Instructions for Audio/Video Conferencing in Doctoral Examinations

These are minimum Graduate School requirements regarding audio/video conferences during doctoral examinations.  Individual departments may have stricter requirements and participants should contact the departments prior to organizing these conferences.

Graduate School Requirements

As stated in Graduate School Memorandum #13, General and Final Examinations must have four committee members present -- the Chair, GSR and at least one additional Graduate Faculty member.  If a member (s) needs to participate at an exam but cannot be physically present, the Graduate School allows for audio/video conferences if the following requirements are met:

• The conference process is initiated and completed by the student &/or student’s department.
• The conference is set up through the UW’s Communication Technologies office*.
• All costs incurred are the responsibility of the student &/or student’s department.
• All visual aids used at the examination must be available to conference participants prior to the examination.
• All committee members, including the GSR, must be notified of the conference prior to the examination.
• The Graduate School is notified of the conference by receipt of the Request for General/Final Examination.
• The Graduate School Representative (GSR) must be present and is not allowed to participate by conference.
• If communication is broken during the examination and cannot be retrieved thereby not fulfilling the minimum number of exam participants, the examination must be terminated and rescheduled to a later time/date.
• Committee members who are participating by audio or video conferencing will send a fax or email to the Chair of the committee stating that he or she attended the exam, including the date and time, and how they voted (pass, reexamine, fail). This document must be attached to the original warrant, in lieu of the actual signature, before it is submitted to the Graduate School.

If the student is to participate at the examination by audio/video conference, the following requirements must be met in addition to the pertinent requirements listed above:

• The student must arrange to participate by conference at an academic institution.
• A proctor (faculty or administrative personnel) must be present throughout the entire examination.
• The proctor must submit a letter to accompany the Request for General/Final Examination that verifies his/her responsibility during the examination.

If the above stated requirements are not met, the examination may be invalid and the Graduate School may require another examination.

*For information regarding audio conference services, contact the Campus Conference Operator at 685-6060.  For video conferencing call 685-7744.