The UW Graduate School allows students to hold MS thesis defenses, PhD General Examinations and PhD Final Exams virtually.

Graduate School requirements

General and Final Examinations must have four committee members present including: the Chair, Graduate School Representative (GSR) and at least one additional Graduate Faculty member.

• The minimum number of required committee members must attend the examination in person or virtually. 
• If communication is broken during the examination and cannot be retrieved, thereby not fulfilling the minimum number of exam participants, the examination must be terminated and rescheduled to a later time/date.

If the above stated requirements are not met, the examination may be invalid and the Graduate School may require another examination. Learn more about the Graduate School’s policy for hybrid and virtual exams.