15.1 Students may submit the final draft copies of their thesis electronically to their Supervisory Team for final review and comment. Should the Supervisors prefer to review the work in hard copy, they must produce their own copy within the Department at no cost to the student.
15.2 The Director of Studies or the Research Degrees Team shall make known to the candidate the procedure to be followed for the electronic online submission of the thesis, and any conditions to be satisfied before the candidate may be considered eligible for examination. The thesis will not be sent for examination until all outstanding fees or debts to the University have been paid in full.
15.3 All research degree examinations and vivas have 1 of 3 options to be as follows:
- an all in person viva;
- a hybrid viva
- an all online viva
Students must submit their thesis for examination by emailing 1 electronic PDF copy of the final thesis for examination, and the completed, signed RDC-Sub submission form, to the Research Degrees Team.
A copy of the Abstract should also be included in the electronic copy of the thesis.
15.4 Where there is evidence that the research has preceded exceptionally well, the Research Degree Committee may approve the thesis being submitted in less than the minimum period of registration as specified in Section 7.
The minimum period of registration will not normally be reduced by more than 6 months. The request for early submission should be made by the Director of Studies on behalf of the candidate with the application for approval of examination arrangements, or if requested earlier, by email to the Research Degrees Team for approval by the Chair of the relevant RDC subject Sub-Committee.
15.5 The candidate shall ensure that the thesis is submitted to the Research Degrees Team before the expiry of the registration period.
15.6 The candidate shall ensure that the thesis format is in accordance with the requirements set out in Section 19 of this document.
15.7 The submission of the thesis for examination shall be at the sole discretion of the candidate and the final thesis for examination should be submitted as an electronic PDF file by email to the Research Degrees Team. While a candidate would be unwise to submit the thesis for examination against the advice of the supervisors, it is the candidate’s right to do so. Equally, candidates should not assume that a supervisor’s agreement to the submission of a thesis guarantees the award of the degree.
Candidates are required to present the final electronic version of the thesis to the supervisors before submission, and to obtain the Director of Studies’ electronic signature on the submission form RDC-Sub. This form must be submitted by email to the Research Degrees Team before the thesis can be sent out to the examiners.
15.8 In exceptional cases, a candidate may submit the thesis for examination without the supervisor’s agreement, however the supervisor will still be required to sign the submission form before the thesis can be sent to the examiners.
15.9 The candidate shall confirm, through completion of form RDC-Sub, that the thesis has not been submitted for a comparable academic award. The candidate shall not be precluded from incorporating in the thesis, covering a wider field, work which has already been submitted for a degree or comparable award, provided that it is indicated, on the submission form and also in the thesis, which work has been so incorporated.
15.10 The candidate shall confirm through completion of form RDC-Sub, that the work submitted is their own, unless otherwise indicated through the use of an approved referencing system.