thesis examiners report

• A-Z Directory
• Campus Maps
• Faculties and Schools
• International
• People and Departments
• Become A Student
• Give to Memorial
• Faculty & Staff
• Online Learning
• Self Service
• Other MUN Login Services

School of Graduate Studies

• Faculty and staff
• Theses and reports

Master’s and Doctoral Theses and Reports

Thesis examinations for master’s and doctoral students are proceeding as normal, and we have not seen any interruptions in this process. We want to ensure you that your academic unit, SGS, and the examiners involved are all committed to a fair and timely review of your work. We also realize that, for many graduate students, covid-19 has require changes in research plans. You and your supervisor are invited to draft and submit a covid-19 impact statement along with your thesis , so your examiners are aware of significant changes that were required.

The information below is intended to help you draft and submit your thesis/report to fulfill your program requirements.

Before you submit:

Thesis and Report Guidelines (full document)

• Read this first: introduction to writing your thesis
• How to structure your thesis and which style to use
• How to format your thesis
• Order of thesis content
• Authorship and acknowledgements (including co-authorship )

Additional resources and tools you might need or use :

• samples of a Title Page , Table of Contents , List of Tables
• o nline tutorials for writing and editing from Memorial's Dr. Cecile Badenhorst
• an excellent article on "what examiners do" when assessing theses

Preparing for submission:

• Here are all the steps involved in a Master's Thesis Examination Procedures and a Doctoral Thesis Examination and Oral Defence Procedures . You should discuss specific timelines with your supervisors.
• Aim to submit your thesis for examination at least four months before the convocation you hope to atend. SGS does not accept any responsibility for completing the prescribed procedure in time for the nearest convocation date unless the thesis is submitted by the prescribed date.
• If you are expecting to graduate, then you must apply through Memorial Self-Service at least by the time of submission of the thesis/report. Please consult the University Diary for the precise deadline.

Submitting for examination:

• When you and your supervisor agree your thesis is ready to submit, ensure you send a word and a pdf version of the work to your graduate officer or academic unit head.
• All theses submitted to SGS by the academic unit must be accompanied by a Supervisory Approval Form and either an Appointment of Examiners Form Master's Degrees or an Appointment of Examiners Form Doctoral Degrees . Although it is expected that, on the successful completion of all academic requirements, the student will submit a thesis to the Dean for examination with the approval of the supervisor and Head, the absence of such approval cannot prevent submission.
• Information on the possible outcomes of a thesis examination, time limits for revisions, and re-examination procedures can be found in the University Calendar . Required revisions and corrections are made by you in consultation with the supervisory committee.  
• The thesis examination is an arm’s-length process, therefore, there must be no contact between you or your supervisor and the examiners while a thesis or report is under examination.
• You must maintain your graduate registration until all academic requirements for your degree including thesis corrections have been met.

Oral defence (doctoral students only):

• In addition to a written thesis deemed acceptable to the University, doctoral students must demonstrate their ability to defend their work in a public oral examination. For this reason, the final decision on whether a student will be recommended for the award of the degree is made at the conclusion of the oral examination.
• A formal oral defence will normally take place only with the recommendation of the majority of examiners.
• The written examiners’ reports are discussed at the pre-oral meeting. The pre-meeting will last roughly 30 minutes and include the Chair, internal and external examiners, as well as supervisor(s) and committee members. The Chair will go over the defence procedure, examiner recommendation options, as well as answer any questions or inquiries by the attendees.
• The subsequent examination is public and chaired by the Dean of Graduate Studies or delegate. In addition to the examining board, the supervisor(s) will participate in a non-voting capacity.
• All oral defences are conducted as eDefences. Requests to fly external examiners to Memorial University are decided on a case-by-case basis.
• Doctoral students should be prepared to give a 15-25 minute presentation outlining the major contributions made by the thesis. Following the student’s presentation, the Chair will direct at least two rounds of questions from the members of the examination board. After each round of questioning, the supervisor(s) will be asked if they want to contribute any questions/comments. The Chair will not permit questions or comments from anyone other than the members of the examining board and supervisor(s).
• The Chair must be satisfied that the doctoral student has been thoroughly examined.
• Doctoral students should be prepared to defend the contents of the thesis in its entirety. Questions relating to the detailed content of the thesis and/or the relation of the general body of knowledge of the discipline to the body of material presented in the thesis are permitted.
• There will not be any time limits regarding questioning (minimum or maximum).
• At the conclusion of the public portion of the examination, the members of the examination board hold an in camera meeting to evaluate the performance of the student. Only the voting members of the examining board may vote on the outcome of the thesis and oral defence.
• Details on the oral defence and possible outcomes can be found in the University Calendar .
• Students must maintain their graduate registration until all academic requirements for their degree including thesis corrections have been met.

Final submission:

• The final version of a thesis found acceptable with or without corrections shall be submitted to the University within six months of the date on which the thesis and examiners’ reports are returned to the student’s academic unit.
• For final submission, all graduate students are required to produce one electronic copy of their thesis to the Head of their academic unit.
• The final version of your thesis should be in PDF/A (or PDF/A-1a) format (needed for the long-term archiving of electronic theses) and use the following naming convention: lastname_firstname_middlename_finalsubmissionmonthandyear_degree.pdf (e.g., Smith_John_James_122013_PhD.pdf).
• Click here for instructions on how to convert files to PDF/A format. For further help, you may wish to contact Memorial’s Digital Media Centre .
• Upon approval by the Head of the academic unit, please send the electronic copy of your thesis, along with any associated supplementary files, and a metadata file detailing your thesis information to [email protected] . We will confirm by email once you have successfully submitted your thesis.
• All graduate students are required to consult with their supervisory committee and Head of their academic unit regarding any restrictions to publication of the thesis before final submission.
• If required, a completed should be uploaded along with the thesis as a supplementary file.
• In cases where file size exceeds 500MB files may be submitted on DVD or CD. The disc sleeve should note student name, student number, degree program, and the academic unit. A completed Thesis Deposit Form must be included with CD/DVD submissions.
• At the time of e-thesis submission, a completed Recommendation for the Award of a Graduate Degree form should be submitted to SGS by the Head of the academic unit.

Publication:

• Graduate student theses are stored and preserved electronically through Memorial University Libraries’ Research Repository . A graduate student’s thesis is deposited only after a degree is conferred at Convocation in May or October. Documents in the Research Repository are searchable by the general public directly or via search engines like Google.
• Memorial University also participates in the Theses Canada program . Library and Archives Canada routinely harvests graduate student theses for storage in a central, publically searchable database.
• Graduate students interested in obtaining personal bound copies of their final thesis may order directly from Lehmann Bookbinding .
• Guidelines and policies
• Forms for faculty and staff
• Resources for Graduate Supervisors
• Special funding initiatives
• Dean's Awards for Service Excellence
• eDefence Departmental Procedures
• Tools and workshops
• SGS ROCKStar Supervisor Award

Related Content

Main navigation

• Graduate Students
• Faculty & Staff
• General requirements
• Preparation of a thesis
• Initial Thesis Submission
• Thesis examiners
• Evaluation of written thesis
• Thesis examination failures
• Doctoral oral defence
• Final Thesis Submission
• Thesis Writing and Support Resources
• Letters of Completion/PGWP

Thesis Examiners

Master’s thesis examiner.

For a Master's thesis, the examiner must be a scholar of established reputation and competence in the field of the thesis research. The examiner may be from inside or outside the University. Units* may nominate a member from within the Unit who is not in conflict of interest (see conflict of interest checklist ).

Doctoral Thesis External Examiner

The Doctoral external examiner must be a scholar of established reputation and competence in the field of the thesis research. They must be from outside the University, hold a doctorate or equivalent and have no other conflict of interest (see  conflict of interest checklist ).

Doctoral Thesis Internal Examiner

The internal examiner is expected to be knowledgeable in the area and topic of the thesis, though not necessarily to the same extent as the external examiner. The internal examiner also ensures that the written thesis meets the standards of McGill University.

The internal examiner is usually a McGill faculty member (but not the supervisor) affiliated with the student's Unit*, but they may also be nominated from other Units* at McGill. The internal examiner must not be in conflict of interest according to McGill’s conflict of interest regulations . A member of the student’s supervisory committee may be named as the internal examiner.

The internal examiner must attend the final oral thesis defence.  

Nominating Examiners

Examiners are nominated and invited to evaluate the initial thesis through myThesis. Units may have specific procedures for the selection of names prior to their entry into myThesis. For more information on myThesis, please see here .   

Objectivity of the Examination Process

Once the thesis has been submitted, no one outside of GPS should attempt to communicate with the examiner(s) regarding the thesis, nor should the examiner(s) communicate with one another or with the student or the supervisor(s) until the examination process is complete. Any contact with examiners by the supervisor, student or Unit after the nomination process constitutes a conflict of interest and the examination process will not go forward. All questions regarding the examination or defence should be addressed to the thesis.gps [at] mcgill.ca (GPS Thesis Unit) . 

Examination Procedures

When the thesis is sent for examination, the examiner(s) have a minimum of four (4) weeks to evaluate the thesis and return the thesis examination report(s). When the completed examiners’ reports have been returned to GPS, the procedures for Master’s theses and Doctoral theses are as follows:

Master’s thesis:

• If the examiner has passed the thesis, GPS will send copies of the report to the student, supervisor(s), and the Unit. The student must make any corrections and/or minor revisions in consultation with the supervisor before final submission.
• If the thesis has not been passed, see Thesis Examination Failures .

Doctoral thesis:

• Both examiners must pass the thesis before the examination can proceed to the Oral Defence.
• GPS will give myThesis access to view copies of examiners' reports to all members of the Oral Defence Committee (including the supervisor) approximately 3-5 business days before the defence. The student is not to see the reports until after the oral defence.
• The student will have myThesis copies of all reports 1-2 days after the defence.
• The student must make any corrections and/or revisions, where required, in consultation with the supervisor, or other individual designated by the Oral Defence Committee, before final submission of the thesis.

In cases where plagiarism is suspected, the examiner must return the thesis and report the suspected plagiarism, citing sources of the original material that was allegedly plagiarized. In cases where plagiarism in the thesis is charged, the thesis examination does not proceed and the case is investigated through a University disciplinary process.

*Unit refers to a department, a division, a school, an institute, or a Faculty/University-wide program.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, McGill University .

Department and University Information

Graduate and postdoctoral studies.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Investigating PhD thesis examination reports

2004, International Journal of Educational Research

Related Papers

Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology

Terence Lovat

This paper outlines the procedures used in the textual analysis of examiner reports for 101 PhD candidates across disciplines in one Australian University. The method involves the use of QSR software2. Three levels of findings are outlined. The first level is the coding categories that emerged out of reading the report text. There are five broad categories of codes that capture: the structure of the reports, the ways in which examiners communicate, the subject matter of the thesis, the characteristics of examiners' evaluative comment and their comments on their role and the examination process. The second level of findings concerns the frequency of different categories of comment and the prevalence of comment on the analysis and interpretation of the candidate's results. The third extends beyond the individual categories to what we can learn about the utilization of the report. One key finding is that the examiners took on specific roles: mentor-colleague, supervisor-instr...

Linguistics and Education

Sue Starfield

Sue Starfield , Robert McMurtrie , Brian Paltridge

International Journal of Higher Education Pedagogies

Deborah Chetcuti

Achieving a PhD degree is viewed by academic institutions as a major landmark of success and achievement. It gives recognition to researchers and provides entry into academia. Considering its significance, a PhD degree is not awarded lightly and doctoral candidates undergo a rigorous examination process that involves the evaluation of a written thesis and the viva voce defence of this thesis. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of the way in which examiners go about assessing doctoral work with the aim of providing more transparent and clear guidelines for examiners. Data for the study included 50 written examiner reports for twelve doctoral candidates who submitted their thesis to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta, for the years 2017-2018. The findings suggest that examiners in their reports include summative comments about the quality of the work. They are impressed by work that makes a contribution to knowledge, is critical and analytical and is not marre...

The Australian Universities' review

Kerry Dally

Doctoral thesis examination is the litmus test for doctoral quality. Of those candidates who reach examination, most are notified they have more work to do on their thesis. Receiving and responding to feedback are integral parts of a formal learning process that continues until the final thesis is submitted. However, little is known about what happens after examiner reports are received by an institution, how recommendations and feedback are filtered through institutional processes to influence thesis outcomes, or about the roles that candidates and supervisors play in determining and giving action to thesis revisions. This article reports the findings from a desktop review of institutional protocols and policies governing doctoral thesis examination in Australian universities. Given that the PhD Viva, or oral examination, is rare in Australian universities, the authors question whether current examination processes allow adequate opportunities for candidates to actively engage with...

Melbourne Studies in Education

Ruth Albertyn

Allyson Holbrook

Anonimo Supremo

RELATED PAPERS

Paul Erftemeijer

Clinical chemistry

Ottavio Giampietro

Jurnal Manajemen dan Supervisi Pendidikan

yusuf sobri

Synthetic Metals

Smail Triki

IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences

Rajesh Bareja

fuzy yustika manik

Biotechnologies du palmier dattier

Toomas Põld

Frontiers in Plant Science

Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Wilmer Pena

Radu Vranceanu

Valerio Gatta

Journal of the Vacuum Society of Japan

Shohei Kinoshita

Microscopy and Microanalysis

clemente marquez

2011 1st International eConference on Computer and Knowledge Engineering (ICCKE)

Mohsen Kahani

Bilişim Teknolojileri Dergisi

Ediz Atmaca

Microbial Cell Factories

Maria Luiza

Mauricio Garcia Moreno

Digestive and Liver Disease

Sara Farnetti

Procedia Engineering

European Journal of Business and Management

Mary Ndegwa

Journal of General Microbiology

Michael D Yudkin

njjfr hggtgrf

PhytoFrontiers

Carrie Harmon

CAMILLA ZANONI

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024