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Bioengineering Qualifying Exams Philosophy and Guidelines

I. Eligibility

Each Bioengineering Ph.D. student is eligible to take the qualifying exam at the end of the student's third academic semester of study as long as the student maintains the minimum 3.20 GPA required by the program. Students entering with a M.S. must take the exam after two academic semesters of residency, but may petition the Graduate Committee to defer a semester if the need for additional coursework is justified. To take the exam, each student must have passed at least two bioscience and two engineering fundamentals courses.

II. Exam Philosophy

The exam is structured to assess: the student's ability for independent thinking and decision making; knowledge and integration of engineering and biological concepts; and the application of this knowledge to interdisciplinary bioengineering problems. Although the exam will not be "course specific", it will be tailored to the student's background, graduate coursework and general research area. The exam emphasizes the student's ability to integrate bioscience and engineering concepts to solve bioengineering problems. The committee will evaluate the correctness of the students' responses as well as judge the overall level of breadth, depth and integration of the students' responses. Clarity and conciseness of the presentation of responses is very important.

III. Exam Committee

The exam will be an oral examination administered by a faculty committee consisting of three bioengineering Program faculty members with broad expertise in areas of traditional engineering, biological sciences and bioengineering. The Bioengineering Graduate Committee will appoint the Qualifying Exam Committee based on the student's background, graduate coursework and research area. The committee members should have a distribution in rank, and should not consist solely of untenured faculty. Up to one non-program faculty member may be used .

The thesis advisor is encouraged to attend the exam as an observer. He/she may not make comments during the exam, unless requested to do so by a committee member. The thesis advisor will not be present while the committee is making its final decision on the student's Qualifying Exam performance.

IV. Procedures Prior to the Exam

1. The Bioengineering Graduate Program Chair will ask the student to provide a one-page write-up of his/her academic background and research work to-date, no less than 6 weeks prior to the exam. This includes a list of courses enrolled in to date. This material and a transcript will be provided to the committee.
2. The student will meet with the exam committee Chair to discuss the philosophy of the exam, the mechanics of the exam and any other points the student or committee Chair deem appropriate. The student should also meet individually with his/her other committee members prior to the exam.
3. Neither the chair nor the committee members will discuss specific exam questions with the student.
4. The Chair of the committee will request, via email, initial exam questions from the committee members. It will be the responsibility of the Chair to ensure that questions are fair and cover the intent of the exam outlined in section II. The chair should ensure that the questions are appropriate given the student's research to date and coursework to date . These should be distributed to the committee members before the exam.
5. The scheduling of a first-time qualifying exam date and time will be handled by the Bioengineering Program office . If an exam must be rescheduled, the Exam Committee Chair is responsible for finding a time within the exam period suitable to all other committee members, the student, and the advisor. The Bioengineering Program office must be notified immediately of the new exam time and location.

V. Procedures the Day of the Exam

1. It is the student's responsibility to bring extenuating circumstances (such that the exam should not be held) to the chair's attention before the exam begins .
2. The committee will meet alone for 5 minutes to discuss the order and scope of the exam. The chair will remind the committee of the student's coursework and research to date, as well as how long the student has currently been enrolled.
3. An exam will typically last 90 minutes, and sufficient time should be provided to each committee member to ask questions.
4. During the exam, the chair has the responsibility of ensuring that the exam proceeds on time and within scope.
5. The advisor's presence is solely to ensure that the student received a fair examination. The advisor should not volunteer any information nor ask any questions unless it relates directly to the conduct of the exam.
6. The vote to pass or fail the student will be based on the student's exam performance only.
7. There will be only one vote taken. This vote is binding and conducted by the Chair. Each committee member must make a final decision prior to the voting, as there will not be a second vote. The voting must take place prior to the exam committee's adjournment. No voting will take place after the adjournment, by e-mail or otherwise.
8. The Chair of the exam committee has the discretion to limit the length of the committee's discussions.
9. Each committee member must complete an evaluation form with appropriate comments at the end of the exam. The exam chair is expected to deliver the evaluations to the program office. The Program Chair uses these evaluations to assess whether the student is meeting the program objectives and to provide additional feedback to the student and advisor regarding the exam performance.

If the vote is an unconditional 3/0 or 2/1, the student passes the exam.

If the vote is 1/2 or 0/3 and the exam is being conducted for the first time for that student, the student must retake the exam. The committee will summarize its decision and detailed recommendations in a memo to the Bioengineering Graduate Program Chair within two days of the exam. The committee's vote will not be recorded, unless the committee unanimously wishes to make its voting an open record. The same committee, in most cases, will administer the retaking of the exam within 6 months. Retakes are encouraged to occur within 2 months if no academic requirements have been imposed by the committee (see Conditions below).

If the vote is 1/2 or 0/3 and the exam is a retake exam , the student fails. The appeal process (described below in section VII) is to be followed.

VI. Additional Details

Retakes : A student may retake the exam only once. At the time of the exam retake, the student must meet the GPA requirement and otherwise be in good academic standing. A retake may only be scheduled either 1) during a regularly scheduled exam period (typically June and January) or 2) within two weeks prior to a scheduled Bioengineering Program faculty meeting.

Conditions : A vote of 'Pass' or 'Fail' can be accompanied by recommendations or requirements to be fulfilled by the student. These conditions will be based on the committee's interpretation of the student's exam performance relative to the Exam Philosophy criteria above. The conditions imposed by the committee should be directly relevant to the student's exam performance. The Bioengineering Graduate Program Chair will monitor the completion or non-completion of these conditions. If the student does not satisfactorily complete all of the Exam Committee conditions , the student cannot continue in the Bioengineering Ph.D. Program.

Selection of Chairs : A small subset of the Program faculty will chair the exam committees each year. All exam Chairs will meet prior to and after the exams are administered to address issues of exam uniformity and parity.

Notification : The Bioengineering Program Chair will notify the student and the student's advisor in writing of the exam outcome and any additional requirements.

VII. Appeal and Notification of Outcome

Appeals : The Qualifying Exam Committee determines whether the student passes or fails the exam. In the case of a second exam failure, the student's case is automatically considered by the Bioengineering Program faculty at its next scheduled meeting following the student's qualifying exam. At this meeting each student will be discussed, and this discussion will be moderated by the Program Chair. The Chair will solicit comments from the student's research advisor, qualifyling exam committee, and the faculty as a whole. Any program faculty member may offer comments or ask questions. A vote is taken by secret ballot and tallied by the Program Chair or his designate. A positive vote of greater than or equal to 2/3 of faculty in attendance is required for a student to remain in the program as a Ph.D. student. This vote is subject to Bioengineering Program quorum requirements.

A faculty meeting shall be scheduled as immediately as possible following a regularly scheduled qualifying exam period. There is only one opportunity for appeal.

Notification of Outcome : Students are notified of a final outcome only after faculty have considered any appeals, if any. Students are not to be told of the results of an exam vote, but only the outcome of the entire process of exam and appeal (i.e. the student remains a Ph.D. student or becomes a M.S. student and must exit the program after satisfying M.S. degree requirements). This also requires that a faculty meeting is scheduled shortly after second exams are taken.

Approved Spring Semester 2006

Last revised on July 19th, 2007