16.2.1 The Research Degrees Team shall send an electronic copy of the thesis to each examiner, together with the examiner’s preliminary report form RDC-MPhil (A) or RDC-PhD (A), or the appropriate form for other awards and the University’s research degree regulations, and shall ensure that the examiners are properly briefed as to their duties.
Examiners must be appointed before the thesis is submitted so that the thesis may be sent for examination within days of submission. In exceptional circumstances, where examiners have not been appointed in advance of submission, the examining team must be proposed and approved within a maximum of 2 weeks from the date of submission.
16.2.2 Each examiner shall read and examine the thesis and submit an independent preliminary report on the report form that will be sent to them with the thesis. The independent Preliminary Report must be emailed to the Research Degrees Team at least one week before any oral or alternative form of examination is held. This report, or any other communications about the examination, must not be sent to the Supervisory Team or other members of staff within the Faculty – it must only be emailed to the Research Degrees Team.
In completing the preliminary report, each examiner shall consider whether the thesis provisionally satisfies the requirements of the degree, and where possible make an appropriate provisional recommendation subject to the outcome of any oral examination.
16.2.3 The Research Degrees Team shall ensure as far as possible that all the examiners have completed their independent preliminary reports on the RDC form sent to them with the thesis. The forms should be emailed directly to the Research Degree Team at least one week before the oral examination takes place so that they can be circulated to all the examiners before the viva.
16.2.4 Where the examiners are of the opinion that the thesis is so unsatisfactory that no useful purpose would be served by conducting an oral examination, they may recommend that the Research Degree Committee dispense with the oral examination and refer the thesis for further work.
In such cases the examiners shall provide the Research Degree Committee with detailed written guidance for the candidate concerning the deficiencies of the thesis. The examiners shall not recommend that a candidate fail outright without holding an oral examination or other alternative.
16.2.5 At submission of the electronic thesis for examination, students must completed the section on the RDC-Sub submission form, confirming whether they have an existing health condition that requires a formal assessment by Wellbeing Services in order to identify any reasonable adjustments that will be required at examination and viva.
If this is required, the student must register with the Wellbeing Service as soon as they know when the thesis will be ready to submit for examination, and this must be done no later than the actual submission date, the Wellbeing self-referral form which can be completed at the student portal.
Once Wellbeing Services has sent the report to the Research Degrees Team, with the candidate’s permission, it will be shared with the examiners to ensure that the necessary adjustments are put in place when examining the thesis and for the viva examination.