Doctoral Committee Updates:

Doctoral Committee Updates

The URR role was established over a decade ago to strengthen our doctoral committee structure. Over the years, we have grown so much as a university, and it is time to implement a model that better meets the needs of our students. This new committee model will be a two-person committee consisting of the chair and a second committee member. This new model will streamline the dissertation/doctoral study process to better support focused efforts on the students’ work and committee contributions. 

Your committee members, the chair, and the second committee member will remain the same unless the program leadership determines there needs to be a change. Only the URR role is being removed.

More information on this role will be made available during the Fall Term 2023. In short, the committee advisor will serve as a consultant, on an as-needed basis, to assist committees, if requested. For example, if a student returns after taking a leave of absence for over a year, the committee advisor can assist the committee in getting the student back on track.

We understand that concerns may arise while implementing a new process, so please bookmark and refer to the FAQs on this Doctoral Committee Updates page as your permanent reference for information.

The IRB’s formal ethics review will continue to happen after proposal approval, just like before. Students will now have the opportunity to submit their IRB materials for Preliminary Ethics Feedback (PEF) any time after the student has addressed both committee members’ feedback on the methodology chapter of the proposal. Rather than receiving an email from IRB when they are eligible to start the IRB process, students will be directed to submit IRB materials as part of Term Goal 4 (in Canvas and the Doctoral Coach).

We will ask all URRs to complete reviews by July 15, 2023.  Any URR reviews not completed by July 15 will automatically move to the next step and it will be the responsibility of the new committee (chair and second member) to move the student along.

The next milestone for the student will be to submit for [new] committee review and rubric analyses. This means the chair and second committee member will ensure feedback from the URR has been incorporated, as appropriate. It will not go through another URR review after July 15, 2023.

We ask that all URRs complete their reviews by July 15, 2023. Any URR reviews not completed by July 15, will automatically move to the next step and it will be the responsibility of the new committee (chair and second member) to move the student along. If the URR does not return feedback by July 15, URR approval is not needed.

No. We will not assign a URR to new committees, even if formed before July 15, 2023.