Service by faculty and other individuals on master's and doctoral committees is voluntary, and members may serve or discontinue service at their own discretion. It is the student's responsibility to form and nominate a valid committee appropriate for their degree objective.
For more information, contact the Academic Services team.
Comprehensive Exam or Project Committee
For Comprehensive Exam or Project committee requirements, see Master's Degree Plan II.
Master's Thesis Committee
The thesis committee is approved by and responsible to the Graduate Dean under policies established by the Graduate Council.
The master’s thesis committee consists of at least three UC Academic Senate members with a ladder faculty member (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor) from the student’s major department serving as chair or co-chair. At least two members of every thesis committee must be ladder faculty. At least two members of the committee must be Academic Senate Members from the student's UCSB major department. Recommendation of the appointment of additional members to the master’s committee is at the discretion of the department.
Exceptions to the thesis committee requirements must be approved by the Graduate Council Chair, who is authorized to grant exceptions to these policies when requested in writing by the departmental chair.
Read more information about other possible committee members below.
Doctoral Committee
Senate reg. 350D
Nomination of a doctoral committee is required prior to advancement to doctoral candidacy. A doctoral committee is required to administer and assess the student’s qualifying examinations, and supervise and approve the doctoral dissertation. The members of the doctoral committee may change over the course of the student’s program. In some programs it is common for the committee administering the student’s qualifying exam to be different from the committee supervising the dissertation.
The doctoral committee consists of at least three UC Academic Senate members with a ladder faculty member (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor) from the student’s major department serving as chair or co-chair. At least two members of every doctoral committee must be ladder faculty. At least two members of the committee must be Academic Senate Members from the student's UCSB major department. Recommendation of the appointment of additional members to the doctoral committee is at the discretion of the department.
Exceptions to the doctoral committee requirements must be approved by the Graduate Council Chair, who is authorized to grant exceptions to these policies when requested in writing by the departmental chair.
Read more information about other possible committee members below.
Changes to Committees
Committees can be modified after they are formally nominated. Please discuss changes with your staff graduate advisor and follow the instructions in the "How to Nominate a Committee" section.
Possible Committee Members
Please click on each Committee Member type for definitions and guidelines per category.
Academic Senate Members
Academic Senate Membership includes everyone on the Academic Membership List. Membership includes, but is not limited to:
- Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Professor Emeritus
- Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment (PSOE), Lecturer with Security of Employment (SOE), or Senior Lecturer (SOE)
- Lecturers PSOE/SOE are allowed to serve as co-chair or member of a thesis or doctoral committee without Graduate Council Exception. They are not allowed to serve as sole chair of a committee.
- Lecturers with Security of Employment are also sometimes referred to as "Teaching Professors," however they are listed on the Academic Senate Membership List as "Lecturers (P)SOE".
Tenure Track/Ladder Faculty Members
Tenure-track faculty (also known as Ladder Faculty - the terms are used interchangeably on this campus) include the titles Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and Professor Emeritus. Faculty with these titles are allowed to chair and serve as a committee member, and are listed on the Academic Senate Membership List.
Affiliated Faculty
Affiliated faculty with zero-percent appointments in the student's department are considered to be members of that department. An affiliated tenure-track faculty member may be nominated to chair or serve as one of the first two required department members without Graduate Council approval. Faculty Affiliations are listed on the Academic Senate Membership List. Please note that affiliated faculty in Academic Programs can be found in the General Catalog Faculty Listing. However, keep in mind that this list includes non-Academic Senate members.
Faculty Who Leave the University
If approved as chair or member of a student’s committee before leaving the University, the faculty member may continue to serve as chair or member at the department's discretion.
Emeriti
A faculty member who has retired may serve as member or chair on a student's master's and doctoral committee at the department's discretion. The nomination of an emeriti is to be reviewed by the Department Chair.
As of May 2021, Graduate Council approval is no longer required and committee nominations that include emeriti can be submitted to the Graduate Division without any additional memo.
Faculty Members from Other UC Campuses
At the department's discretion, an Academic Senate Member from another UC may be nominated to serve as a committee member or co-chair (not as sole chair). Only one of the first three committee members can be from another UC. The UC faculty member may count as one of the two required tenure-track faculty members, but cannot count as a home-department member.
How to Nominate a Committee
Graduate students completing a master’s degree via the Thesis capstone, and all doctoral students need to nominate a committee prior to advancing to candidacy.
These committees need to formally be nominated via the GradPoint Committee Create workflow.
Students
What you should do first:
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Talk to your potential committee members and get their informal approvals to serve on your committee prior to formalizing the committee via GradPoint. The committee nomination via GradPoint should be the formalization of the committee, not the initial outreach.
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Talk to your staff graduate advisor
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In some departments, the staff graduate advisor will begin the committee nomination on your behalf, others may want you to begin the nomination. The system handles either the student beginning the nomination, or the staff graduate advisor.
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If you will be starting the nomination instead of your graduate advisor, you will begin by logging onto GradPoint Students. GradPoint Students works from your desktop/laptop computer, or from a mobile device.
Step-by-Step instructions with screenshots can be read here:
Committee Create (Nomination)- GradPoint Students https://ucsb-atlas.atlassian.net/l/cp/jbtvm7MT
If your department is submitting on your behalf, you will receive an email prompting you to approve the nomination. You will have a link in the email that you click and log into GradPoint Students to review the committee. You will also have the opportunity to disclose any conflicts of interest you have with any committee members.
Instructions for completing your committee approval via GradPoint can be read here:
https://ucsb-atlas.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GUM/pages/17612832929/Committee+Create+Action+-+GradPoint+Students#Student-Signature
Staff Graduate Advisors should follow the instructions in the Staff and Faculty Graduate Advisor manual.
Non-Academic Senate Members
At the department’s discretion and with the Graduate Council’s approval, one non-Academic Senate member may be appointed to serve, for up to 3 years, as a committee member or co-chair (not as sole chair). Exception requests are not required for appointments beyond the first three members.
Some examples of non-Academic Senate members that a student may want to include on their committee include non-SOE lecturers, visiting professors, adjunct professors, researchers, and industry members.
Committee Exception Requests
If a committee does not meet Academic Senate Regulations, a department may request Graduate Council approval for the appointment.
Departments should explain the rationale for the request and address (as necessary) why the nominee is qualified to serve in the role, how their research expertise will aid the student, and whether they have served on student committees before.
Exception requests for a non-Academic Senate member to serve on a committee tend to be approved when there is a good rationale, and the committee has two Academic Senate members from the home department. Please note that exceptions for the following regulations are rare and must have a very strong rationale, or exceptional circumstance in order to be approved:
- Committee does not have a minimum of 2 home department Academic Senate members
- Committee does not have a minimum of 2 tenure track faculty members
Staff Graduate Advisors will submit the exception memo and CV during the "Department Review" step of the Create Committee or Update Committee actions in GradPoint.
Please use the Committee Exception Request form for the exception memo.