Academic Affairs
Supervision and Examination of Dissertation
Applicants for the master’s program shall present their first, second and third preferences before admission and shall be assigned an academic advisor by the admission screening committee of the graduate school. Each academic advisor may be assigned a maximum of three master’s students in a year. In the case of the combined master’s-doctoral program, an academic advisor shall be decided after students rotate around more than two laboratories for a period of one or two months.
The admission screening committee of the graduate school shall make it a priority to assign students to laboratories whose faculty members were newly appointed or not assigned any new student in the previous year, in order to allow them to be academic advisors to at least one student a year. The membership of the dissertation examination committee shall be limited to internal and external full-time faculty members. For master’s degree theses, the thesis examination and oral exam shall be conducted over a single occasion, while success in the examination shall be determined by approval from two-thirds of the committee. For doctoral dissertations, the dissertation examination and oral exam shall be conducted separately on at least one occasion each, while success in the examination shall be determined by approval from four-fifths of the committee. Following the examination process, the relevant department office will organize a thesis conference, in which master’s candidates shall give poster presentations, while doctoral candidates shall give oral presentations. The schedule of the thesis conference shall be decided by the academic affairs committee of the graduate school.
The dissertation examination for each program shall proceed as follows:
Master’s program
Submission of the master’s thesis and examination committee recommendation form: After consultation with the academic advisor regarding the date of thesis examination and committee members, master’s students who desire to graduate in the winter semester shall submit the examination committee recommendation form to the administration office by the first Friday of December, and those who desire to graduate in the summer semester by the first Friday of June.
Doctoral Program
Formation of a dissertation guidance committee: Within one year after passing the qualifying examination (comprehensive exam), doctorial students shall form a dissertation guidance committee consisting of three members including the academic advisor, and submit the results of the dissertation examination to the administration office after the completion of the first round of the examination process. The dissertation guidance committee shall convene a committee meeting at least once a year with the student giving a presentation in order to monitor the student’s dissertation progress, offer advice, and decide whether to submit the dissertation.
Submission of doctoral dissertation and examination committee recommendation form: Once the submission of dissertation is determined by the dissertation guidance committee, doctoral students who desire to graduate in the winter semester shall submit the examination committee recommendation form to the administration office by the first Friday of November, and those who desire to graduate in the summer semester by the first Friday of May.