Comprehensive Examination and Defense of Capstone Work

The primary purpose of comprehensive exams is to help students synthesize what they have learned in their coursework and make application of that material to the project or dissertation that they prepare as the capstone of their graduate program. The exam is not intended as a "mega-exam" in which students rehash all the material from specific classes, but rather it should be an opportunity for the student to "make sense" of what he/she has learned over the course of graduate studies at the University of Tennessee.

Defense for the MS in Communication and Information

All master’s students will prepare a proposal of the project/thesis and will orally defend that proposal to their full committee. This is an opportunity for the student and faculty members to clearly define the project/thesis and come to agreement about expectations.

The final project/thesis serves as the capstone for master’s students. In addition to the written materials prepared for this capstone experience , all master’s students will also conduct an oral defense of the completed project/thesis. They should submit a copy of the thesis/project to their committee members no less than two weeks prior to the defense. 

Exams and Defense for the PhD in Communication and Information

Doctoral students take comprehensive exams at the end of coursework. In total, the exam will include at least four questions. One question will be common and address material delivered in the first-year core classes. That question is:
“During your doctoral studies you have been exposed to various paradigmatic research traditions. It is important that you be able to demonstrate how paradigmatic assumptions impact research decisions. Using your dissertation phenomenon (or a phenomenon of interest), please construct two brief research proposals (one should use a positivistic perspective and one should use a humanistic perspective). Explain how and why the paradigmatic assumptions of each tradition specifically:
a. frame the research question(s),
b. dictate the role of theory,
c. suggest appropriate methods/data analysis procedures, and
d. establish criteria for quality research.”

The three remaining question areas will be determined by the program committee, which oversees the comprehensive exams, based on the student’s program of study – including concentration and cognate areas. Within these three areas, at least one question should incorporate a focus on theory and at least one should incorporate a focus on research methods. At the committee’s discretion, additional question(s) may be added to include professional issues or other items tailored to the student.

Students will have four hours to complete each question area. They will be allowed to bring in a non-annotated bibliography for each question area. The college will provide a computer on which students may write answers, but students are not to bring in any computer storage medium nor are they to connect to any external sources during the same. All exams will be completed within two weeks.

Committee members write questions in consultation with committee chair and other committee members and have questions delivered to the committee chair so that she/he can send questions two weeks in advance of the exam to the associate dean who will review the questions for overall consistency with program guidelines. Committee members will provide general guidance at their discretion to the student about how to prepare for the comprehensive exam. At a minimum, a committee member should meet with the student to discuss the general framework of the question(s) the member will ask. Committee members should not ask a student questions covering material that was not presented in the student’s program of study. All members of the committee will evaluate all comp questions.

After the comprehensive exams have been distributed to committee members for review, a meeting will be held with the committee and the student, which serves as an oral defense (or review) of comps and also facilitates the transition to work on the dissertation. Faculty members should have a minimum of two weeks to read written responses before the oral exam is scheduled.  At this meeting the student should present a short (about three pages) overview of the dissertation to guide this discussion. If the membership of the dissertation committee will be different from the membership of the exam committee all faculty members from both committees should be present at this meeting.

As an external quality control measure, the associate dean will examine the level of consistency and rigor of student answers on the comprehensive exams. If the associate dean has concerns, these concerns must be presented to the chair of the student’s program committee prior to the post-comp student/committee meeting described above. 

Students who do not successfully complete the written or oral exams may be asked to repeat one or more sections of the exam. Such a retake may be scheduled no sooner than six months and no longer than one year after notification of the failure. If students are not successful writing and/or defending the exam after a second attempt they will be dismissed from the program.

A checklist of procedures and timelines for comprehensive exams appears as Appendix F.