • If a committee member is missing at the start of a defense, the student and committee must wait at least 15 minutes for them to join the meeting. In the meantime, the committee chair should contact the Graduate School at (503) 725-8410 for options in case the member cannot be located. 

Structure of the final defense

The master’s or doctoral candidate is expected to prepare and give an oral presentation on the research methodology and results. After the student’s presentation, they will defend the thesis or dissertation in a question and discussion session. 

  • The student's oral presentation should not exceed 60 minutes.
  • Defenses should be scheduled for 2 to 3 hours to allow enough time to accommodate all steps of the defense and a robust questioning and discussion session. Appointed committee members must participate in all the steps of the defense. The actual length of the defense will depend on how long each step takes.

Example structure of a defense:

  1. Allow 10-15 minutes for attendees to arrive. Allow at least 15 minutes for all committee members to arrive.
  2. Committee chair makes introductions and directs the defense meeting. 
  3. Student presents for 30-40 minutes. (Individual programs may have specific requirements about presentation length.)
  4. Questioning and discussion session. This session may be held publicly with all attendees and/or privately with only the student and the committee. (Depending on departmental practice, there may be both a public and private questioning and discussion session.)
  5. Allow 10 minutes for the student and everyone except the committee members to leave the room. 
  6. Committee members deliberate and discuss the result of the defense. Each committee member votes on the defense. (Votes will be captured via the GO-17 form.)
  7. Student is called back to the room to receive the result of the defense and any revisions required by the committee in order to give final approval to the thesis or dissertation.