Faculty Roles & Graduate Committee Requirements

Eligibility to advise a graduate student, serve on a graduate committee, and teach a graduate course is determined by the standard ranks assigned to faculty members and professional researchers by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. Individual appointments may deviate from these standards. In such cases, the appointment letter issued by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty is final.

Information about eligibility for faculty and researchers who do not hold a current regular appointment through Princeton’s Office of the Dean of the Faculty can be found below the table of ranks.

Questions about eligibility for any role should be directed to Academic Affairs in the Office of the Dean of the Graduate School.

Rank	Master's Thesis Adviser or Examination Committee	Ph.D. General Examination Committee	Ph.D. Dissertation Adviser	Ph.D. Dissertation Committee	Ph.D. Dissertation Reader	Ph.D. F.P.O. Dissertation Defense Examiner	Hosting a VSRC	Teaching a grad course	Teaching a grad reading course
Princeton Faculty Member (1)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Emeritus/a Faculty Member (2)	N (2)	N	N (2)	N (2)	N (2)	N (2)	N	Y	Y
Lecturer with Rank of Professor	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
University Lecturer	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y
Professor of the Practice	case by case	case by case	N	case by case	case by case	case by case	N	Y	Y
Lecturer PPL and AOS	N/A	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Lecturer ARC	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y
Visiting Faculty Appointment (3)	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	N	Y	Y
Senior Research Scholar (4)	Y	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case
Research Scholar	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	case by case	N	N	N
Associate Research Scholar	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Senior Scholar (5)	N	N	N	N	case by case	case by case	N	N	N
Senior Professional Specialist	N	case by case	N	case by case	case by case	case by case	N	N	N
Professional/ Assoc. Professional Specialist (6)	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Senior Lecturer (7) (8)	N (7)	case by case (8)	N	case by case (8)	N	case by case (8)	N	Y	Y
Lecturer (7)	N (7)	N	N	N	N	N	N	case by case	case by case
Instructor	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
Postdoctoral Researcher	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N

Footnote Citations

Includes Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors.
Emeritus/a faculty may serve in Ph.D. advising, thesis reading, and examining roles only if they were the student’s adviser or committee member prior to becoming an emeritus/a faculty member.
Decision is made case by case based on visitors’ credentials from their home institution as well as their PU appointment.
Also includes the rank of Principal Research Physicist, PPL only.
Senior Scholars are not eligible to serve in advising or committee roles unless they are also emeritus/a faculty and qualify under that exception, as noted above. Senior Scholars may be approved to serve as dissertation readers or examiners on a case-by-case basis.
Professional specialists and associate professional specialists may not serve in official advising or committee roles with the exception of Art Museum curators, who are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Senior Lecturers and Lecturers in the Department of Computer Science may be approved on a case-by-case basis to supervise the work of master’s degree students.
In cases where a senior lecturer is approved on a case-by-case basis for one of these roles, a maximum of one senior lecturer may be approved to fill a role; all other roles must be filled by tenured/tenure-track faculty.

Visiting Appointments

Visiting appointments are ordinarily made on a year-to-year basis by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. Approval of a visitor for an adviser or committee role is made case by case based on the individual’s credentials from the home institution as well as the Princeton University appointment and is only valid for one year.

External Readers and Examiners

External readers and examiners must be at another university or hold a research position in the nonacademic research community, must hold a position that is ranked comparably with our own ranks that are approved to serve as readers and examiners, and must be approved by the Graduate School prior to submission of the advanced degree application. CVs of approved external readers or examiners, including visiting fellows, must accompany the advanced degree application materials.

Former Princeton Faculty as External Advisers

Princeton faculty members who are approved to serve as Ph.D. advisers and who leave Princeton may with the department or program’s approval continue to serve as the adviser of record for their post-generals students who are in the dissertation phase, provided the former faculty members hold comparable research appointments at their new institutions and receive from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty a visiting appointment to allow them to finish advising their student(s).

In cases where an adviser of a pre-generals Ph.D. student has left the University, a faculty member with a current and active appointment at Princeton should be appointed as the new adviser of record for the affected student. The former faculty member may with the agreement of the department or program serve as a co-adviser (alongside a current faculty member), provided the former faculty member holds a comparable appointment at the new institution and receives from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty a visiting appointment that allows for co-advising at Princeton.