The Graduate Research School has produced the document, "Thesis Submission and Examination @UNSW" for postgraduate research students about to submit their thesis for examination. All postgraduate research students must obtain a copy of this document either electronically or collect a hard copy from the Graduate Research School. The hard copy of the document includes several essential forms that are available on the Current Students’ Thesis Submission page of this website. They are:

 

Each of the above three areas aim to ensure that students have submitted their thesis in accordance with the Policy on Examination of Research Degrees and that they have submitted the correct forms prior to and with their thesis submission.

Once all the necessary approvals have been received, the student’s thesis will be sent to the examiners. The examiners are asked to examine the thesis within six weeks. Students are reminded that sometimes circumstances prevent examiners from returning their report in time and delays are sometimes expected.

Once all of the examiners' reports are returned to the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus, they are sent to the Head of School (HOS) for a recommendation and, if necessary, presented to the Higher Degree Committee (HDC) for a decision.

The entire length of the examination process (i.e. from the initial notification of intention to submit a thesis through to notification of the final result of the thesis examination) is outlined in the figure below.

Once a student gives two months’ notice that they intend to submit their thesis for examination, the HOS or Postgraduate Coordinator needs to appoint appropriate examiners and complete a Nomination of Examiners (NoE) form for approval from the Higher Degree Committee.

The NoE form will be emailled to the student's School by the Graduate Research School. The forms are inlcuded below for information purposes only. Please do NOT use these forms for NoE. If you require a new form please contact the appropriate campus office (see bottom of page).

The Nomination of Examiners form should be completed and returned to the appropriate Research Administration Officer in order for them to arrange approval from the HDC prior to the submission of the thesis.

Before the student’s thesis can be sent out for examination, the supervisor must complete a Supervisor’s Certificate and return it to the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus.

Download the Supervisor’s Certificate below:

Only once the examiners have been approved by the Faculty’s Higher Degree Committee, the completed Supervisor’s Certificate has been received by the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus, and the thesis has been submitted, can the thesis be sent out for examination.

Along with each copy of the thesis, examiners are sent Notes for Examiners and an Examiner’s Report Form. The forms are inlcuded below for information purposes only. Please do NOT use these forms. If you require a new form please contact the appropriate campus office (see bottom of page).

Once all examiners’ reports have been received by the appropriate Research Administration Officer, they are sent to the Head of School (HOS) for their recommendation. The HOS must complete the Summary of Higher Degree Examiners Reports form and return it to the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus office.

The Summary of Higher Degree Examiners Reports form will be sent to the HOS after receipt of all examination reports. The form is inlcuded below for information purposes only. Please do NOT use this form. If you require a new form please contact the appropriate campus office.

If required, the Research Administration Officer will then present the student’s case to the Faculty HDC.

The Research Administration Officer will then inform the student of the decision by mail. Deadlines for corrections (if any) and anonymous copies of the examiners’ reports are also sent to the student at this point.

If it was determined by the Faculty HDC that the thesis was required to be resubmitted for examination, the resubmitted thesis will be sent back to the appropriate examiners for re-examination. If the examiners requesting the re-examination have not agreed to re-examine the thesis, the Reserve Examiner (or new examiners) must be contacted.

The thesis can only be re-submitted for re-examination once.

The examiner(s) are sent a Revised Thesis Examiners’ Report form along with the resubmitted thesis. The forms are inlcuded below for information purposes only. Please do NOT use these forms. If you require a new form please contact the appropriate campus office (see bottom of page).

Once the report(s) for the resubmitted thesis have been received by the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus, they will again be sent to the HOS for their recommendation. The HOS must make a second recommendation based on the examiners’ report(s) of the resubmitted thesis. A second Summary of Higher Degree Examiners Reports form must be completed and returned to the Research Administration Officer at the appropriate campus.

At this stage, the recommendation can be for the student to either:

The thesis cannot be resubmitted a second time.

In view of the confidential nature of the examination, only certain information may be provided to the student prior to Faculty consideration of the case.

What students CAN know
i) If examiners have been approved
ii) If the thesis has been sent to the examiners
iii) If examiners have been reminded of the report deadline
iv) If any reports have been received and, if all reports have been received, the date the reports were sent to the HOS for recommendation
v) If the HOS has made a recommendation on the basis of the examiners’ reports and the date the recommendation will be considered by the Faculty
vi) The Faculty decision, when known.

What students CANNOT know
i) The names of examiners
ii) The names of examiners who have returned or not returned reports
ii) The recommendations contained in the examiners’ reports prior to Faculty consideration
iii) The recommendation of the HOS.

The supervisor's certificate states that the thesis is in the correct format for examination (i.e. binding, layout, abstract etc). This certificate does not comment on the academic merit of the thesis. If a supervisor considers that the thesis is not likely to pass examination then they should advise the candidate for the reasons for this assessment. If the student does not accept this advice and indicates they intend to submit the thesis for examination, then a written submission from the School outlining the reasons for this assessment should be sent to the Chair of the Faculty Higher Degree Committee for a recommendation on whether the thesis be sent for examination. The Dean of Graduate Research should be advised of any such cases sent to the Higher Degree Committee for consideration.