The Thesis and Dissertation Office in the UCF College of Graduate Studies advises students about UCF electronic thesis and dissertation requirements, information regarding graduation deadlines and formatting of the manuscript. Students should become familiar with the thesis and dissertation section of www.graduate.ucf.edu and contact the office if they have questions. The Thesis and Dissertation Office may be reached at editor@mail.ucf.edu.
Semester deadlines for theses and dissertations are listed in the UCF Academic Calendar found in the Graduate Catalog and at www.graduate.ucf.edu in the Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) section.
Ongoing Thesis and Dissertation Support
Research Assistance
The UCF Library offers helpful services such as research guides, library tutorials, Ask-A-Librarian services, the free PERC (Personalized Electronic Research Consultation) and the fee-based InfoSource, where librarians can conduct searches for your students.
Writing Assistance
The University Writing Center offers free, non-remedial services to graduate students at any stage in the thesis and dissertation process, from initial organization to long-term project support to final polishing.
Citation Assistance
The UCF Library offers free citation management programs to help students organize references and create bibliographies, as well as workshops to learn how to use them.
Electronic Document Assistance
Students must format their document using Microsoft Word Styles and convert their documents to PDF format with bookmarks. Formatting instructions are available at the ETD website
Students may also make an appointment with the Thesis and Dissertation Office Graduate Assistance for help with specific formatting issues, such as difficulties converting to PDF, bookmarks not appearing, and other electronic document issues. Students can request a one hour lab appointment with the Graduate Assistant by emailing editor@mail.ucf.edu.
Best Practices for Thesis and Dissertation
- Be aware of important deadlines including format review, defense, and final submission dates. University ETD deadlines for current and upcoming semesters can be found at University ETD Deadlines.
- A few days after the format review and final submission deadlines, a list of all students who have met deadline requirements will be posted on the GradInfo site at www.gradinfo.ucf.edu. An email will be sent through the gradstaff listserv to notify all graduate staff of the availability of such lists. Questions about ETD GradInfo lists can be sent to the ETD Editor at editor@mail.ucf.edu.
- To make changes or find information about graduate listservs, please see the Graduate Listserv section found at the College of Graduate Studies website in the Faculty Guide section.
- Students should become very familiar with the Formatting the ETD page and the Thesis and Dissertation Manual. If their adviser is unavailable, the student can contact the ETD Editor at editor@mail.ucf.edu for answers to their formatting questions.
- All thesis and dissertations must pass format review by the College of Graduate Studies ETD office in order to receive permission to upload their final document by the final deadline. Students should submit their work for review as early as possible and at least by the format review deadline of the semester that the student plans to graduate. Students will need to continue to submit their document for review until they receive format approval. Students will not be able to complete all ETD requirements without format approval.
- Thesis and Disseration Defense Approval Forms must be filled out by the student following a successful thesis or dissertation defense. Students are also responsible for collecting the appropriate committee and college signatures. The student or a designated representative must deliver the signed form to the College of Graduate Studies office in Millican Hall, Suite 230 by the final semester deadline. Departmental approval pages will not be accepted. The signature of Patricia Bishop, Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies, will be collected on behalf of the student once the approval form has been submitted to the College of Graduate Studies office.
- To update any departmental changes to thesis and dissertation approval page templates, please contact the ETD Editor at editor@mail.ucf.edu.
- All doctoral candidates are required to publish their dissertation with ProQuest Information and Learning (optional for master’s students). Appropriate publishing fees and applications must be turned in to the College of Graduate Studies for all doctoral candidates by the final submission deadline. Students should discuss publishing options with their adviser before completing the ProQuest application and uploading their final document. ProQuest applications can be found in Forms and Files.
- Please note that all thesis and dissertations at UCF are electronic. No paper copies are ever required. Barring restrictions, all final ETD submissions are available through the UCF Library and the Florida Center for Library Automation at www.fcla.edu. If a student would like to have a copy of their thesis or dissertation bound for personal use, a list of binding vendors can be found at the ETD website under Binding Vendors.
Policies for Faculty Qualifications
The approved policies in the Graduate Council website for graduate faculty can be found on the following webpages.
Qualifications for participating in graduate education can be found on these webpages:
Faculty and Staff 
