The Oral Defense is a public event scheduled by the major department and is attended by the candidate’s major professor, graduate committee, members of the faculty from the major department, and the outside reader, if required. At the discretion of the major department, the defense-of-dissertation examination may take the form of a seminar with a more varied selection of participants.
Examination questions will always include questions arising from the dissertation itself. In many cases, particularly in which departments have not required extensive examinations during the course of the graduate’s work, questions will be more general and the examination longer.