Defense and Graduation
Checklist of final steps:
- Schedule your defense and send your thesis to your full committee at least two weeks prior to your scheduled defense.
- Defend your thesis.
- After your defense, ask your full committee to sign the Final Defense and Evaluation Form. Send this form to Dr. Bettinger.
- Make any revisions required by your committee.
- Send your signed Final Defense and Evaluation form and a copy of your revised thesis to your college thesis liaison by your college deadline. Receive approval from college.
- Purchase Honors Medallion and RSVP for spring Honors graduation ceremony (optional).
- Upload the final document as a PDF to the Senior Honors Thesis Electronic Submission Portal by the last day of the academic term.
If you are not going to complete the thesis or defense please research out to Dr. Bettinger in OURMA to discuss your options and the best path forward for your individual situation.
Final Step Details
- Send Dr. Bettinger the working title of your thesis for her tentative records.
- Review your college's defense, formatting, and submission processes. The deadline to submit a defended thesis varies by college! Each college has a different process, and you'll have to submit to both our office in the Honors College and your college once you've defended successfully.
- NOTE: Engineering asks you to submit a draft of your thesis to the college thesis liaison BEFORE you defend.
- Discuss with your thesis director your timeline for sending out your thesis and scheduling the thesis defense.
- Schedule a defense date and time and determine whether you will be proceeding in-person or via Microsoft Teams.
- Dr. Bettinger recommends defending two weeks prior to your College Paperwork Deadline. Check your college-specific information page to get the most up-to-date information!
- A lot of students use an online polling app to create polls to schedule the defense to minimize the number of emails related to scheduling.
- If you will have an in-person defense, you will need to contact your department to book a room. There is also some availability in the Honors College.
- Send your final thesis document to your full committee, including the Honors Reader, at least two weeks prior to your defense date.
- This allows the committee members time to read the full thesis, make comments, and prepare questions to ask you.
- Ask your thesis director about how your thesis defense will run. Do you need to prepare a presentation? Ask your director!
- Most defenses have a student presentation of the project's main question, method, argument, and findings (10-15 min) followed by rigorous Q&A led by the thesis committee. You will then be asked to leave the room while the committee confers on the quality of the project and if the student has passed the defense.
- Take the Final Defense and Evaluation Form to your defense.
- Ask your full committee to sign the Final Defense and Evaluation Form. Send this signed form to Dr. Bettinger as a record of your successful defense. Send to rrbettin@central.uh.edu.
- Your committee may sign the form at the defense, or they may wait until revisions are completed to sign the approval form.
- What about signatures for my bound copy?
- If you want a signature page to insert in a printed, bound copy, you are welcome to gather those signatures at or following your defense. Do pay attention to the required page weight/cotton blend for printing. These are no longer required and are at your preference.
- The only signatures required for the Honors College are the signatures on the Final Defense and Evaluation Form.
- The version of your thesis that is uploaded via the portal to the UH Libraries CANNOT include any physical signatures. Only your committee members' names.
- Make any revisions required by your committee. Submit those to your thesis director and/or readers as agreed upon for approval.
- Submit your thesis by your college submission deadline. Your email should include:
- "Senior Honors Thesis submission - your name" in the email subject line unless otherwise directed by your college
- Your name, email, major, and PSID.
- Attach your thesis and the Final Defense and Evaluation form.
- You should cc your thesis director on this email to your college thesis liaison.
- Make any revisions required by your college.
- In April, keep an eye on your school email for an invitation from the Honors College to attend the Medallion Ceremony. All students who successfully complete the thesis program are invited to attend and be recognized for their thesis work. There is a strict RSVP deadline in mid-April each year.
- You also have the option of purchasing an Honors medallion ($35) in the event you do not attend the ceremony.
- Please contact the Honors College Student Services Office (honors@uh.edu) with questions.
- Ensure you have completed all required revisions from your committee and college.
- Upload the final document as a PDF to the Senior Honors Thesis Electronic Submission Portal by the last day of the academic term.
- Your final, uploaded document must include the names of your committee members but NOT their actual signatures.
- Name your pdf as follows: LastName_FirstName_Abbreviated Title_Year
- Carefully review your entries in the portal. These are used to populate the upload to the UH Libraries thesis collection and will be made public. This includes keywords, abstract, etc.
- Review the UH License Agreement regarding your thesis' inclusion in the digital repository. You can view the senior honors thesis library collection here.
- Binding your thesis
- The Honors College does not require bound copies of your thesis.
- Please review your college's page to see if they require a bound copy, and check with your department as well. Sometimes, the college does not require a copy, but the department does.
- The University Copy Center or Legacy Book Binding can provide pricing information.