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MIT Thesis FAQ: New Degree Candidates

• New Degree Candidates
• Thesis Checklist
• Creating an Accessible Thesis
• Saving Your Thesis as a PDF/A-1
• Student Frequently Asked Questions
• Access and Availability Questions

Instructions

Reminder: students - submit your thesis electronically to your department or program.  .

Please pay close attention to the following sections of the Specifications for Thesis Preparation :

• Joint Thesis
• Copyright   (and review the copyright and licensing section below)
• Permission to Reuse or Republish a Thesis
• Changes to a Thesis After Submission

Here are some sample title pages to assist you with formatting:

• PhD thesis with a CC license
• Multiple authors thesis
• Dual degree with extra committee members

What to submit to your Department/Program

Submit the following:

• A PDF/A-1  of your final thesis document (with no signatures)
• Signature page (if required by your department; your department will provide specific guidance)
• Source files (not required)

File naming

Files must be named according to this scheme: authorLastName-kerberos ID-degree-dept-year-type_other.ext

• Thesis PDF: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-thesis.pdf
• Signature Page: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-sig.pdf

Temporary Holds

Please review the Holds section of the Thesis Specifications . The Office of Graduate Education oversees the policies and procedures for requesting a temporary publication hold  of your thesis. They offer this form for publication hold requests.

Note: Request for temporary holds must be submitted prior to graduation . To contact OGE and the Vice Chancellor's office, email  [email protected] To contact the Technology and Licensing Office, email  [email protected]

What to submit to the Libraries

This form  must be completed by the day of graduation:  https://thesis-submit.mit.edu/ .

The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis. You will be asked to confirm or provide:

• Your name as it appears on your thesis (Family Name, Given Name Middle Name)
• Thesis title
• Department or Program
• Supervisor(s)
• Copyright (see the Copyright and Licensing section below)
• ProQuest opt-in (for Graduate and Doctoral candidates only)

Copyright and Licensing

You may, optionally, choose to apply a Creative Commons License to your thesis. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. For more information about CC: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

Before you apply a CC license or CC0 (public domain) to your work, please note that the licenses cannot be revoked.  This means once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright, even if you later stop distributing it.

• To determine which CC license is right for you, use the CC license chooser  
• Note: You do not need to apply a CC license to your work. If you choose not to, your thesis will be available in DSpace@MIT with the following statement: In Copyright  https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

Formatting Your Copyright Statement

• Following the instructions in the thesis specifications under How To Copyright a Thesis .
• If using a CC license, replace "All Rights Reserved" with your chosen CC license (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
• Remember to also include the following statement below your (c) : " The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license. "

What Copyright information to submit to the Libraries

• I hold copyright (if you choose this option you will have the option of also choosing a CC license)
• I hold copyright and give it up to the public domain (this means that your thesis will be released openly under CC0 "No Rights Reserved" and opts out of copyright and database protection.  This may not be revoked.)
• This is a work of the US government
• Another person or organization owns copyright 

For more information Review the Copyright section of the Thesis Specifications .

ORCID: Open Researcher & Contributor ID

What is ORCID?

ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort to provide a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a method of linking research-related items, such as articles as datasets, to these identifiers.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. The goal is to support the creation of a permanent, clear, and unambiguous record of scholarly communication by enabling reliable attribution of authors and contributors.

Register for an ORCID ID.

This process also associates your ORCID with your MIT profile. Once you have the ID you also have the option to build your profile through the “import works” button, associating your papers, data sets, and other research output with your ID. You can then include the ID as a link on your CV or web page. You can also create an account without linking it to your MIT profile here .

See our ORCID FAQ  for more information.

ProQuest Opt-in

What is the ProQuest Opt-in?

When submitting your title page information to MIT Libraries, you may choose to opt in to the pilot program to provide additional open access to MIT theses through  ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global  (PQDT). The aim is to make theses more visible and discoverable. By opting in, you consent to your full thesis being available in ProQuest's database. If you are a Bachelor's candidate or do not opt in, ProQuest will only access your abstract.

There is no cost to you and your thesis will not be sent to ProQuest until it is published by MIT. See the Thesis Specificatio n and  PQDT's Author Dissertations FAQs  for more information about participating.

Quick links

• Thesis Specifications
• Distinctive Collections
• Scholarly Publishing@MIT
• About DSpace@MIT
• Dissertation/Theses

Have questions?

Contact us at [email protected] .

• Next: Thesis Checklist >>
• Last Updated: Aug 30, 2023 4:55 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/mit-thesis-faq

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For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates. Now, with the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment.

Image: Christine Daniloff, MIT; Dominick Reuter

Inside the new world of online dissertation defenses

Emojis, grandmas logging in, and kudos from strangers: How MIT students have finished their PhDs during the pandemic.

Call it another MIT innovation. When PhD student Jesse Tordoff passed her dissertation defense this month, she learned about the outcome in a new way: Her professors sent a thumbs-up emoji on the Zoom screen they were all sharing.

Welcome to the new world of the online dissertation defense, one of many changes academia is making during the Covid-19 pandemic. For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates, something they spend years visualizing. At a defense, a student presents work and fields questions; the professors on the dissertation committee then confer privately, and render their verdict to the student.

Which, in Tordoff’s case, was delivered in good humor, via a familiar little symbol.

“That was my most 2020 moment, learning I passed my defense by Zoom emoji,” says Tordoff, a biological engineer specializing in self-assembling structures.

With the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment. MIT students who defended dissertations this spring say they have had a variety of reactions to the change: They appreciated that family members could suddenly watch their defenses online, and some felt more relaxed in the format. But students also felt it was more challenging to engage with their audiences on Zoom.

And, inevitably, social distancing meant students could not gather in person with advisors, friends, and family to rejoice, as per the usual MIT tradition.

“That feeling of celebration — it is not something you generate by yourself,” says André Snoeck, who in late March defended his dissertation on last-mile issues in supply chains, for MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics.

That moment when you learn you have passed your doctoral dissertation defense. Congratulations to @MITSloan ‘s Dr. Maarten Meeuwis! @MIT @MITGradStudents @MIT_alumni @MITSloanAlumni pic.twitter.com/U7wNdmBPx7 — MIT Sloan PhD (@MITSloanPhD) April 21, 2020

On Zoom, grandparents in the room

Dissertation defenses are typically quasipublic events, where an audience can attend the student’s presentation but then leaves before faculty tell a student if the defense was successful. Many MIT departments stage parties afterward.

A defense on Zoom means the circle of attendees is no longer restricted by geography — something students appreciated.

“My mom logged on in South Africa from her retirement village and watched online,”  says Ian Ollis, from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, who in May defended his dissertation about public perceptions of mass transit in the Boston area. “She wouldn’t have been able to do that if it was done in person.”

Julia Zhao, a Department of Chemistry PhD student in Professor Jeremiah Johnson ‘s group, says the defense was a unique opportunity for family and friends to watch her in a professional setting.

“It was nice to see all my friends, and my family could attend too,” Zhao says, whose research focuses on polymers that have both metal and organic components. “They were going to fly in for graduation but not attend my defense, so they got to sit in on that and listen to me talk about what I’ve been doing the last five years. So that was really cool.”

Tordoff also felt that on Zoom, she could focus more easily on her remarks.

“I was less nervous than if I had been standing up there in front of a group of people,” Tordoff says. “I was sitting on my couch.” One reason for that good feeling, Tordoff adds, is that when she logged on to Zoom before the defense, the only other people already there were her grandparents, watching from England.

“I was so happy,” Tordoff says. “That never would have happened in person.”

And in Snoeck’s case, his advisors did orchestrate a virtual toast after the defense, so they could celebrate simultaneously, if not in the same room.

Congratulations Dr. Julia Zhao ( @jouleszhao )!!! Today was her defense through zoom!!! We are so proud of how you finished your PhD through a pandemic in such an impressive fashion!!! @ChemistryMIT #PhDone #AcademicChatter pic.twitter.com/En5gCtDZjQ — The ~Remote~ Jeremiah Johnson Group (@johnsonchem) May 1, 2020

Kudos from strangers

At the same time, MIT students note, being on Zoom limited their interaction with the audience, compared with the nature of an in-person talk.

“You can’t read the room,” Ollis says, adding: “It’s different. You don’t have a complete perspective on the audience — you see squares of people’s faces, whereas if you do it live, you get a sense of who you’re talking to by seeing faces you recognize.”

The slightly mysterious nature of Ollis’ audience became apparent to him almost immediately after he wrapped up his online defense.

“There were quite a few people watching, who, well, I didn’t know who they were,” Ollis says. “I’ve been staying in the Ashdown grad dorm, and I was walking to the elevator after doing the defense, and somebody walked past who I didn’t recognize, and said, ‘Hey! Good job! I enjoyed that!’ I had no idea who the person was.”

Overall, Ollis says, “I thought it was a good experience. I got good feedback from people.” Even so, he adds, “I prefer being in a room with people.”

For his part, Snoeck, who has accepted a job with Amazon, felt his defense was somewhat “more like a series of Q&As, rather than a conversation” — simply due to the dynamics of the format, like the segmented nature of Zoom and its slight delays in audio transmission.

“It is weird to have a conversation with some lag in it,” notes Zhao, who will soon begin a job with a Boston-area startup, developing hydrophobic coatings. “But I made an effort to say, ‘If I interrupted, please continue.’ It is a little awkward.”

I am very happy, honored and thankful to announce I successfully defended my PhD at MIT last Monday! Special thanks to all mentors and colleagues for your guidance and support during the last five years. pic.twitter.com/bsn4RA2nbk — Felipe-Oviedo (@felipeoviedop) May 14, 2020

The blended defense

That said, for years now, academic faculty have sometimes been participating in dissertation defenses via Skype, Zoom, and other platforms. That typically happens when dissertation committee members are located at multiple universities, or when a professor is traveling for research or a conference. In Snoeck’s case, one of his committee members was already going to join remotely from the Netherlands anyway.

Zhao noticed a student in her department webcasting their defense last year, which seemed “a little out of the ordinary” in 2019, she recalls. But from 2020 onward, it may become standard.

“It’s kind of nice to have an extra component of people who aren’t in town but want to participate in the closing of your degree,” Zhao says. “It will definitely be more normalized, I think.”

Not all MIT PhD students defend dissertations. In MIT’s Department of Economics, the thesis consists of three papers that must be approved, and there is no formal defense, although finishing students do give fall-term presentations. Still, even for economics students, this year seems different.

“The biggest challenge has been a feeling of a lack of closure,” says Ryan Hill, a graduating MIT PhD in economics, who studies the dynamics of scientific research. “It’s been a long road.” In that vein, Hill adds, “I was really looking forward to commencement, and the doctoral hooding ceremony.” Those events will take place on May 29, online, with an in-person ceremony to be held at a later date.

To be sure, Hill is keeping matters in perspective. “In the grand scheme, it’s not bad,” says Hill, who will spend a year as a Northwestern University postdoc, and has accepted a tenure-track job at Brigham Young University.

For any new PhD, crossing that academic finish line is a huge achievement — and relief. Zhao, for instance, had to scramble to complete her lab research before MIT shuttered, and then finish writing the thesis, before the dissertation defense could occur.

“It’s been a pretty crazy two months,” Zhao reflects. “I’m just happy to be done with it.”

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Inside the new world of online dissertation defenses

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Call it another MIT innovation. When PhD student Jesse Tordoff passed her dissertation defense this month, she learned about the outcome in a new way: Her professors sent a thumbs-up emoji on the Zoom screen they were all sharing.

Welcome to the new world of the online dissertation defense, one of many changes academia is making during the Covid-19 pandemic. For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates, something they spend years visualizing. At a defense, a student presents work and fields questions; the professors on the dissertation committee then confer privately, and render their verdict to the student.

Which, in Tordoff’s case, was delivered in good humor, via a familiar little symbol.

“That was my most 2020 moment, learning I passed my defense by Zoom emoji,” says Tordoff, a biological engineer specializing in self-assembling structures.

With the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment. MIT students who defended dissertations this spring say they have had a variety of reactions to the change: They appreciated that family members could suddenly watch their defenses online, and some felt more relaxed in the format. But students also felt it was more challenging to engage with their audiences on Zoom.

And, inevitably, social distancing meant students could not gather in person with advisors, friends, and family to rejoice, as per the usual MIT tradition.

“That feeling of celebration — it is not something you generate by yourself,” says André Snoeck, who in late March defended his dissertation on last-mile issues in supply chains, for MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics.

That moment when you learn you have passed your doctoral dissertation defense. Congratulations to @MITSloan 's Dr. Maarten Meeuwis! @MIT @MITGradStudents @MIT_alumni @MITSloanAlumni pic.twitter.com/U7wNdmBPx7 — MIT Sloan PhD (@MITSloanPhD) April 21, 2020

On Zoom, grandparents in the room

Dissertation defenses are typically quasipublic events, where an audience can attend the student’s presentation but then leaves before faculty tell a student if the defense was successful. Many MIT departments stage parties afterward.

A defense on Zoom means the circle of attendees is no longer restricted by geography — something students appreciated. 

“My mom logged on in South Africa from her retirement village and watched online,”  says Ian Ollis, from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, who in May defended his dissertation about public perceptions of mass transit in the Boston area. “She wouldn’t have been able to do that if it was done in person.”

Julia Zhao, a Department of Chemistry PhD student, says the defense was a unique opportunity for family and friends to watch her in a professional setting.

“It was nice to see all my friends, and my family could attend too,” Zhao says, whose research focuses on polymers that have both metal and organic components. “They were going to fly in for graduation but not attend my defense, so they got to sit in on that and listen to me talk about what I’ve been doing the last five years. So that was really cool.”

Tordoff also felt that on Zoom, she could focus more easily on her remarks.

“I was less nervous than if I had been standing up there in front of a group of people,” Tordoff says. “I was sitting on my couch.” One reason for that good feeling, Tordoff adds, is that when she logged on to Zoom before the defense, the only other people already there were her grandparents, watching from England.

“I was so happy,” Tordoff says. “That never would have happened in person.”

And in Snoeck’s case, his advisors did orchestrate a virtual toast after the defense, so they could celebrate simultaneously, if not in the same room.

Congratulations Dr. Julia Zhao ( @jouleszhao )!!! Today was her defense through zoom!!! We are so proud of how you finished your PhD through a pandemic in such an impressive fashion!!! @ChemistryMIT #PhDone #AcademicChatter pic.twitter.com/En5gCtDZjQ — The ~Remote~ Jeremiah Johnson Group (@johnsonchem) May 1, 2020

Kudos from strangers

At the same time, MIT students note, being on Zoom limited their interaction with the audience, compared with the nature of an in-person talk. 

“You can’t read the room,” Ollis says, adding: “It’s different. You don’t have a complete perspective on the audience — you see squares of people’s faces, whereas if you do it live, you get a sense of who you’re talking to by seeing faces you recognize.”

The slightly mysterious nature of Ollis’ audience became apparent to him almost immediately after he wrapped up his online defense.

“There were quite a few people watching, who, well, I didn’t know who they were,” Ollis says. “I’ve been staying in the Ashdown grad dorm, and I was walking to the elevator after doing the defense, and somebody walked past who I didn’t recognize, and said, ‘Hey! Good job! I enjoyed that!’ I had no idea who the person was.”

Overall, Ollis says, “I thought it was a good experience. I got good feedback from people.” Even so, he adds, “I prefer being in a room with people.”

For his part, Snoeck, who has accepted a job with Amazon, felt his defense was somewhat “more like a series of Q&As, rather than a conversation” — simply due to the dynamics of the format, like the segmented nature of Zoom and its slight delays in audio transmission.

“It is weird to have a conversation with some lag in it,” notes Zhao, who will soon begin a job with a Boston-area startup, developing hydrophobic coatings. “But I made an effort to say, ‘If I interrupted, please continue.’ It is a little awkward.”

I am very happy, honored and thankful to announce I successfully defended my PhD at MIT last Monday! Special thanks to all mentors and colleagues for your guidance and support during the last five years. pic.twitter.com/bsn4RA2nbk — Felipe-Oviedo (@felipeoviedop) May 14, 2020

The blended defense

That said, for years now, academic faculty have sometimes been participating in dissertation defenses via Skype, Zoom, and other platforms. That typically happens when dissertation committee members are located at multiple universities, or when a professor is traveling for research or a conference. In Snoeck’s case, one of his committee members was already going to join remotely from the Netherlands anyway.

Zhao noticed a student in her department webcasting their defense last year, which seemed “a little out of the ordinary” in 2019, she recalls. But from 2020 onward, it may become standard.

“It’s kind of nice to have an extra component of people who aren’t in town but want to participate in the closing of your degree,” Zhao says. “It will definitely be more normalized, I think.”

Not all MIT PhD students defend dissertations. In MIT’s Department of Economics, the thesis consists of three papers that must be approved, and there is no formal defense, although finishing students do give fall-term presentations. Still, even for economics students, this year seems different.

“The biggest challenge has been a feeling of a lack of closure,” says Ryan Hill, a graduating MIT PhD in economics, who studies the dynamics of scientific research. “It’s been a long road.” In that vein, Hill adds, “I was really looking forward to commencement, and the doctoral hooding ceremony.” Those events will take place on May 29, online, with an in-person ceremony to be held at a later date.

To be sure, Hill is keeping matters in perspective. “In the grand scheme, it’s not bad,” says Hill, who will spend a year as a Northwestern University postdoc, and has accepted a tenure-track job at Brigham Young University.

For any new PhD, crossing that academic finish line is a huge achievement — and relief. Zhao, for instance, had to scramble to complete her lab research before MIT shuttered, and then finish writing the thesis, before the dissertation defense could occur.

“It’s been a pretty crazy two months,” Zhao reflects. “I’m just happy to be done with it.”

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Full Text of Dissertations and Theses Now Available

//libraries.mit.edu/get/dissertations

Before 1997, many theses will only have abstracts, but the full text collection is growing continuously.

Need an MIT thesis?

MIT dissertations and theses are NOT included in the ProQuest database. Find the thesis you are looking for in the Barton catalog (search by author, supervisor, department and more):

//libraries.mit.edu/barton-theses

Most MIT theses are available full text from 2004 onwards, with selected earlier theses available full text as well.

If you have any questions or comments about this new resource, please Ask Us!

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This summer, the MIT Libraries will be upgrading the compact shelving system in the basement stacks of Hayden Library to ensure the accessibility of...

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Constantinos Daskalakis

    avanessians professor of computer science, eecs and csail, mit, 2008 acm doctoral dissertation award, 2008 game theory and computer science prize by the game theory society.

• academic work

Constantinos (aka "Costis" with an accent on 'i') Daskalakis is the Avanessians Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He holds a Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He works on Computation Theory and its interface with Game Theory, Economics, Probability Theory, Machine Learning and Statistics. He has resolved long-standing open problems about the computational complexity of Nash equilibrium, and the mathematical structure and computational complexity of multi-item auctions. His current work focuses on multi-agent learning, high-dimensional statistics, learning from biased and dependent data, causal inference and econometrics. He has been honored with the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Kalai Prize from the Game Theory Society, the Sloan Fellowship in Computer Science, the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize, the Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, the Simons Investigator Award, the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize from the International Mathematical Union, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, the Bodossaki Foundation Distinguished Young Scientists Award, the ACM SIGECOM Test of Time Award, and the FOCS 2022 Test of Time Award. He is an ACM fellow, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Patras, and was awarded the Golden Cross of the Order of the Redeemer by the Greek Presidency. He has served in the scientific and advisory board of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing (2018-2020), and as the head of the theory of computation group at MIT (2018-2022). He is a co-founder of Archimedes AI research center where he maintains the role of chief scientist.    2023 Honorary Doctorate University of Patras    2023 ACM Fellow    2022 Golden Cross of the Order of the Redeemer by the Greek Presidency     2022 FOCS Test of Time Award     2022 ACM SIGECOM Test of Time Award     2022 Avanessians Chair of the MIT Schwarzmann College of Computing     2020 Kanellakis Lecture at Brown     2019 Bodossaki Foundation Distinguished Young Scientists Award    2019 MIT EECS Frank Quick Faculty Research Innovation Fellowship     2018 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award     2018 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize     2018 Simons Investigator Award     2017 Google Faculty Research Award 2017 Testing the Limits Award at 2017 Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2017) -->    2015 Research and Development Award by the Giuseppe Sciacca Foundation     2013 Best Paper and Best Student Paper Award in the 14th Conference on Electronic Commerce     2012 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship     2012 Best Student Paper Award in the 13th Conference on Electronic Commerce    2011 X-Window Consortium Associate Professor Chair (from MIT)    2011 Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching (from MIT)     2011 SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize     2010 Sloan Research Fellowship in Computer Science     2009 NSF Career Award     2008 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award     2008 Kalai Prize , awarded by the Game Theory Society     2007 Microsoft Research Ph.D. Fellowship     2006 Best Paper Award in the 7th Conference on Electronic Commerce

6.S896: Algorithmic Statistics , Fall 2023 6.S890: Topics in Multi-Agent Learning , Fall 2023 6.S967: Online Decision Making: Optimization, Control and Games , Spring 2022 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Fall 2021 6.853: Topics in Algorithmic Game Theory: AGT and Data Science , Spring 2021 6.867: Machine Learning , Fall 2020 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Fall 2019 6.890: Learning-Augmented Algorithms , Spring 2019 6.853: Topics in Algorithmic Game Theory: Algorithmic Game Theory and Data Science , Spring 2019 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Fall 2018 6.883: Science of Deep Learning: Bridging Theory and Practice , Spring 2018 6.853: Topics in Algorithmic Game Theory: Algorithmic Game Theory and Data Science , Spring 2017 6.006: Introduction to Algorithms , Spring 2017 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Spring 2016 6.891: Games, Decision, and Computation , Spring 2015 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Fall 2014 6.S080: Introduction to Inference , Spring 2014 6.891: Games, Decision, and Computation , Fall 2013 6.046/18.410: Design and Analysis of Algorithms , Spring 2013 6.006: Introduction to Algorithms , Spring 2012 6.853: Topics in Algorithmic Game Theory , Fall 2011 6.896: Probability and Computation , Spring 2011 6.006: Introduction to Algorithms , Fall 2010 6.896: Topics in Algorithmic Game Theory , Spring 2010 6.006: Introduction to Algorithms, Fall 2009

Current PHD students: Max Fishelson , Noah Golowich , Andrew Ilyas , Vardis Kandiros, Wei Zhang Undergraduate/MEng researchers: Angelos Assos, Enrico Micali, Dhruv Rohatgi, Patroklos Stefanou, Rui Yao Graduated students (in order of graduation): Yang Cai (Yale CS and Economics Associate Professor) Matt Weinberg (Princeton CS Assistant Professor) Alan Deckelbaum (Renaissance Technologies) Christos Tzamos (UW-Madison CS Assistant Professor & University of Athens Associate Professor of CS) Gautam Kamath (University of Waterloo CS Assistant Professor) Nishanth Dikkala (Google SVC) Manolis Zampetakis (Yale CS Assistant Professor) Yuval Dagan (Postdoc, UC Berkeley) Postdocs (chronological order): Nick Gravin (Associate Professor, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) Nima Haghpanah (Assistant Professor, Penn State Economics) Ioannis Panageas (Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine) Kaiqing Zhang (Assistant Professor, University of Maryland) Chris Harshaw Yeshwanth Cherapanamjeri Maria Skoularidou

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What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started

Published on 26 March 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 5 May 2022.

A dissertation is a large research project undertaken at the end of a degree. It involves in-depth consideration of a problem or question chosen by the student. It is usually the largest (and final) piece of written work produced during a degree.

The length and structure of a dissertation vary widely depending on the level and field of study. However, there are some key questions that can help you understand the requirements and get started on your dissertation project.

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When and why do you have to write a dissertation, who will supervise your dissertation, what type of research will you do, how should your dissertation be structured, what formatting and referencing rules do you have to follow, frequently asked questions about dissertations.

A dissertation, sometimes called a thesis, comes at the end of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. It is a larger project than the other essays you’ve written, requiring a higher word count and a greater depth of research.

You’ll generally work on your dissertation during the final year of your degree, over a longer period than you would take for a standard essay . For example, the dissertation might be your main focus for the last six months of your degree.

Why is the dissertation important?

The dissertation is a test of your capacity for independent research. You are given a lot of autonomy in writing your dissertation: you come up with your own ideas, conduct your own research, and write and structure the text by yourself.

This means that it is an important preparation for your future, whether you continue in academia or not: it teaches you to manage your own time, generate original ideas, and work independently.

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During the planning and writing of your dissertation, you’ll work with a supervisor from your department. The supervisor’s job is to give you feedback and advice throughout the process.

The dissertation supervisor is often assigned by the department, but you might be allowed to indicate preferences or approach potential supervisors. If so, try to pick someone who is familiar with your chosen topic, whom you get along with on a personal level, and whose feedback you’ve found useful in the past.

How will your supervisor help you?

Your supervisor is there to guide you through the dissertation project, but you’re still working independently. They can give feedback on your ideas, but not come up with ideas for you.

You may need to take the initiative to request an initial meeting with your supervisor. Then you can plan out your future meetings and set reasonable deadlines for things like completion of data collection, a structure outline, a first chapter, a first draft, and so on.

Make sure to prepare in advance for your meetings. Formulate your ideas as fully as you can, and determine where exactly you’re having difficulties so you can ask your supervisor for specific advice.

Your approach to your dissertation will vary depending on your field of study. The first thing to consider is whether you will do empirical research , which involves collecting original data, or non-empirical research , which involves analysing sources.

Empirical dissertations (sciences)

An empirical dissertation focuses on collecting and analysing original data. You’ll usually write this type of dissertation if you are studying a subject in the sciences or social sciences.

• What are airline workers’ attitudes towards the challenges posed for their industry by climate change?
• How effective is cognitive behavioural therapy in treating depression in young adults?
• What are the short-term health effects of switching from smoking cigarettes to e-cigarettes?

There are many different empirical research methods you can use to answer these questions – for example, experiments , observations, surveys , and interviews.

When doing empirical research, you need to consider things like the variables you will investigate, the reliability and validity of your measurements, and your sampling method . The aim is to produce robust, reproducible scientific knowledge.

Non-empirical dissertations (arts and humanities)

A non-empirical dissertation works with existing research or other texts, presenting original analysis, critique and argumentation, but no original data. This approach is typical of arts and humanities subjects.

• What attitudes did commentators in the British press take towards the French Revolution in 1789–1792?
• How do the themes of gender and inheritance intersect in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ?
• How did Plato’s Republic and Thomas More’s Utopia influence nineteenth century utopian socialist thought?

The first steps in this type of dissertation are to decide on your topic and begin collecting your primary and secondary sources .

Primary sources are the direct objects of your research. They give you first-hand evidence about your subject. Examples of primary sources include novels, artworks and historical documents.

Secondary sources provide information that informs your analysis. They describe, interpret, or evaluate information from primary sources. For example, you might consider previous analyses of the novel or author you are working on, or theoretical texts that you plan to apply to your primary sources.

Dissertations are divided into chapters and sections. Empirical dissertations usually follow a standard structure, while non-empirical dissertations are more flexible.

Structure of an empirical dissertation

Empirical dissertations generally include these chapters:

• Introduction : An explanation of your topic and the research question(s) you want to answer.
• Literature review : A survey and evaluation of previous research on your topic.
• Methodology : An explanation of how you collected and analysed your data.
• Results : A brief description of what you found.
• Discussion : Interpretation of what these results reveal.
• Conclusion : Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your findings contribute to knowledge in your field.

Sometimes the order or naming of chapters might be slightly different, but all of the above information must be included in order to produce thorough, valid scientific research.

Other dissertation structures

If your dissertation doesn’t involve data collection, your structure is more flexible. You can think of it like an extended essay – the text should be logically organised in a way that serves your argument:

• Introduction: An explanation of your topic and the question(s) you want to answer.
• Main body: The development of your analysis, usually divided into 2–4 chapters.
• Conclusion: Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your analysis contributes to knowledge in your field.

The chapters of the main body can be organised around different themes, time periods, or texts. Below you can see some example structures for dissertations in different subjects.

• Political philosophy

This example, on the topic of the British press’s coverage of the French Revolution, shows how you might structure each chapter around a specific theme.

This example, on the topic of Plato’s and More’s influences on utopian socialist thought, shows a different approach to dividing the chapters by theme.

This example, a master’s dissertation on the topic of how writers respond to persecution, shows how you can also use section headings within each chapter. Each of the three chapters deals with a specific text, while the sections are organised thematically.

Like other academic texts, it’s important that your dissertation follows the formatting guidelines set out by your university. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

Formatting guidelines concern things like:

• line spacing
• page numbers
• punctuation
• title pages
• presentation of tables and figures

If you’re unsure about the formatting requirements, check with your supervisor or department. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

How will you reference your sources?

Referencing means properly listing the sources you cite and refer to in your dissertation, so that the reader can find them. This avoids plagiarism by acknowledging where you’ve used the work of others.

Keep track of everything you read as you prepare your dissertation. The key information to note down for a reference is:

• The publication date
• Page numbers for the parts you refer to (especially when using direct quotes)

Different referencing styles each have their own specific rules for how to reference. The most commonly used styles in UK universities are listed below.

You can use the free APA Reference Generator to automatically create and store your references.

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The words ‘ dissertation ’ and ‘thesis’ both refer to a large written research project undertaken to complete a degree, but they are used differently depending on the country:

• In the UK, you write a dissertation at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a thesis to complete a PhD.
• In the US, it’s the other way around: you may write a thesis at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a dissertation to complete a PhD.

The main difference is in terms of scale – a dissertation is usually much longer than the other essays you complete during your degree.

Another key difference is that you are given much more independence when working on a dissertation. You choose your own dissertation topic , and you have to conduct the research and write the dissertation yourself (with some assistance from your supervisor).

Dissertation word counts vary widely across different fields, institutions, and levels of education:

• An undergraduate dissertation is typically 8,000–15,000 words
• A master’s dissertation is typically 12,000–50,000 words
• A PhD thesis is typically book-length: 70,000–100,000 words

However, none of these are strict guidelines – your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided by your university to determine how long your own dissertation should be.

At the bachelor’s and master’s levels, the dissertation is usually the main focus of your final year. You might work on it (alongside other classes) for the entirety of the final year, or for the last six months. This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up.

A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months.

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Caulfield, J. (2022, May 05). What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started. Scribbr. Retrieved 14 May 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/what-is-a-dissertation/

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Anti-Israel 'Anarchists And Communists' Take Credit for Smashing Windows, Releasing 500 Cockroaches Into University of California President's Office

Jamaal Bowman Says He Saw Columbia Students ‘Protesting Peacefully.’ Here’s What Others Saw.

Dei hits the va: biden's veterans affairs department offers race-based training programs that exclude white vets, u.n. cuts gaza death toll figures by half, confirming hamas is lying about casualties, biden's sister sinwar moment, mit hired six new diversity deans. two of them are serial plagiarists, complaint alleges., in dissertation titled 'cite a sista,' tracie jones-barrett stole an entire passage on 'ethical considerations' from her classmate.

In June 2021, a year into the cultural aftershocks of George Floyd's death, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set out to meet the moment, as so many other schools had, by hiring more diversity officers.

MIT welcomed six new deans of diversity, equity, and inclusion, one for each of the institute's main schools , as part of a "DEI Strategic Action Plan" launched the previous year. Aimed at boosting the representation of women and minorities, in part by developing DEI criteria for staff performance reviews, the plan pledged to "make equity central" to the university "while ensuring the highest standards of excellence."

But according to a 71-page complaint filed with the university on Saturday, at least two of the six DEI officials may not be living up to those standards. The complaint alleges that Tracie Jones-Barrett and Alana Anderson are serial plagiarists, copying entire pages of text without attribution and riding roughshod over MIT's academic integrity policies.

In her 2023 dissertation titled "Cite a Sista," which explored how black women in the Ivy League "make meaning of thriving," Jones-Barrett, MIT’s deputy "equity officer," lifts a whole section on "ethical considerations" from Emmitt Wyche III, her classmate in Northeastern University's Graduate School of Education, without any sort of citation.

The section is one of several long passages taken from Wyche's 2020 thesis , "Boyz in the Hoods: (Re) Defining the Narratives of Black Male Doctoral Degree Completers," which does not appear in Jones-Barrett's bibliography. Wyche and Jones-Barrett did not respond to requests for comment.

Anderson, who served as the diversity czar for MIT's computer science college until last year, when she left to become Boston Beer Company's inclusion and belonging program manager, likewise copied copious material from other scholars. Her 2017 dissertation , "#BLACKONCAMPUS: A Critical Examination of Racial and Gender Performances of Black College Women on Social Media," lifts over a page of material from Mark Chae, a professor of counseling at Pillar College, who is not cited anywhere in her dissertation.

"It would have been nice to at least get a citation!" Chae told the Washington Free Beacon in an email. "Anderson seems quite comfortable in taking credit for large portions of another writer's scholarly work."

Anderson, who held DEI posts at Boston University and Babson College before coming to MIT, lifts another long passage from Jarvis Givens, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, without an in-text citation. The omissions appear to violate MIT's plagiarism policy , which states that scholars must cite their sources any time they "use the words, ideas, or phrasing of another person."

MIT did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In total, the two diversity deans lifted about 10 full pages of material without attribution, according to the complaint, as well as dozens of shorter passages sprinkled throughout their theses.

Like former Harvard University president Claudine Gay, who resigned in January amid her own plagiarism scandal, Anderson even stole language from another scholar's acknowledgments, copying phrases and sentences used by Khalilah Shabazz, now a diversity official at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, to thank her dissertation advisers.

Anderson's acknowledgments contain several typos not seen in Shabbaz's, including missing words and commas and a lack of subject-verb agreement.

Givens and Shabbaz did not respond to requests for comment. Anderson, who received her Ph.D. from Boston College's school of education, did not respond to a request for comment. Boston Beer Company did not respond to a request for comment.

Saturday's complaint, which was submitted to Boston College and Northeastern University alongside MIT, is the latest in a string of plagiarism allegations against campus diversity officials. Since Gay's resignation, DEI officers at Harvard , Columbia , the University of Wisconsin-Madison , and the University of California, Los Angeles , have been accused of research misconduct. Some, such as Columbia medical school's Alade McKen and UCLA medical school's Natalie Perry , copied pages of material from various sources—including Wikipedia—while others passed off old studies as new work .

The accused administrators have not been publicly sanctioned by their universities, which have either declined to comment on the allegations or issued statements in support of the officials. The complaint against Anderson and Jones-Barrett may be harder for MIT to brush aside, however, given the school's high-profile efforts to distance itself from DEI in the post-October 7 era.

The institute said this month that it would no longer require diversity statements from candidates applying to faculty positions, making it the first elite university to jettison the practice. It also led the way in restoring SAT requirements after many colleges went test-optional in an effort to boost diversity.

The pushback has come largely from MIT faculty and been driven, in part, by a sense that DEI programs excuse and even encourage anti-Semitism. An April article in MIT's faculty newsletter noted that an event on "Jewish inclusion" had whitewashed the rhetoric of the school's pro-Palestinian protesters, who have occupied campus buildings, called for "Intifada revolution," and allegedly chanted "death to Zionists."

"Jewish students," a blurb for the DEI event read, "are encountering much of the same discomfort that other minorities face on campus and in the world, in that they don't feel heard or acknowledged."

The two dissertations at issue are strikingly derivative, cobbled together from classmates, online sources, and even a book's dust jacket, and at times read like replicas of their unattributed source material.

Jones-Barrett's summary of her dissertation, for example, is nearly identical to the summary Wyche provides of his own. Both papers use "semi-structured interviews" to "gather insights" from black graduates of Ph.D. programs about their "subjective experiences" of "meaning-making," or, as Wyche misspells it, "mean-making." The primary difference is that Wyche's study deals with black men, while Jones-Barrett's deals with black women.

"This study, the first of its kind[,] uses Black Feminist Thought as a framework to explore and investigate how Black women at Ivy League graduate schools of education make meaning of thriving," reads the first sentence of Jones-Barrett's dissertation, which is missing a comma. "There are limited studies that center the voices of Black women at Ivy League graduate schools and there are no studies that look specifically at Ivy League graduate schools of education."

Jones-Barrett, who has taught courses at Harvard Extension School and was initially hired as the assistant dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion for MIT's humanities school, also poached a passage on "potential research bias" from Wyche—now a DEI consultant who describes himself on LinkedIn as a "status quo disrupter"—which asserts that "it is nearly impossible for the researcher to isolate their experiences from the investigative process."

He's not the only classmate Jones-Barrett appears to have plagiarized: On the first page of her dissertation, she lifts an entire paragraph from Scott Fitzsimmons, who earned his Ph.D. in education from Northeastern in 2021, without attribution, swapping out "rural EMS leaders" for "Black women in graduate programs." Fitzsimmons declined to comment.

Anderson, meanwhile, lifts several paragraphs from a 2016 ThinkProgress article about her alma mater, Boston College, from which some of her study's interview subjects were drawn. That plagiarism undercuts her effort to prevent the school, to which she refers with a pseudonym, from being identified—a possible violation of the study's consent form, which promised participants that no "identifying information" would be disclosed.

Boston College and Northeastern University did not to requests for comment.

Anderson—who runs her own consultancy that offers "scientifically-based" DEI programming—also borrows three sentences from the dust jacket of Ebony and Ivy , a 2013 book by MIT historian Craig Wilder, who is only cited in one of the sentences and whose words do not appear in quotation marks.

Like many of the authors plagiarized by Gay, Wilder defended Anderson's decision to copy his work, writing in an email that he didn't think a citation was necessary.

"I cannot imagine why anyone would cite a dust jacket, nor do I see the urgency of criminalizing the failure to do so," Wilder told the Free Beacon . "I'm honored," he added, when other scholars "find inspiration from my publications."

Published under: Anti-Racism , Anti-Semitism , claudine gay , DEI , Diversity , Equity , MIT , plagiarism , Professors , Universities , Woke Schools

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Phd candidate sukrit puri:  all in the family.

New studies show that caste and ethnic identity play an outsize role in how business interacts with government in developing countries  

May 13, 2024 Leda Zimmerman MIT Political Science

“Family firms can be very insular, sticking with old practices and rewarding loyalty to co-ethnic partners,” says PhD candidate Sukrit Puri. There are barriers to outside hires who might bring innovations. “These businesses are often just not interested in taking up growth opportunities,” says Puri. “There are millions of family firms but they do not provide the kind of dynamism they should.”    

Photo by Jonathan Sachs

It’s no news that companies use money to influence politics. But it may come as a surprise to learn that many family-owned firms — the most common form of business in the world — do not play by the same rules. New research by fourth-year political science graduate student Sukrit Puri reveals that “family businesses depart from the political strategy of treating campaign donations as short-term investments intended to maximize profitmaking.”

Studying thousands of such firms in India, Puri finds that when it comes to politics, an important influence on political behavior is ethnic identity. This in turn can make a big impact on economic development.

“If family businesses actually think about politics differently, and if they are the most common economic actors in an economy, then you break channels of accountability between a business and the government,” says Puri. “Elected officials may be less likely to deliver effective policies for achieving economic growth.” Puri believes his insights suggest new approaches for struggling economies in some developing countries. “I’d like to get governments to think carefully about the importance of family firms, and how to incentivize them through the right kinds of industrial policies.”

Pushing past caricatures

At the heart of Puri’s doctoral studies is a question he says has long interested him: “Why are some countries rich and other countries poor?” The son of an Indian diplomat who brought his family from Belgium and Nepal to the Middle East and New York City, Puri focused on the vast inequalities he witnessed as he grew up.

As he studied economics, political science and policy as an undergraduate at Princeton University, Puri came to believe “that firms play a very important role” in the economic development of societies.  But it was not always clear from these disciplines how businesses interacted with governments, and how that affected economic growth.

“There are two canonical ways of thinking about business in politics and they have become almost like caricatures,” says Puri. One claims government is in the pocket of corporations or that at the least they wield undue influence. The other asserts that businesses simply do governments’ bidding and are constrained by the needs of the state. “I found these two perspectives to be wanting, because neither side gets entirely what it desires,” he says. “I set out to learn more about how business actually seeks to influence, and when it is successful or not.”

So much political science literature on business and politics is “America-centric,” with publicly listed, often very large corporations acting on behalf of shareholders, notes Puri. But this is not the paradigm for many other countries. The major players in countries like South Korea and India are family firms, big and small. “There has been so little investigation of how these family businesses participate in politics,” Puri says. “I wanted to know if we could come up with a political theory of the family firm, and look into the nature of business and politics in developing economies and democracies where these firms are so central.”

Campaign donation differences To learn whether family businesses think about politics differently, Puri decided to zero in on one of the most pervasive forms of influence all over the world: campaign donations. “In the US, firms treat these donations as short-term investments, backing the incumbent and opportunistically switching parties when political actors change,” he says. “These companies have no ideology.” But family firms in India, Puri’s empirical setting, prove to operate very differently.

Puri compiled a vast dataset of all donations to Indian political parties from 2003 to 2021, identifying 7,000 unique corporate entities donating a cumulative one billion dollars to 36 parties participating in national and state-level elections. He identified which of these donations came from family firms by identifying family members sitting on boards of these companies. Puri found evidence that firms with greater family involvement on these boards overwhelmingly donate loyally to a single party of their choice, and “do not participate in politics out of opportunistic, short-term profit maximizing impulse.”

Puri believes there are sociological explanations for this unexpected behavior. Family firms are more than just economic actors, but social actors as well — embedded in community networks that then shape their values, preferences, and strategic choices. In India, communities often form around caste and religious networks.  So for instance, some economic policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have hurt its core supporters of small and medium-sized businesses, says Puri. Yet, these businesses have not abandoned their financial support of the BJP. Similarly, Muslim-majority communities and family firms stick with their candidates, even when it is not in their short-term economic best interest. Their behavior is more like that of an individual political donor — more ideological and expressive than strategic.  

Engaged by debate

As a college freshman, Puri was uncertain of his academic direction. Then he learned of a debate playing out between two schools of economic thought on how to reduce poverty in India and other developing nations: On one side, Amartya Sen advocated for starting with welfare, and on the other, Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya argued that economic growth came first.

“I wanted to engage with this debate, because it suggested policy actions — what is feasible, what you can actually do in a country,” recalls Puri. “Economics was the tool for understanding these tradeoffs.”  

After graduation, Puri worked for a few years in investment management, specializing in emerging markets. “In my office, the conversation each day among economists was just basically political,” he says. “We were evaluating a country’s economic prospects through a kind of unsophisticated political analysis, and I decided I wanted to pursue more rigorous training in political economy.”

At MIT, Puri has finally found a way of merging his lifelong interests in economic development with policy-minded research. He believes that the behavior of family firms should be of keen concern to many governments.

“Family firms can be very insular, sticking with old practices and rewarding loyalty to co-ethnic partners,” he says. There are barriers to outside hires who might bring innovations.  “These businesses are often just not interested in taking up growth opportunities,” says Puri.  “There are millions of family firms but they do not provide the kind of dynamism they should.”  

In the next phase of his dissertation research Puri will be surveying not just the political behaviors but the investment and management practices of family firms as well. He believes larger firms more open to outside ideas are expanding at the expense of smaller and mid-size family firms. In India and other nations, governments currently make wasteful subsidies to family firms that cannot rise to the challenge of, say, starting a new microchip fabricating plant. Instead, says Puri, governments must figure out the right kind of incentives to encourage openness and entrepreneurship in businesses that make up its economy, which are instrumental to unlocking broader economic growth.

After MIT, Puri envisions an academic life for himself studying business and politics around the world, but with a focus on India. He would like to write about family firms for a more general audience — following in the footsteps of authors who got him interested in political economy in the first place. “I’ve always believed in making knowledge more accessible; it’s one of the reasons I enjoy teaching,” he says. “It is really rewarding to lecture or write and be able to introduce people to new ideas.” 

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M.I.T. Will No Longer Require Diversity Statements for Hiring Faculty

Applicants were required to explain how they would enhance diversity. Free-speech advocates and others said that requirement enforced groupthink.

By Anemona Hartocollis

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said on Monday that it would no longer require candidates applying for faculty positions to write diversity statements, which have been denounced by conservatives and free-speech advocates as forcing a kind of ideological conformity.

In their statements, generally a page-long, candidates were required to explain how they would enhance the university’s commitment to diversity.

Such statements have become enshrined in faculty hiring at many elite public and private universities, as well as in corporate life. Academics have defended them as necessary in judging whether a faculty member can reach out to an increasingly diverse student body.

In announcing the change, M.I.T.’s president, Sally Kornbluth, said diversity statements constituted a form of compelled speech that do not work.

“My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to M.I.T. and to make sure they thrive once here,” Dr. Kornbluth said in a statement. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.”

M.I.T. and Dr. Kornbluth have been under scrutiny by House Republicans for the university’s handling of antisemitism accusations. In December, Dr. Kornbluth testified alongside two other presidents, Claudine Gay of Harvard and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, in a congressional hearing on antisemitism , which helped lead to Dr. Gay and Ms. Magill’s resignations. And M.I.T., like many other campuses, has struggled to handle an increasingly intense pro-Palestinian encampment.

Diversity statements have long been opposed by conservatives and many academics as enforcing a kind of ideological conformity. M.I.T.’s decision to drop them could embolden other universities to take a second look. A 2021 study by the American Enterprise Institute found that selective universities were more likely than less selective ones to require such statements.

M.I.T., whose students are required to immerse themselves in science and technology courses, has been in the forefront of pushing back against measures that some say could dilute the rigor of its education. After the pandemic, it was among the first universities to restore standardized testing in admissions, saying that it helped predict academic success.

The practice of screening candidates for their diversity statements, sometimes before considering their academic qualifications, has been attacked as particularly corrosive in the sciences, where maintaining academic rigor in research projects can actually be a matter of life and death. Dr. Kornbluth is a research cell biologist.

Dr. Kornbluth made the move to remove diversity statements with the support of other top officials, including the provost, chancellor, all six academic deans and the vice president for equity and inclusion, according to her statement.

A spokeswoman for M.I.T., Sarah McDonnell, said that diversity statements were never a university-wide requirement for faculty hiring, but some departments had chosen to ask for them. The statements “are not a part of the standard M.I.T. application for other staff positions,” she said.

Ms. McDonnell said that M.I.T.’s Institute Community and Equity Office would remain intact and had been supportive of the change.

To supporters, diversity statements are an important tool, now that the Supreme Court has banned race-conscious admissions , in creating a more welcoming environment for students of every background and ethnicity, and bringing in different life experiences to the classroom.

But diversity, equity and inclusion programs have come under concerted attack by conservatives, as well as free-speech advocates and some academics who say they stifle open inquiry.

“They require faculty to endorse or apply specific positions on race, gender and related issues as if they are beyond question, and as if a professor who disputes them is ipso facto incompetent,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression says on its website.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education. More about Anemona Hartocollis

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