Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations

A student is eligible to take the comprehensive examination after having completed a minimum of 45 hours in the Ph.D. (Kinesiology) program, including 30 hours of core requirements and completion of the candidacy paper requirement.

A student’s advisor will serve as the student’s Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations Committee Chair and will be responsible for identifying Readers for their student’s comprehensive exam questions. If the Reader/Readers are not members of the GRD committee, the advisor will require approval from the GRD Committee for non-GRD members to serve as comprehensive exam question readers.

A student’s advisor and two independent readers will examine the comprehensive examination responses.

The student’s Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations Committee Chair will be responsible for the process of collecting questions from each faculty member tasked with writing comprehensive examination questions, collecting the graded examination, compiling the final grade for the examination and communicating this grade to GRD committee. The GRD committee (based on the information supplied by the student’s Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations Committee Chair will have final authority to recommend a pass or fail grade on the comprehensive examination.

Pass/Fail decisions on all comprehensive exams are ultimately the decision of the GRD committee who will vote on the issue once a grade has been communicated to the committee by the student’s Doctoral Comprehensive Examinations Committee Chair.

Once the GRD committee has reviewed and accepted the results of the comprehensive exam, a student can approach the Chair of the GRD committee who can indicate whether the student has passed or failed, with a clear statement by the Chair of GRD committee that a final notification from the College of Education's Graduate Studies Office is required before the result of the exams are official.

A student can also speak with their advisor, who may indicate to the student that the GRD Committee voted a “pass” or “fail” but that official communication of the result will be generated by the COE Graduate Studies Office.

If a student fails the comprehensive doctoral examination the advisor, with the approval from the GRD committee will recommend a remediation plan for that student. The contents and implementation of this plan are the responsibility of the advisor. Once approved, the advisor must document that the student has reviewed and understood the remedial course of action.

If a student fails the comprehensive exam a second time, he/she will be considered ineligible for a Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology at the University of Houston and be immediately dismissed from the program.