Thesis & Dissertation Information

Students must submit a defense public notice prior to their defense

• Required MS Public Notice must be submitted 1 week prior to defense
• Required PhD Public Notice must be submitted 2 weeks prior to defense

• Required on line announcement for PhD students to post a 2 week public notice on the graduate school website. Log in to “Announce Your Defense”. This is optional for MS students.

Submission Date ‐ It is your responsibility to follow the graduation deadlines for submitting graduation requirements and materials. Failure to meet published deadlines will result in cancellation of your graduation.

Defense Date - It is recommended that your defense date be 2 weeks or more prior to the Electronic Submission of Thesis/Dissertation Due Date graduation deadlines. This will give you 2 weeks to make any necessary changes, have iThenticate process and upload to ETD. Please notify your research advisor of the ETD submission date and deadlines when scheduling your defense date.

Two forms are required to be signed by your advisor and committee on the day of your defense:

• Defense Form 
• Committee Approval Form

• Submit your signed CEAS Defense Form, Program of Study and Plagiarism Pledge to the GSO, 801 Mantei Center
• 1st Submit a PDF of thesis/dissertation to your Graduate Studies Manager. Do not submit to ETD until you have your iThenticate approval. 
• 2nd Upload to ETD ONLY after you have received your iThenticate approval. Your advisor must approve your ETD submission by the ETD submission date. This is a firm deadline, no exceptions. The deadline can be found on the Graduation Checklist.
• MEng Students - ONLY   
• All MEng students should refer to the MEng Handbook for forms and graduation procedures. If you have graduation questions please see your Graduate Studies Manager, or 801 Mantei Center.
• All GRADUATION forms below must be submitted to your Graduate Studies Manager two weeks prior to the commencement date for the term you are graduating in. 

• ALL MS, MEng and PhD Graduating Students
• You are responsible to ensure that each action item on your Graduation Checklist is approved by the deadline stated. A green check mark will appear indicating the step is complete and approved. A red X will indicate that you have a problem and action is required. Do not contact the program unless the red X still appears one week prior to the deadline indicated. If you have grade changes required, your advisor/instructor can change grades online. If you have a grade change required for a course, it is your responsibility to get it resolved with the instructor. You are responsible to ensure all action items and grades are corrected and awarded for the current term. Unacceptable grades are SP, UP, UW, I, F, X or if a grade is not posted in Catalyst. If one of these grades are in your Catalyst at the end of the semester contact the instructor immediately. Please note if any action items or grade issues are not resolved your graduation will be canceled.

Certification letters will take 2‐3 weeks after all graduation submissions are complete. Degree posting to transcripts take approximately 4‐5 weeks after the graduation date. Diplomas are mailed out approximately 6 weeks after the graduation date. If you have an address change for your diploma please email the address change to Chelsea Smalling. Please include your name, M#, complete new address, phone #, program and degree.

Electronic Diplomas – An electronic diploma will only be available for purchase after the paper diploma prints.

CeDiploma: University of Cincinnati is proud to offer you a Certified Electronic Diploma which you can order/download today!

• Your CeDiploma is an official, portable, and verifiable electronic version of your accomplishment and can be shared for a lifetime.
• Your CeDiploma will be issued with at 12-digit CeDiD (Certified Electronic Document Identifier) which can be validated and help expedite the verification process for potential employers.
• Order within Catalyst.

If you have any questions, please email registrar.info@uc.edu with your name and student ID.