After your first year of study at Duke, you are required, as a condition of their enrollment, to file an annual written report with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) that discusses your progress towards the Ph.D. degree.
Process and Timeline
The DGS will circulate a letter no later than March 1 outlining what types of information this report should encompass.
Your annual report will be due on April 30 of each year you are enrolled in the Graduate School.
The department (through the DGS) must subsequently certify to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School that this report has been received and that it shows you have made satisfactory progress in the academic year just concluded. If the DGS has any doubt that satisfactory progress has been made, she/he will forward a copy of the report to the faculty members of the Graduate Committee, and to the your doctoral committee for further consideration and discussion. The Graduate School tracks annual reports as a “milestone” in your official record. Failure to submit an annual progress report will jeopardize your continuation in the graduate program.
If you have not completed coursework or preliminary certification, your report should identify the likely schedule of courses still to be taken, the likely dates at which your will submit a portfolio for preliminary certification, and plans to fulfill language requirements if not yet completed.
If you are ABD (all but dissertation), the report should describe progress on your dissertation research, identify any portions of completed written work, establish a clear time-line for completion of any remaining chapters of the dissertation, and set a target date for final defense.