Program Structure

Program Director
The Program Director is appointed by the Dean of the School of Dentistry. The primary responsibilities of the Director are to:

• Chair the Oral Health Sciences Program Committee
  
• Coordinate and implement the decisions of the Oral Health Sciences Program Committee
  
• Represent the Ph.D. Program in Oral Health Sciences within the School of Dentistry
  

Program Faculty
Faculty members of the School of Dentistry who are qualified, according to guidelines of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan, are eligible to participate in the program. In addition, program faculty members must have an active research program in oral health sciences and potential, appropriate for academic rank, for mentoring doctoral students.


Academic Advisor
On admission of a student into the program, the Program Committee will assign a member of the Program Faculty to be an academic advisor to the student. The advisor will assist the student until a dissertation mentor is selected by the student. The academic advisor will:

• Be the primary contact person for the student
  
• Guide the student in course selection and other academic portions of the program
  
• Confer with the Program Committee about the student's program of study, academic performance and progress toward qualifying exams.
  

Dissertation Advisor
When a student has advanced to candidacy, a dissertation advisor is selected by the student. The dissertation advisor is responsible for guiding and encouraging the candidate’s design and execution of an original, high quality, doctoral-level research project. The end result of this effort is expected to be a dissertation which makes a substantive contribution to the candidate’s discipline.