Guidance for Examining Boards Research Degrees

The following guidance should be read in conjunction with the Regulations for the Degree of PhD together with Standing Order 20 (Higher Degree Examinations, Degree of PhD, Degree of MPhil and LLM Res) which can be found online Part B - Rules & Regulations.

Candidates for research degrees are examined by means of a thesis and an oral examination.

Every thesis shall be examined by a board consisting of a:

1. Convener and Secretary
2. Chair
3. Internal Examiner
4. External Examiner 

1. Convener and Secretary

The Head of Department or School concerned shall act as Convener and Secretary or shall delegate these functions to a senior member of the academic staff.

2. Chair

The Chair of the Board shall normally be the Head of the Department or School concerned except where the Head chooses to delegate this function to a senior member of the academic staff. If the Head is also the candidate's supervisor, the role of Chair of the Board must be delegated to a senior member of the academic staff.

3. and 4. Internal and External Examiners

The members of the Board shall be appointed in accordance with the University's Regulations and the Standing Orders for the Degree. The candidate's supervisor shall not be appointed Internal Examiner. Where staff candidates are being examined the Internal Examiner shall be replaced by a second External Examiner.

The Board is required to examine the thesis as well as conduct an oral examination of the candidate. Where an examination of a re-submitted thesis is being conducted, the oral examination may be waived in exceptional cases only, at the discretion of the examining board.

The Convener and Secretary of the Examining Board is responsible for ensuring that the correct administrative procedures for the submission and examination of the thesis are carried out, that all documentation is complete and that all members of the Examining Board are aware of their separate responsibilities.

The Chair of the Examining Board is responsible for ensuring that the examination, including the written report and the oral examination, is carried out in line with the University's policies and procedures. The Chair will, as far as possible, ensure the examination is fair and unbiased and will notify the University of any suspected issues in this regard.

The Examiners, in examining the thesis, will:

• consider the thesis and abstract(s), or, in the case of PhD by Published Works, the works and critical analysis submitted by the candidate,
• report on the scope, character and quality of the work submitted
• satisfy themselves by examination, oral and/or written, that the candidate possesses a good general knowledge of the particular field of learning within which the thesis falls.
• bear in mind the University's criteria for the award of the degree. (See Section H 'Criteria for the Awarding of Research Degrees'.)

Examiners are requested to notify the Academic Office immediately if they receive draft theses for comment and return prior to commencement of the formal examining process and must decline firmly any suggestion that a thesis should be returned to a candidate for improvement and re-consideration prior to completion of the Examining Board's formal deliberations.
External Examiners are also requested to inform the Academic Office if they receive the thesis direct from the candidate or direct from the Department. The thesis may only be sent to the External Examiner by the Academic Office.

Examining Boards, in recommending a candidate for a degree, shall certify that the thesis submitted by the candidate substantially covers the scheme of research approved by the University.
Any part of the thesis which has already been accepted or is being concurrently submitted for any other degree or qualification in the University or elsewhere must be excluded from the examination.

The Examiners are expected to complete the examination of the candidate and submit their report as soon as reasonably possible -normally no later than twelve working weeks from receipt of the thesis and in advance of the date of the oral examination. If this proves to be impossible, Examiners are asked to notify the Convener and Secretary of the Board of the reasons for the delay. The University is concerned to avoid candidates facing lengthy delays during the examination process.

The Examiners' Report and Notification of Results Forms are intended as instruments for the reports of Internal and External Examiners, and are for use by the whole Examining Board when making a formal recommendation to the University on the outcome of the examination process. Examiners are advised that, under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the subsequent Freedom of Information Act 2000, candidates have the right of access to any comments made about them in these reports.  A report form is also required in instances of resubmission.

The External Examiner should complete section 1.1 of the Report on Thesis form and take the whole form to the oral examination. The Chair of the Examining Board should arrange for the Internal Examiner's report to be typed in, or otherwise attached to, Section 2 'Internal Examiner's Report on Thesis'.

The form and content of the Examiners' reports should be sufficiently detailed to allow members of the University's staff to assess the scope and significance of the thesis and to appreciate 

appreciate its strengths and weaknesses. Reports should, as far as possible, be expressed in terms that may be understood by those who are not specialists in the particular field of the thesis.

In completing their reports examiners are asked to address the following specific points:

• Summarising and analysing the argument
• Structure and coherence
• Methodology
• Presentation
• Originality and contribution to knowledge
• Whether and how the research might be published 

The oral examination will normally be conducted at the University, in accordance with the Regulations for the award of the degree. At the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor, however, and in exceptional circumstances only, the oral examination may be conducted at another place.

The following must be present at the oral examination:

• The Chair
• The Internal Examiner
• The External Examiner

(or the Chair and two External Examiners in the case of staff candidates)

The candidate's supervisor may be invited to the oral examination with the candidate's agreement, but may only speak at the invitation of the Chair.

The purpose is threefold:

1. to enable the Examiners to assure themselves that the thesis is the candidate's own work;
2. to give the candidate the opportunity to defend the thesis and to clarify any obscurities in it; and
3. to enable the Examiners to assess the candidate's general knowledge in his or her particular field of learning.

The Examining Board should not communicate to the candidate any indication of the outcome of the examination until the examination is complete and all reports are finalised.

In exceptional cases, the University's Research Degrees Board may, given sufficient notice, consider giving permission for oral examinations to be conducted by electronic means. A separate set of guidelines is published for this purpose and Examiners who have been asked to conduct an oral examination by such means are asked to familiarise themselves with its contents. Guidelines for the Conduct of Viva Voce Examinations by Electronic Means can be found online Guidelines for the Conduct of Viva Voce Examinations by Electronic Means 

At the oral examination, care should be taken to ensure candidates are encouraged to feel at ease so that they can display their knowledge and abilities to best effect, and the strengths as well as weaknesses of the thesis should be acknowledged and explored. At an early stage in the proceedings, candidates should be given an opportunity to explain precisely what their thesis is intended to achieve and what they believe to be its significance as a contribution to knowledge. If there appears to be a major discrepancy between the candidate's aims and the content of the actual thesis, the reasons for this should be explored. Likewise candidates should be asked to explain their choice of title when there appears to be an imperfect correspondence with the contents of the thesis. Candidates should also be given the opportunity to explain any apparent failure to use important materials, whether primary or secondary, or neglect of relevant approaches or methodologies.

It is important that, where a thesis reveals significant deficiencies which might lead to a report that is not unequivocally favourable, a representative sample of these should be drawn to the candidate's attention and time for explanation and defence allowed within the examination.

It is possible for Examiners to disagree to a greater or lesser extent in their evaluation of the work. It is, therefore, desirable that the Examiners confer before the oral examination so that, should significant divergences of opinion be identified, a strategy may be devised which would resolve these differences by agreed means (which might include the careful structuring of the oral examination). Although it is desirable that the Examiners strive to resolve their differences, should it prove impossible for them to do so, the Chair of the Board should report this fact to the Registry, and no recommendation for any, or no, award should be made. In these circumstances recourse to an additional, Arbitrating External Examiner may be had, as detailed in Section K below.

The oral examination is an integral part of the examination process for a research degree, with the specific purposes set out above, and Examiners are asked to exert great care to avoid giving the impression at any time during the oral examination that the oral examination is, in any sense, a mere formality.

Following the Oral Examination:

The External Examiner should complete Section 1.2 Report on the Oral Examination, and, if appropriate, 1.3 Matters of General Concern and Interest [ ... ]. The External should then, together with the Internal Examiner, complete Section 3 ('Joint Report by External and Internal Examiners').

The Examiners should then arrange with the Chair of the Examining Board for the completion and signature of the final form Examiners' Formal Recommendation on the Outcome of the Examination. The appropriate outcome option should be indicated by means of ticking the relevant box (see immediately below for notes on the various options). The form should then be signed by the Examiners and by the Chair of the Board, who should also enter the date. Examiners are again asked to be aware that candidates have the right to request access to any comments made about them in these reports.

Members of Examining Boards may wish to note the following on the various options open to them under the Regulations for the Submission and Examination of Research Theses:

(a) that the candidate be approved for the degree subject to completion of such minor corrections as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis/works may be passed subject to the correction of minor or typographical errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of poor punctuation, mis-spellings, sentences which lack total clarity, badly-labelled graphs, figures or photographs, which do not detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented. Such minor corrections should be capable of being completed within a period of four working weeks from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

The Examining Board must stipulate that the corrections made shall be scrutinised by either or both Examiner(s) prior to the award process being initiated and must indicate which of their number shall be responsible for agreeing that corrections have been made satisfactorily.

(b) that the candidate be approved for the degree subject to such corrections and amendments as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis/works may be passed subject to the correction of minor errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of rewriting or re­working of sentences or paragraphs, which are not substantial enough to detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented and which are capable of being completed within a period of up to six months from the date of the notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

The Examining Board must stipulate that the corrections made shall be scrutinised by either or both Examiner(s) prior to the award process being initiated and must indicate which of their number shall be responsible for agreeing that corrections have been made satisfactorily.

(c) that the candidate be not approved for the degree but be allowed to modify the thesis and re-submit it for the degree on one further occasion, upon payment of a re-submission fee.

Should the Examiners be agreed that the research design and execution are flawed and/or the thesis itself requires substantial re-working either on intellectual or presentational grounds, they may -provided that they can see some evidence that the candidate is capable of the modifications required (which may take months of concentrated work) -permit the candidate to re-submit the work. The re-submission shall take place within a period not exceeding twelve months from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the University.

Defects might, for example, consist of illegible or poorly-argued passages, sub-standard figures, graphs or photographs, or misinterpretation of some data. The Examiners should be satisfied that there is evidence that the candidate knows what he/she is doing, that the work substantially addresses the problems or issues posed but that its execution in thesis form requires modification of a scale capable of being accomplished by the author in a period of concentrated, uninterrupted work.

NB: This option is not applicable when a re-submitted work is being examined.

For doctoral degrees only (excluding PhD by Published Works):

(d) that the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD, but be approved instead for the degree of MPhil subject to completion of such minor corrections as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis may be deemed, on the grounds of scope, approach, execution, originality etc, to fail to meet the standard required for the award of the degree of PhD, but nevertheless to satisfy the requirements for the award of an MPhil. The award of the Degree of MPhil should only be made to candidates who have submitted work which is equal to that completed on an extended Masters course and involves a substantial element of research or equivalent enquiry. When deciding whether to recommend that a candidate be awarded an MPhil, the Examiners must be satisfied that the University's criteria for the award of the Degree of MPhil (see Section H) have been met in full.

Provided that the academic requirements are met, the MPhil may be awarded subject to the correction of minor or typographical errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of poor punctuation, mis-spellings, sentences which lack total clarity, badly-labelled graphs, figures or photographs, which do not detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented and which are capable of being completed within a period of four working weeks from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

The Examining Board must stipulate that the corrections made shall be scrutinised by either or both Examiner(s) prior to the award process being initiated and must indicate which of their number shall be responsible for agreeing that corrections have been made satisfactorily.

The Chair of the Examining Board must ensure that the final version of the thesis is labelled correctly as an MPhil.  This is especially important in cases where the thesis was originally submitted for examination as a PhD and will have been labelled as such.   

For doctoral degrees (excluding PhD by Published Works) only:

(e)   that the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD, but be allowed to modify the thesis and re-submit for the degree of MPhil on one further occasion, upon payment of the examination fee.

A thesis may be deemed to fail to meet the standard required for the award of the degree of PhD, but the candidate be allowed to modify and resubmit for the degree of MPhil upon payment of the full-fee.

If the research design and execution are flawed and/or or the thesis itself requires substantial re-working either on intellectual or presentational grounds, the examiners may - provided that they can see some evidence that the candidate is capable of the modifications required (which may take months, as opposed to weeks, of concentrated work) - permit the candidate to re-submit the work on one further occasion only within one year from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the University.

The thesis should be appropriately relabelled as an MPhil thesis when it is presented for examination for that degree.

NB: This option is not applicable when a re-submitted work is being examined.

(f)   that the candidate be not approved for the award of a degree

A thesis may be deemed to have been failed, with no provision for re-submission for either of the degrees of PhD or MPhil, where the research design and execution and/or the thesis itself are flawed to such a fundamental extent that there are insufficient grounds for the examiners to believe that the candidate might salvage it. 

The Chair must ensure that all sections of the Report and Result Form are completed immediately after the viva and that all sections are signed appropriately.

Where the candidate is successful:

The University requires Examiners to return temporarily bound theses directly to the Chair/Convener of the Examining Board after the examination is complete. Where the candidate has passed, but the work requires minor or typographical corrections, the Chair/Convener should arrange with the candidate for the necessary corrections to be made and for both copies of the thesis to be permanently bound in the form required for deposit in the libraries. It is the responsibility of candidates to make the required corrections and to have their work bound. Once this has been done to the Chair/Convener’s satisfaction, he/she should send the completed Examiners' Report and Notification of Result forms to the Registry. The forms must not be sent to the Registry until the work has been permanently bound.

The Convener/Secretary disposes of the bound copies of successful theses as follows:

• 1 copy direct to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3BU
• 1 copy to the University Library

Any notes or marginal comments made by examiners in theses must be erased prior to their deposit in libraries.

In addition to the permanent bound volumes deposited in libraries, candidates must deposit an electronic copy of the final version of the thesis in the University's Institutional Research Repository. Theses so deposited will be made available by the University to external repositories and search tools including the digital collection of the National Library of Wales and the British Library's UK database of theses.

The candidate will be expected to sign a declaration that the electronic copy as deposited in the electronic repository is identical in content to that deposited in the Library, and that the candidate has obtained the appropriate copyright permission for the inclusion of any third party content within the thesis so that the work can legally be made available in an open access repository.

Material accepted for the institutional repository should conform to guidelines issued from time to time by Information Services.

When a thesis is subject to a bar on access, it will not be deposited in the open access electronic repository until the expiry of that bar.

Where the candidate is unsuccessful:

The student must receive written and clear feedback on the points which the examiners felt warranted the decision that the thesis must be re-submitted. The Chair is responsible for the collation of the feedback and ensuring it reaches the candidate. It is then incumbent on the candidate to ensure that the re-submitted thesis clearly addresses these points.

Both copies of unsuccessful theses should be returned to the candidate. Any notes or marginal comments made by the Examiners in theses must be erased prior to their return to the candidate.

In the event of a dispute between the Examiners as to the result of the examination, the Examiners' Formal Recommendation on the Outcome of the Examination should not be signed, but instead the Chair should notify the Academic Quality and Records Office. The Academic Quality and Records Office will issue guidance and report forms for use by arbitrating external examiners.

The following section from Standing Order 20 is applicable in all such cases:

45. When a dispute arises between the External Examiner and Internal Examiner(s) the usual Report and Result Form should be marked by the Examiners and Chair so as to indicate that the Board has been unable to agree upon a recommendation.

In such a case it is within the power of the Vice-Chancellor to resort to another external examiner who shall be asked to arbitrate.

When selecting an Arbitrating External Examiner the Vice-Chancellor may take into account any written reports submitted by the members of the Examining Board and may also take into account – but need not be bound by – any nomination made by the original Board.

Upon appointment by the Vice-Chancellor, an Arbitrating External Examiner shall be given by the Registry a copy of the candidate's work together with the reports of the original examiners and the Report and Result Form and 'Notes for Arbitrating External Examiners'.

When considering the candidate's work an Arbitrating External Examiner may choose whether or not to refer to the reports of the original examiners (and if so, when he/she might do so). He/she may also choose to conduct a further oral examination and, if so, whether or not the original examiners may be invited to attend.

When the Arbitrating External Examiner has concluded the consideration of the work, the outcome should be communicated to the Chair of Examining Board, in the first instance. The Chair shall arrange for the Report and Result Form to be completed, signed and returned to the Registry.

Appendix A - Regulations for the Presentation of Theses and Dissertations

Appendix B