The satisfactory completion of a thesis is a requirement on some master’s degree programs and optional on others. The satisfactory completion of a thesis at CMU is a requirement for some specialist’s degrees, and satisfactory completion of a doctoral dissertation is a requirement for the doctoral degree.

Students should be aware that the university has specific policies that govern research involving human or animal subjects. Information on experimentation may be obtained from the department chairperson, committee chairperson, or College of Graduate Studies.

For stylistic guidelines, students are expected to follow the most recent College of Graduate Studies’ requirements, which are explained in the Preparation Guide for Doctoral Dissertations and Theses. Copies are available in the graduate studies office.

If students are writing a thesis or dissertation, it will be evaluated by a committee. Students should consult their advisor in selecting a committee chairperson and two committee members. The advisor may or may not be the committee chairperson, depending upon the student's academic emphasis. One member of the committee may be from a discipline other than that of the student's area of concentration. All members of the committee must be graduate faculty. For theses and dissertations completed through Central Michigan University's College of Extended Learning, one of the three committee members must be a CMU on-campus regular faculty member or a regular faculty member from a collaborating university (such as in a joint program), or if all committee members are from off-campus, the committee chair must meet the requirements for regular graduate faculty status as defined by the Academic Senate's Graduate Education Policy and be approved as committee chair by the department.

The chairperson of the thesis committee will have active direction of the thesis or dissertation, but may wish to consult with other members of the committee about matters pertinent to its development. The committee as a whole, however, will determine the quality of the work.

After a committee has been selected and a topic chosen, a Thesis or Dissertation Approval Prospectus form must be filed in the College of Graduate Studies, before the work is formally initiated. The department may require a more detailed prospectus.

Each student who writes a thesis or dissertation must enroll for such credit. Letter grades are not used in the evaluation of the thesis or dissertation; therefore, the student’s grade point average is not affected by credit earned for these. In all departments the thesis or dissertation is designated as credit (CR) if acceptable and no credit (NC) if not acceptable. Students will receive six semester hours of credit for an acceptable thesis. For a dissertation, a minimum of six and a maximum of thirty-six semester credit hours may be earned depending on the guidelines for the specific department.

A student may not enroll for more than three credits of the thesis or doctoral dissertation until the project prospectus has been approved at the department level and composition of the committee has been verified by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. Credit will be granted upon satisfactory completion of the dissertation or thesis, and its acceptance by the committee. See the Duration of Admission Status for more information on time limits.
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Final Stages of Thesis or Dissertation Preparation
The final draft of the committee-approved thesis or doctoral dissertation must be submitted for a final check to the College of Graduate Studies according to the published deadline date (approximately four weeks prior to the end of the semester). Failure to meet this deadline or any departmentally stipulated deadline, may result in the student’s graduation being delayed until the following semester.

After approval by the College of Graduate Studies, the student will be given a Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation Approval form. The student completing a dissertation must take a clean copy of the dissertation to Library Business Services, currently in 407G Park Library, to prepare for microfilming, no later than one week after graduation. The student must also take two copies of the thesis or dissertation to the University Printing Services, Combined Services Building, for binding, no later than one week after graduation. The approval form must be signed at the Library and Printing Services and returned to the graduate studies office.

All doctoral dissertations are microfilmed by University Microfilms International. A graduate student has the option to file his/her master's thesis with UMI. Instructions for microfilming are available from the College of Graduate Studies.
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