ISTD PhD Programme

Requirements to graduate

The ISTD PhD programme is a 4-year programme with course requirements and strong research components with one of the ISTD faculty members. As part of the PhD degree requirements, the following examinations must be passed: an oral qualifying examination (QE), an oral preliminary examination (PE) and the thesis oral defence (OD). Are you interested? Find out about our application requirements here.

Course Requirement

• A student is required to take a minimum of four graded technical courses. The student can choose any graduate courses offered by ISTD. For graduate courses offered by other pillars and clusters, the student would need to seek advice from the advisor.

All students are recommended to complete the required coursework prior to the end of the first year of PhD study.

Other Requirements

• To be eligible for a PhD degree, a student must pass an oral QE (before the end of the second year of candidature) and an oral PE (before the end of the third year of candidature) and the thesis oral defence (OD).
• All students must complete the necessary teaching assistantship assignment(s).

Qualifying Examination (QE) and Preliminary Examination (PE)

A student must pass an oral QE and an oral PE. The examinations will be conducted by a faculty committee. The examinations are to assess a student’s understanding of the research topic; progress towards solving the research problem; and plan to achieve the goal of the thesis research. The student will propose at least two faculty members, in addition to the advisor(s), to be approved by the ISTD graduate committee chair or pillar head to examine the student. The student’s advisor will be a member of the committee. At least half of the chosen committee members should be research ISTD faculty. The graduate committee chair or pillar head will appoint the Chair to the committee. At the end of a student’s oral examination the committee could make one of the following three recommendations: Pass, Fail with one additional chance, and Fail. In the event a second chance is available, the student must re-appear for the examination before the end of the following term. A student failing the oral examinations may not continue the PhD programme.

Thesis Oral Defence (OD)

The student will propose a Thesis Examination Committee (TEC) consisting of at least two faculty members, in addition to the advisor(s), to be approved by the ISTD graduate committee chair or pillar head to examine the thesis. At least half of the chosen committee members should be research ISTD faculty. The graduate committee chair or pillar head will appoint the Chair to the TEC. The student will be required to defend her/his work in an oral examination. A student must have met SUTD’s PhD requirements, completed the course requirements with a minimum overall GPA of 3.5 out of 5.0, passed the QE and PE, and the oral defence to be able to qualify for the PhD degree.

For candidates who may wish to nominate external TEC member(s), please note that external TEC member(s) is optional and maximum of 2 allowed per candidate. The external TEC member(s) must not be involved or collaborated in the research of the candidate. Each external TEC member must submit a report to the TEC Chair, they can choose whether to attend the public seminar, but they are not allowed to attend the closed-door sessions which are reserved for internal examiners.

Major Milestones