**Prospective Students: For information about upcoming prospective student events click here** 

Resources for current doctoral students in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering can be found here.

Use the “QUICK LINKS” navigation to jump to more resources and information.

General Information

Attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ESE students are subject to the policies of the University Registrar (in particular, they should be familiar with the academic calendars, rules regarding residency, and the UNC grading system). The UNC Graduate Student Handbook is the ultimate governing document for post-baccalaureate study at UNC-Chapel Hill. The Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering also has their own handbook.  Most of the Graduate School paperwork is handled by the ESE Student Services.

  • The Office of Student Affairs includes Career Services for students at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.
  • Addressing Students Concerns. ESE Student Services, located in Rosenau 162B, and is open to students with any questions or concerns. Your well-being and positive student experience are important to us. Please visit and bookmark this page for reference. We are committed to addressing issues in a fair, timely and professional manner. We know it will not be possible in some cases, but to help us achieve the best outcome, we ask students to follow these 5 steps whenever possible.
  • The Graduate and Professional Student Federation offers a range of resources for graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill, including class, information on Chapel Hill, and social and networking opportunities.
  • PhD Student Handbook. This is an important resource for ensuring students success in the PhD program. It is a source of information for all students. It covers major policies and procedures within the Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, The Gillings School of Global Public Health, and The Graduate School. It is a “how-to / where-to,” go-to guide, designed to answer many of your questions about getting things done while you are a student here. We hope you will use and benefit from the handbook.
  • Doctoral programs are administered by the Director of Graduate Studies.
  • A Course Planning Worksheet and timeline are available for doctoral students. This information is in the process of being revised (in particular, for coursework requirements please refer to the permission to take a written exam form).

IMPORTANT: The Gillings School of Global Public Health (SPH) Office of Student Affairs maintains a page with Academic Forms, Policies and Support, which includes:

Paperwork

NOTE: A detailed explanation of the required examinations and dissertation, along with how the following forms are used can be found in the Doctoral Handbook

1. Faculty Mentor Meeting form

We encourage you to use this form when you meet with your faculty mentor. If this helpful document is used, please also submit it to ESE Student Services so there is a record of your progress through the department.

2. Committee Meeting form

This form is intended to be a helpful document students can take to their committee meetings. If used, please then submit to ESE Student Services for every formal meeting that takes place between you and your committee. In lieu of this form, a brief statement describing the meeting (who was present, discussion topics etc.) could be submitted. Any changes to a student’s committee should be reported to ESE Student Services.

3. Course Planning Worksheet

This worksheet should be submitted at the time of the written exam. After coursework is completed, a doctoral student will usually only be registered for ENVR 991 (research), ENVR 994 (dissertation), and ENVR 400 (in the semester they will complete their requirement). The student may discuss any exceptions to this with their committee. Doctoral students should take note of the ENVR 400 requirements, their School of Public Health requirements, and the research skill requirement.

4. Application to Take the PhD Qualifying Written Examination Form

When approval is granted for a student to take the written examination, the student and faculty mentor sign and return this form to ESE Student Services. In signing the form, the faculty mentor certifies that the student is qualified to take the exam. The signature of the Faculty Academic Mentor (if different from the Research Mentor) is required to certify that the Committee agrees that the coursework is complete. The completed form is submitted to ESE Student Services. 

5. Permission to Schedule/Take an Oral Exam form

This form should be submitted to ESE Student Services for both the preliminary oral exam (Dissertation Proposal Defense) and final oral exam (Dissertation Oral Defense).

After the preliminary oral examination, a student should only register for ENVR 994 (and ENVR 400 if necessary, when the requirement is completed). ENVR 994 can only be taken for three hours, and this counts as full time study. Note that a minimum of six hours of ENVR 994 needs to be taken during a doctoral student’s program – a student may consider registering for three hours of 994 prior to their first oral exam if they anticipate graduating after just one more semester.

6. For the Final Oral exam (Dissertation Oral Defense), the same Permission to Schedule/Take an Oral Exam (see #4 above) form should be submitted prior to the exam, along with a 350-word (maximum) abstract. The committee and exam forms available on the Graduate School’s website will mainly be handled by ESE Student Services and should be updated as necessary throughout the doctoral student’s time in the department.

All graduate students should complete their ENVR 400 requirement before graduation.

Finishing the Dissertation

See the above tab on submitting theses, dissertations, and technical reports. Guidelines on how to write and format a thesis/dissertation (and these should be used for technical reports as well) are available here: Electronic Dissertation and Thesis Guide and Formatting Guidelines. Information on booking a room (for a defense or for any other reason) is here.

Reserve a Room

Instructions can be found here.

Poster Printing

Conveniently located at the center of campus on the third floor of Student Stores, the UNC Print Stop and Copy Center offers printing and copying services. You can find more information about poster printing here.

 

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CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact your Academic Coordinator.
Assistant to Chair: Rhoda Cerny
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135 Dauer Drive
166 Rosenau Hall, CB #7431
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7431
(919) 966-1171