Building Your IPh.D. Academic Advisory Committee
For full details of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Guidelines please review the document available below:
Overview
Your Academic Advisory Committee will consist of at least five members, four of whom must be University of Maine faculty. All of your Academic Committee members must also be members of the Graduate Faculty of the University of Maine before the Graduate School can formally appoint them to your Academic Committee. Those who are not members of the Graduate Faculty (such as external committee members) should submit a Record of Qualifications form before or with the submission of your application to the Graduate School.
Your Academic Committee members are responsible for assisting you in developing your dissertation proposal, so make sure that their areas of expertise closely match your study focus. If your Academic Committee composition changes during your degree program, the changes must be approved by the IPh.D. Policy, Procedure, and Admissions Committee.
Committee Chair
Your committee chair must be a full member of the Graduate Faculty at the University of Maine. Since the chair normally directs the dissertation research, they must have demonstrated expertise in your major research area. Prior experience in supervising a doctoral dissertation is strongly preferred.
University of Maine Committee Members
The three additional University of Maine committee members should be chosen based on their substantive expertise in multiple areas of study or otherwise have expertise in the methodological areas that you have chosen to pursue.
External Member(s)
The fifth member of the committee must be from another institution, and shall be selected based on his or her demonstrated expertise in the topic of the dissertation research. The external member must be identified before the student’s admission and meet the IPh.D. criteria for appointment as an External Graduate Faculty member of the University of Maine.
Additional Requirements
Ideally, your committee chair and at least one additional committee member should have prior experience in directing and supervising doctoral-level research. A summary of this experience (such as a list of past doctoral committees) must be submitted to the Graduate School with your other application materials.