Qualification Exam
Students who are enrolled in the PhD program are required to take the PhD Qualifier Exam after completing the program credit requirements (with GPA>=3,00) and before the end of their 5th semester. If a student completes the PhD program credit before his/her 4th semester, he/she may request to postpone the PhD Qualifier Exam by at most 2 semesters, on the condition that the postponed date is with in the first 5 semesters of his/her enrollment to the program. Such students are given the status “Q” during these semesters.
The students must have taken and submitted a valid foreign language test score to FBE (the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences) before the PhD Qualifier Exam. It is advised that the students check their current foreign language requirement fulfillment status with the FBE office. The PhD Qualifier Exam committee does not take the responsibility of checking and/or confirming your foreign language status. But the students are kindly asked to send their most recent language exam scores (YDS, TOEFL) to the committee for departmental records.
The PhD Qualifier Exam jury is composed of the thesis supervisor, 2 academicians from external universities and/or research institutions, 2 members of the PhD Qualifier Exam committee who are in fields complementary to the PhD candidate’s research area. The candidate’s thesis supervisor acts as the head of the jury. The PhD Qualifier Exam consists of a written and an oral session.
The written exam has two parts. Part A is composed of 3 questions that are prepared by the thesis supervisor and 2 external jury members. The student is required to select two of these questions to answer. Part B is composed of 4 questions prepared by the PhD Qualifier Exam committee. 3 of these 4 questions will be from Telecommunication/Signal-Processing, Control and Electronics subdomains and one will be a basic EE question. The student is required to select 3 of these 4 questions. Hence, the overall exam is composed of 5 questions. Each question will be graded over 20 and a total of 60 will be required to pass the written exam.
The candidates who are successful in the written exam will take the oral exam within 1 month. The oral exam is organized by the thesis supervisor (the head of the qualifier jury) and administered by the PhD Qualifier Jury. A minimum of 60 (out of 100) is required to pass the exam.
The candidates who are successful in both the written and oral exams qualify for the PhD dissertation, which they are required to complete in 12 semesters from their initial enrollment. The candidates who have failed in the PhD Qualifier Exam can take the exam one more time in the following semester. The second PhD Qualifier Exam cannot be postponed.
TASK CHECKLIST TO BE FINISHED BEFORE THE TEST
- Confirm with the PhD program advisor that your name has been included in the list of students who will take the PhD Qualifier Exam and is sent to the PhD Qualifier Exam Committee,
- Confirm FBE that you fulfill the language requirements (otherwise plan to take a language exam –YDS/TOEFL- before the PhD Qualifier Exam date),
- Make sure that the PhD Qualifier Exam committee has your current email address and that you receive all announcements,
- Keep track of the calendar announced by the committee every semester.
AFTER THE EXAM
Candidates who are successful in the exam have to form their thesis monitoring committees within 30 days and defend their thesis proposals until the end of the semester following the examination. These stages are organized and monitored by the thesis supervisor.
PHD QUALIFICATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Burak Acar
Yağmur Denizhan
Ahmet Öncü
Murat Saraçlar
Oğuzhan Çiçekoğlu
