Approvals and Required Forms

Written Thesis / Dissertation Approval

After the student has passed the final defense and the committee has approved the written thesis or dissertation, the committee and department head (or chair of intercollegiate faculty) signs the Written Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form. This form is available online from the Forms and Information section of the Graduate and Professional Studies website.

All committee members must sign the Written Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form before the thesis, dissertation, or record of study can be submitted electronically. All signatures are needed before Thesis and Dissertation Services can accept a manuscript for review. Any student who is having trouble obtaining signatures should contact the Graduate Staff Advisor in their department or Thesis and Dissertation Services for guidance.

In certain cases, if a committee member is unable to sign the form, the student may obtain the chair’s or authorized signer’s (must be of the same department as the committee member) signature in place of the temporarily unavailable committee member. There can be no substitution for the committee chair’s signature. 
 

TAMU Copyright and Availability Form

All theses and dissertations will eventually be available to the public. When you are submitting your thesis, dissertation, or record of study, you can determine what type of hold, or embargo, you want for your work after graduation. Via the Copyright and Availability form, you have the option to release the entire document immediately, withhold part of it from public view, or withhold the document completely for patent/proprietary issues. Your chosen hold will last for two years unless you release it early by request or file an extension. Except in cases of full record holds, some information about the work (title, author, abstract, keywords) will be made available to the public during the embargo period

After the student has graduated, the final approved manuscript will be available via the Internet from the Texas A&M University Libraries and the Texas Digital Repository. Additionally, dissertations will be available from ProQuest/ UMI.
 

Survey of Earned Doctorates and AAUDE Survey (for Doctoral Students)

Doctoral students must complete both surveys and provide Thesis and Dissertation Services documentation of the completion certificates. The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) is the definitive source of information on the nation’s new research doctorates. Conducted by NORC and sponsored by the National Science Foundation as well as five other federal agencies, the SED is critical to understanding the specialty areas in which doctorates are produced and scholars’ post-graduation employment plans. Results are used by government as well as academic institutions to make decisions about graduate education funding, develop new programs, and support existing ones. Texas A&M University has developed the AAUDE Core Graduate Education Exit Survey from a set of core questions used in many of the Association of American Universities (AAU) member institutions. Information gained from this survey will be distributed through Texas A&M University Data and Research Services to AAU and be combined with data from other contributing AAU institutions to help us improve our graduate programs.

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