thesis examination report

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Evaluation of a Written Thesis

Examiners are asked to evaluate the thesis in myThesis, according to the criteria in the respective thesis examiner report for a Master's or Doctoral thesis. For an example of the criteria, please see the forms: see: Master's Examiner report form ; Doctoral Examiner report form (note these forms are now integrated in myThesis).

Examiners provide an overall judgment of 'passed' or ‘not passed’, in addition to a written report. For Master's students, this evaluation determines whether or not the thesis is ready for final submission, even if minor changes are recommended. For Doctoral candidates, this evaluation determines whether or not the candidate is ready to proceed to the oral defence.

If the thesis meets the general criteria for the degree sought, as well as those listed on the examiner's report form it should be evaluated as 'Passed', even if some changes are recommended.

If the overall judgement is 'Passed', examiners are asked to provide:

• A report that includes any recommendations for minor revisions to the thesis (i.e., stylistic or editorial changes that can be completed in three weeks or less).
• For doctoral theses, External Examiners who will not be at the oral defence must also provide a list of questions to be asked of the candidate at the oral defence.

An evaluation of 'Not Passed' should be given if:

• the need for a new study, experimentation, or significant additional research or reformulation.
• the need to address major problems with the presentation of the work. Stylistic or editorial changes are not normally considered to be major revisions, but if the quality of the presentation is so poor that extensive rewriting is required, the thesis should not be passed.
• At least one of the Criteria for the Evaluation of the Thesis (see Master's Examiner report form ; Doctoral Examiner report form ) is judged as unsatisfactory.

Examiners are asked to identify required changes clearly in their reports. The supervisor or another designated person will ensure that the student corrects the thesis and that it appropriately reflects the examiners' suggestions for revisions prior to re-submission of the thesis.

The candidate will normally revise and re-submit the thesis for re-assessment, usually by the same examiner. If/when review of the revised thesis is required, the Thesis Unit will contact the initial examiner to determine their availability. In rare cases, a revised thesis may be sent to a new examiner if the first examiner is not available to re-examine the thesis. For more, please see Thesis examination failures.

If the revised thesis is again ‘not passed’, the student will be withdrawn from the University unless the decision is reversed through an appeal to the Hearing Committee (Bias, Error, or Misrepresentation ).

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

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Doctoral Exam Guide

External examiner's report, workday student support.

Graduate students can find "how to" guides and support information on our Workday support page .

The external examiner's report is submitted directly to the Doctoral Exams team at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. In cases where the external examiner recommends that a candidate proceed to Oral Defence, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will normally distribute copies of the report to the graduate program advisor and all members of the examination committee one week prior to the Defence date. The entire content of the report is confidential and must not be discussed with the candidate prior to the Final Oral Defence. The external examiner's recommendations must be taken into account by the examination committee when providing an assessment of the dissertation during the Final Oral Defence.

Note: a written report and questions for the defence are required from the external examiner regardless of whether they are planning to participate in the Oral Defence.

The external examiner is asked to assess whether the dissertation meets the criteria for a successful dissertation, with reference to the expectations regarding the scope and structure of a doctoral dissertation at UBC and using the criteria outlined in the following documents:

• For Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) examinations -  Instructions for Preparing the External Examiner's Report
• For Doctor of Education (EdD) examinations - Guidelines for the Examination of the Ed.D. Dissertation
• For Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Composition examinations - Instructions for the Preparation of the External Examiner's Report
• For Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Performance examinations - Instructions for the Preparation of the External Examiner's Report

The external examiner is also asked to make an overall recommendation regarding whether or not the dissertation as written is ready for defence. If the external examiner's report recommends major revisions to the dissertation before the candidate proceeds to Defence, the Dean or Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (usually after consulting with external examiner) will make the final decision about whether or not to proceed with the Final Oral Defence.

In order to allow time for the report to be distributed, the external examiner's report is due 10 days before the Defence. The Dean or Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies reserve the right to postpone the Final Oral Defence if the external examiner's report is late.

External Examiner Recommends Major Revisions to the Dissertation

In cases where the external examiner recommends major revisions to the dissertation before proceeding to the Oral Defence, candidates are normally granted exactly one opportunity for major revision and re-examination. External review of the revised dissertation normally involves both the original external examiner and a new additional external examiner (who is not informed of the previous external exam).

The research supervisor and candidate will be notified by email as early as possible if the external examiner recommends major revisions to the dissertation and if the Dean or Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies requires that the candidate address the report and make revisions to the dissertation before proceeding to the Final Oral Defence. A copy of the external examiner’s report will be provided at that time and should be used to guide the revisions. As part of the revision process, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies strongly recommends that the candidate compose a separate document, to be sent to the original external examiner only, outlining where and how the external examiner’s concerns have been addressed.

Once the revised dissertation has been approved by the supervisory committee, the candidate will be required to submit the dissertation and associated approval memos as outlined under Submitting for Examination . Candidates and research supervisors are asked to notify the Doctoral Exams office well in advance of the anticipated submission date so appropriate arrangements can be made with the external examiners.

If at least one of these two external examiners recommends that the examination should proceed, then the Final Oral Defence will take place.

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The voice of the external examiner in master's dissertations

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Examination of Doctoral Theses: Research About the Process and Proposed Procedures

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• First Online: 12 June 2018
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• Ronel Erwee 7 &
• Chad Perry 7 , 8  

Part of the book series: University Development and Administration ((UDAA))

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Despite some standard thesis examination guidelines having been established by institutions, examination of theses by individual examiners was known in the 1990s and early 2000s to be an irregular and idiosyncratic process that could delay completion of candidature. This chapter reviews research that established this disappointing position about issues in the examination process and what happened a decade after this initial situation. It then proposes some standard procedures to make sound thesis examination procedures for institutions and examiners. These procedures cover many issues that affect the thesis examination process like the definition of a degree, selection of examiners, criteria to evaluate the contribution of the research, and proposals for future policies and practices.

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Choosing the Thesis by Publication approach: motivations and influencers for doctoral candidates

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Erwee, R., Perry, C. (2018). Examination of Doctoral Theses: Research About the Process and Proposed Procedures. In: Erwee, R., Harmes, M., Harmes, M., Danaher, P. (eds) Postgraduate Education in Higher Education. University Development and Administration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5249-1_4

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5249-1_4

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