Civil Engineering Ph.D. Qualifier Exam

Exam Procedure

• The exam has two phases, namely, a written exam and an oral exam.
• The purpose of the written part is to measure the breadth of the student’s knowledge in CE. The student is expected to answer the questions related to two out of the seven areas during the written exam (one of them has to be from the related major area for the PhD research). The written exam can be open or closed books/notes.
• The student will be expected to answer technical questions related to his/her research field in front of an oral exam jury.
• If a student passes the written exam, s/he can take the oral exam after the written exam. The purpose of the oral exam is to measure the depth of the student’s knowledge in his/her Ph.D. research area. The student will be expected to answer technical questions related to his/her research field in front of an oral exam jury.
• The exam jury will be formed by five faculty members (At least 1 of the jury members besides the advisor must be from CE department and 2 of the jury members must be from another university. It is suggested to select the additional CE jury member from the CE Qualification Exam Committee) based on the research field of the student. Student’s advisor is a member in the oral exam jury. If a student has 2 advisors, co-advisor of the student may participate to the jury as the 6^th member but he/she does not have the right to vote.

Core areas and related courses***:

1. Structures and EQ Engineering: CE 301, CE 304, CE 307
2. Geotechnical and EQ Geotechnical Engineering: CE 302, CE 306
3. Construction Management: CE 208
4. Material Science and Construction Materials: CE205
5. Transportation Engineering: CE 310
6. Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics: CE 210, CE 311

***IMPORTANT NOTE: Related courses are specified only to describe the details of the core areas. The student is not required to have taken these courses before the Qualifier Exam. The students are also expected to demonstrate comprehensive knowledge on the related graduate level courses they have taken during the Ph.D. program.

*** As a second area the students can also choose Mathematics and Probability (Related Courses: CE 501, CE 502) besides the abovementioned 6 major areas. 

Success Criteria

• Written exam: A student must get at least 50% from each of the two selected areas. The written exam grade is calculated as each written exam is evaluated over 100 points. The weighted average WA is calculated as: [Major Area*0,80] + [Area 2 * 0.20].
• The overall passing grade for the written exam is 60%. If a student fails from the written exam, s/he has to take the entire written exam (two areas) again.
• Oral exam: Each faculty taking part in the oral exam must give either a Pass or a Fail grade. The student passes the oral exam if he/she gets more Pass than Fail grades.
• A failed written or oral exam must be repeated in the following semester. The student passes the Ph.D. qualifier exam when he/she passes both the written and the oral exams. If a student passes the written exam but fails the oral exam, he/she needs to repeat only the oral exam in the following semester.

Faculty responsible for the written and oral exam**:

The CE Ph.D. qualifier exam committee will select the 5 faculty members in the jury who will prepare and grade the questions for both written and the oral exam. The PhD advisor will propose the 5 core and 2 substitute faculty members to Ph.D. qualifier exam committee for approval. 

Ph.D. Qualification exam dates:

The written exam for the 2024-25 Fall semester will be on December 09, 2024 - Monday.

The oral exam will be given within one month after that semester’s written exam.

Exam Application Procedure: 

CE Ph.D. Qualification Exam Committee

Prof. Dr. Safiye Feyza Çinicioğlu (Chair)

Prof. Dr. Atilla Ansal

Prof. Dr. Gülay Altay

Assistant Prof. Senem Seyis

Assistant Prof. Derya Deniz