Advising and Resources: Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning

• A minimum of ninety (90) credit hours is required for the degree, at least thirty (30) hours of which must be coursework. 
• Twelve (12) core credit hours are required of all students to cover basic requirements of Theory, Pedagogy, and Research Methodology. Additional courses will be determined in conjunction with the student’s advisory committee.
• All students are recommended to take CNST 5084: Methods in Construction Research during their first spring semester of residency to obtain an orientation to requirements and expectations for construction research.

For a list of all degree requirements for the Ph.D. Degree in EDP please consult the:

• Students should plan to work with their advisor and advisory committee to determine an individualized Plan of Study that meets university and departmental requirements and provides the necessary point of departure for their dissertation research.
  

For the various types of coursework options that may or may not count towards degree requirements, please visit:

Students who are physically located away from campus may remain enrolled in courses or research hours to meet their plan of study requirements. However, in addition to meeting overall enrollment requirements, doctoral students are required to demonstrate residency either by being physically present on campus for at least two consecutive semesters of full-time enrollment, or by preparing and following an alternative plan approved by the Graduate School that achieves the same ends.

Residency for the Ph.D. in Environmental Design & Planning is typically accomplished through at least two consecutive semesters of full-time enrollment on campus.  During that time, students may take advantage of opportunities to cultivate immersion in scholarship and achieve the goals of residency. Students completing residency via full-time enrollment should understand residency goals and plan not only to complete required courses, but also to sustain scholarly engagement and immersion in research, scholarship, and professional development. No additional steps are necessary for students who intend to meet residency requirements through this path.

In cases where these requirements are not feasible or where significant benefit could be gained from an alternative approach, students may petition the Graduate School for approval of an individual alternative residency plan.  Alternative residency plans require careful consultation with the student’s advisor and committee, and should be reviewed and approved by the Graduate Chair in Building Construction to ensure all aims of residency are met. The request for approval of alternative residency plans by the Graduate School will be made by the Building Construction Graduate Chair on behalf of the student, the committee, and the department. Justification and documentation must be provided to the Graduate Chair to support the request, which is submitted to the Graduate Dean for review and approval. Individual alternative residency plans must be approved as early as possible, and no later than when the plan of study is submitted for approval by the Graduate School.

1. If a specific committee chair has not been determined by the start of the first semester of study, it is recommended that the student enroll in one or more courses or undertake an independent study with potential committee chairs to establish a basis of mutual interest and further refine ideas for areas of potential inquiry.
2. Scholarship includes both the ability to make significant original contributions to the body of knowledge through research, and to advance the field through communication of knowledge via teaching and other means.
3. Three possible outcomes exist for the qualifying process: (1) The student is successfully approved to proceed in the doctoral program; (2) The student is successfully approved to proceed in the doctoral program with conditional recommendations or requirements to address potential deficiencies; or (3) The student is determined to be not qualified to proceed in the doctoral program. In the third case, the committee may recommend that the student complete requirements for a terminal M.S. degree in the area of study.
4. An approved Plan of Study must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than the third semester of study using the required format.
5. Results of the Preliminary Examination should be reported to the Graduate School within 24 hours of the exam or as soon as possible using the Graduate School Electronic Signature System (http://ess.graduateschool.vt.edu). Preliminary Exams must be scheduled at least six months prior to the Final Examination/Doctoral Defense. If the student does not pass the Preliminary Examination, it may be taken one additional time no earlier than six months following the first attempt. The outcome of the second examination is final.
6. Candidates may document their research findings either as a single dissertation document that includes all relevant information, or a series of manuscripts for peer-reviewed journal publication as agreed upon by the doctoral committee. If the manuscript option is selected, a single final document must be submitted that contains all manuscripts as chapters, plus introductory and concluding chapters to tie the individual manuscripts together in a cohesive manner. If the manuscript option is used, the document must contain a clear description of roles and responsibilities for any co-authors listed on individual manuscripts. Guidelines and requirements for both options are available on the Graduate School web site at http://etd.vt.edu.
7. The final examination may be scheduled no earlier than six months after successful conclusion of the Preliminary Examination. If the student does not pass the Final Examination, it may be taken one additional time no earlier than six months following the first attempt. The outcome of the second examination is final.
8. All final dissertations or manuscript documents must be submitted electronically within two weeks of the final defense using the guidelines at http://etd.vt.edu.

• Ph.D. students are required to take and pass the qualifying examination during their second semester of study. They should plan to be present on campus during this time period to complete the written exam.
• Students will be assigned to the Qualifying Exam Course on Canvas by the Graduate Coordinator in their second semester.
• Students are responsible for initiating the exam process by notifying their primary advisor and the graduate program committee (bc-grad-admin-g@vt.edu) two weeks in advance of their intended date to start taking the qualifying exam in a given semester. 
• The graduate coordinator will then solicit questions from the examining committee, which includes the student’s primary advisor. The questions will be entered into the Canvas question bank and remain locked until the student is scheduled to to begin the exam.
• The student will have the opportunity to identify their three top choices of questions in the question bank by 9:30 am on the starting day of the exam.
• The student will be notified no later than 12 noon that day regarding the set of questions to answer, which will be released on Canvas. 
• The student will then have 14 calendar days to prepare a response for both questions. 
• The response is due by COB (5pm) on the last day of the scheduled exam period.
• Following submission of the exam responses to Canvas, the student is required to schedule an oral defense of their exam with the examining committee no sooner than 2 weeks after submitting the exam response to Canvas. This will provide the committee with sufficient time to review the exam response and prepare for the oral defense. The oral defense should be scheduled for 30 minutes.
• No more than 2 weeks after the oral defense, the Graduate Program chair will indicate the student’s grade on the exam (i.e. pass, conditional pass, fail), summarize committee feedback and provide the student with any required actions in case of a conditional pass.

• The examining committee is composed of the Graduate Program Chair, the student’s primary advisor, and one other MLSoC faculty member who serves on a rotating basis.
• The qualifying exam consists of two essay questions:
  • Question 1) written by the student’s primary advisor and within the student’s area of research interest, and
  • Question 2) written by a different member of the examining committee and outside of the student’s area of interest but within the broader EDP context.
• Each of the questions has the following three components:

  • Breadth
    This part requires the definition of the given topic in an informative way. The description does not have to be comprehensive, but should present the general context of the topic and identify influential (key) references.

  • Depth 
    This part of the question requires the student to illustrate skills in researching, defining, synthesizing, and discussing a specific detailed issue in the field

  • Application
    In this component, the student will articulate and apply the detailed knowledge that has been developed in the depth component to a problem in a given context, and propose possible approaches to address the problem

• The student must submit the written response to each question separately as a PDF document including the respective references in Canvas. 
• The answer to each of the two questions must not exceed five pages, not including references. 
• Late submittals will be considered non-responsive and will not be accepted.
• The oral examination will consist of a series of questions posed to the student by the examining committee with regard to the received written answers.

• Three possible outcomes exist for the qualifying examination:
   
  • Unconditional Pass – the student has met all requirements for the exam and can proceed in the doctoral program.
    The committee may elect to provide additional recommendations to the student on how to improve, but these are optional.
     
  • Conditional Pass – the student is deemed capable of meeting the minimum requirements to complete doctoral study, but specific remedial actions need to be taken to improve their skills to successfully meet those requirements.
    The committee will specify what must be done in its recommendations. The committee may elect to request a follow-up meeting with the student after a designated period of time to re-examine the student and assure that minimum requirements are met.
     
  • Fail – the student does currently not meet the minimum requirements for doctoral study and requires extensive remediation of the observed deficiencies using available resources.
    The committee will provide feedback to the student to identify areas of critical weakness.
     
• Students are permitted to fail their qualifying exam only once.
• Two failed exams will result in dismissal from the program.
• Any second attempt must be undertaken no later than in the third semester of study.
• Students who do not submit their exam responses by COB (5pm) within 14 days (as indicated on Canvas) will be assigned a failing grade.
• The Graduate Program Chair will provide the student with any required actions in case of a conditional pass.
• Feedback may be provided in the form of an “Exam Report Card” representative of the seven core skills listed above.

The most useful preparation for the exam is to become facile with the variety of available information resources. Awareness of access and functionality of resources such as the library, major search engines, and publications in the broader EDP research domain are essential. Since the student will be expected to communicate effectively in written and oral form, familiarity with a word processing application of choice, including any software to manage your references and convert documents into the required PDF format are critical. 

Ph.D. students are already paired with a faculty champion as a condition of admission, who typically also serve as their committee chair. However, to meet the Plan of Study requirements and deadlines, doctoral students must also obtain the commitment of a additional faculty members to serve on their doctoral advisory committee.

FIRST SEMESTER

• Doctoral students thus should actively meet with their advisor and develop a Statement of Intent as soon as possible. This Statement of Intent should be prepared in conjunction with the advisor and can then be used to recruit committee members, starting in the second semester.
• All students are recommended to take CNST 5084: Methods in Construction Research during their first (or second) semester of residency to obtain an orientation to requirements and expectations for construction research.

SECOND SEMESTER

• Students must choose a major advisor who serves as the committee chair and obtain the agreement of that faculty member to serve in this role no later than their second semester.
• In addition to the major advisor a minimum of three additional faculty must serve on the advisory committee. Students must also obtain agreement of these additional faculty to serve on their advisory committee no later than the end of the second semester of study. 

THIRD SEMESTER

• Doctoral students must have a major advisor who serves as the committee chair and obtain the agreement of three additional faculty member to serve on their committee to sign off on their proposed Plan of Study.
• All committee members indicate their formal commitment to serve via their signatures on the student’s Plan of Study, which is due at the end of the third semester.

• The approved Plan of Study including all required documentation should then be submitted to the Building Construction Graduate Chair, who will review and approve the document and submit it for Graduate School approval.

OTHER SEMESTERS

The schedule for Advisory Committee meetings for doctoral students is determined by the student’s progress and degree completion goals. Typically, committee meetings may be held

• to review a student’s plan of study and preliminary research proposal,
• to conduct the preliminary exam,
• to hear the proposal defense,
• to conduct a pre-­defense, and
• to conduct the final defense.

The Graduate School requires that the committee convene in real time for the preliminary exam and the final defense. All other meetings may be conducted asynchronously, with the student and/or faculty advisor coordinating activities and documenting outcomes. It is the student’s responsibility to keep all committee members informed of progress, particularly any challenges or changes that occur as the research progresses. The means for reporting progress is at the discretion of the committee and may include written updates, individual meetings with committee members, or meetings of the entire committee together.

Additional limitations and requirements of faculty committees are described under 

• Faculty Advisor & Committee on the Graduate Advising and Resources page, or
• Graduate Advisory Committees in the Graduate Catalog

All elective courses must meet minimum Graduate School Plan of Study requirements to be included on the Plan of Study, including the following limitations:

• No course less than a 4xxx-level may be included on the Plan of Study
• No more than six (6) hours of 4xxx-level courses may be included.
• The number of credit hours in 5974, 5984, and 6984 courses must be less than or equal to the limits required for the student’s degree type.

Approvals must be obtained from

• the student’s advisory committee,
• the BC Graduate Chair, and
• the Graduate School (in this order)

before the Plan of Study is considered official.

Ph.D. students are encouraged to consult first with their academic advisors and committees and second with the Graduate Chair and/or Graduate Coordinator to answer questions regarding courses and requirements for the Plan of Study. The following timelines apply:

After the pre-proposal presentation, the committee will identify a series of questions related to the proposed research to serve as the preliminary examination. Typically, these questions will be formulated to address gaps identified in the pre-proposal by the committee that must be resolved before the final proposal can be prepared and defended. While the specific format and timeline of the preliminary examination may vary based on the recommendations of the committee for each student, all preliminary exams include a formal oral presentation that addresses the questions posed by the committee to constitute the preliminary exam. Other aspects of the timeline and format for the preliminary exam are at the discretion of the advisory committee.

Typically, students will be given a series of questions, either all at once or sequentially, that must be answered within a specified period of time determined by the committee. The questions are typically related to gaps or unclear areas identified in the pre-proposal. Accordingly, answers to the questions may be either prepared individually in response to each question, incorporated directly as part of the revised proposal presented to the committee for the formal proposal defense, or both. In any case, the written outcome(s) of the preliminary exam, including the revised final proposal, should be prepared and provided to the committee for review no later than one week before the formal oral preliminary exam is scheduled.

The content of the oral preliminary exam is at the discretion of the committee but typically includes an overview of the student’s responses to each preliminary exam question along with an overview of clarifications and changes to the pre-proposal. The successful outcome of this meeting is a clear understanding by both the committee and the student of the scope and approach to be taken for the student’s doctoral research.

Students should schedule the exam by submitting a Request to Admit Candidate to Preliminary Exam through the Graduate School’s Electronic Signature System at least two weeks in advance of the proposed date. Requests to schedule examinations must include the time, date, building and room number, and title of dissertation or thesis. The student’s Advisory Committee is required to approve the examination before it is offically scheduled. The examination should not be conducted if the Advisor has not received notification via email that the examination has been scheduled and the examination request has been received. Required examinations are administered during regular academic semesters or sessions, i.e., between the first day of classes for a given semester or session and ending with the last official day for examinations. Permission to schedule an examination in the time between sessions may be granted if an explanation of special circumstances requiring that scheduling is made to the Graduate School by the student’s Advisor.

At least four Advisory Committee members are required to participate in the Preliminary Exam. Students must schedule a mutually agreeable date for the formal oral Preliminary Examination with all members of the advisory committee. If one or more members of the advisory committee cannot participate in person or virtually in the meeting, those members must recommend to the chair a faculty member with suitable qualifications to serve as a proxy for the meeting. The Chair of the Advisory Committee should then request, in a brief letter accompanying the exam request, that another faculty member serve on the Examining Committee. The proxy will have full voting rights in determining the outcome of the examination. Those conducting the examination must all indicate whether they consider the student's performance to be Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory via the Graduate School Electronic Signature System.

To pass the preliminary exam, a graduate student is allowed at most one Unsatisfactory vote. If a student fails an examination, one full semester (a minimum of 15 weeks) must elapse before the second examination is scheduled. Not more than two opportunities to pass any one examination are allowed. A student failing any of the examinations required by Graduate Policies two times will be dismissed from graduate studies by the Graduate School.

Matters of style in the dissertation are usually handled by reference to the style sheets of a major journal in the particular field of study. Chapters generally consist of an introduction, literature review, research methods and materials, results, discussion, conclusions, and recommendations. The dissertation requires a comprehensive review of prior art to determine what has already been tried by others to answer the research question. It often will include development of data collection instruments or experimental protocols and designs, collection of data through field work or experiments, and detailed analysis of that data to draw conclusions regarding the research question. Work must lead to findings of journal paper quality, and new discoveries are expected.

• The student may opt to complete the written deliverable for the Ph.D. using a manuscript format (i.e., integration of at least two (2), with preference of three (3) or more related manuscripts, plus supporting data in Appendices). In this case, the manuscripts must be at a level of being prepared for journal submission. The manuscript(s) should be based on research done at Virginia Tech. The manuscript(s) can be previously published, under review and yet to be published, or in preparation for submission. Please check the ETD pages for content structure and formatting requirements.
   
• If a standard dissertation format is chosen (using conventional chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion), the student is required to include a 10-12 page extended abstract in journal paper format summarizing the work in addition to meeting all requirements of the Graduate School for Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETD) submittals (http://etd.vt.edu).

A draft of the dissertation should be submitted to the Advisory Committee at least two weeks prior to the pre-defense if one is required by the committee, or two weeks prior to the final examination and dissertation defense otherwise. The draft should be reviewed and approved by the Committee Chair prior to distribution to the Advisory Committee. Any required revisions identified by committee members during review of the draft or as part of the final dissertation defense must be made and confirmed by the committee chair before final acceptance and submittal of the dissertation. Individual committee members will receive a final opportunity to review and comment on the final submittal before electronically approving the document.

In most cases, students will undergo a closed pre-defense presentation with members of their committee, followed by a revision period during which they will address any concerns raised by their committee about the scope or quality of their work. Students should plan to provide their committees with a complete draft of their written work no later than two weeks prior to the scheduled pre-defense to allow time for review. Following the pre-defense, the committee will make recommendations regarding how much time should be allowed before scheduling the final defense. The final defense occurs no sooner than two weeks following the pre-defense and only when all committee members agree that the student is ready to proceed.

All doctoral candidates must take a final oral and/or written examination. This examination must be scheduled no earlier than six months after successful completion of the preliminary examination. The format of the final examination is set by the advisory committee and typically consists of a defense of the dissertation and doctoral research. In addition, the student may be asked questions on subjects covered in coursework or other questions that are designed to determine the student's depth and breadth of knowledge in the subject area.

A student must be appropriately registered during the semester of the final examination/defense (see Degree Completion Enrollment Requirements). Final examinations/defenses are usually scheduled within periods beginning with the first day of classes for a given semester or session and ending with the last official day of examinations. Examinations are not usually administered between semesters or sessions.

• At least two weeks prior to the date of the final examination, a Request to Admit Candidate to Final Examination must be submitted to the Graduate School via the Electronic Signature System recommending the time, date, room number, building, title of thesis or dissertation, and names of the committee members.
• Scheduling the exam requires approval by all members of the student’s committee, who may require submission of a revised document plus review time prior to approving the exam. Students should consult with their committee members and agree on a timeline for the final defense before scheduling the final exam with the Graduate School.
• The defending student should submit the request, obtaining appropriate room reservations and verifying that all committee members can attend before submitting the form.
• After the final defense has been scheduled with the Graduate School, students should prepare a brief announcement of the defense including date, time, location, title, name, and a short abstract. The announcement should be submitted via email to the Graduate Coordinator, for distribution to the faculty and graduate listservs in the department.

All final examinations are open to the public and faculty members are encouraged to attend and participate in such meetings. Defenses typically begin with a short committee-only meeting, followed by an open presentation and Q/A session, followed by a closed committee meeting and outbriefing of the student. Students should bring at least one copy of the final dissertation draft and supporting materials to the defense for review by non-committee members. Students are responsible for reserving a space for the final defense and arranging for and setting up any equipment required for the final presentation.

The Graduate School will notify the student’s Advisory Committee of the examination via email. Final results should be registered by the student’s advisor in the Graduate School Electronic Signature System, and must be confirmed by the Advisory Committee within 24 hours or as soon as possible after the examination. Students should verify several days before the exam that the advisor has received notification and take appropriate measures to verify the exam schedule with the Graduate School if notification has not been received.

To pass the final examination/defense, a candidate is allowed at most one negative vote. If a student fails the examination/defense, one full semester (a minimum of 15 weeks) must elapse before the second examination is scheduled. Not more than two opportunities to pass any one examination are allowed. Students failing any of the mandatory examinations two times will be dropped from the university.