Dissertation manual
Reference guidelines for compiling your thesis and dissertation, including formatting and defense preparation.
PhD Students
Resources for our students
On this page, you’ll find resources, policies, and support services specifically for our PhD students—including newly announced support availability for health insurance and childcare grants, and academic resources like our PhD review template and dissertation defense details.
Policies and regulations
We’ve compiled several policies and documents that significantly impact our PhD student community:
- Graduate Studies Bulletin
- Graduate Student Regulations and Policies
- PhD Health Insurance Payment Waiver Policy
You can also explore the University’s Policies website for additional University-wide policies.
for full-time phd students
Health insurance coverage
As announced in a message from University leadership, the University has expanded single-payer health insurance payment waivers to all full-time and fully-funded PhD students across our institution who were previously not provided payment waivers by their department or program.
Full plan details are available on the UHS website for your reference. We’ve compiled frequently asked questions and other helpful information to help you understand this new option.
for full-time phd students
Childcare grant
The University is implementing a childcare grant program, which will provide financial assistance to eligible Rochester PhD students with childcare expenses.
Thesis and dissertation support
PhD review template
In our August announcement about extending single-payer health insurance payment waivers to all full-time PhD students on appointments, we indicated that the Office of the Provost will soon embark on a holistic assessment of our PhD programs across the University.
University Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs Office and the Office of Academic Administration have launched a comprehensive review of our doctoral programs. This will help ensure the highest quality in the design, delivery, and assessment of our graduate programs, and will support the Middle States accreditation process. The PhD review template consists of seven sections covering a range of domains in doctoral education.
To establish a baseline for future reviews, all PhD programs will complete sections I and II of the PhD review template by April 1, 2023. A six-year cycle of programmatic review will begin in fall 2023, and every doctoral program at the University will undergo a full review, including Sections III, IV, V, VI, VII,on a predetermined schedule.
Academic contests
We help oversee several contests where you can get relevant academic experience, along with a chance of winning a monetary prize.