8. Results of the Examination

Following the Oral Examination:

The External Examiner should complete Section 1.2 Report on the Oral Examination, and, if appropriate, 1.3 Matters of General Concern and Interest [ ... ]. The External should then, together with the Internal Examiner, complete Section 3 ('Joint Report by External and Internal Examiners').

The Examiners should then arrange with the Chair of the Examining Board for the completion and signature of the final form Examiners' Formal Recommendation on the Outcome of the Examination. The appropriate outcome option should be indicated by means of ticking the relevant box (see immediately below for notes on the various options). The form should then be signed by the Examiners and by the Chair of the Board, who should also enter the date. Examiners are again asked to be aware that candidates have the right to request access to any comments made about them in these reports.

Members of Examining Boards may wish to note the following on the various options open to them under the Regulations for the Submission and Examination of Research Theses:

(a) that the candidate be approved for the degree subject to completion of such minor corrections as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis/works may be passed subject to the correction of minor or typographical errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of poor punctuation, mis-spellings, sentences which lack total clarity, badly-labelled graphs, figures or photographs, which do not detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented. Such minor corrections should be capable of being completed within a period of four working weeks from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

The Examining Board must stipulate that the corrections made shall be scrutinised by either or both Examiner(s) prior to the award process being initiated and must indicate which of their number shall be responsible for agreeing that corrections have been made satisfactorily.

(b) that the candidate be approved for the degree subject to such corrections and amendments as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis/works may be passed subject to the correction of minor errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of rewriting or reworking of sentences or paragraphs, which are not substantial enough to detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented and which are capable of being completed within a period of up to six months from the date of the notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

(c) that the candidate be not approved for the degree but be allowed to modify the thesis and re-submit it for the degree on one further occasion, upon payment of a re-submission fee.

Should the Examiners be agreed that the research design and execution are flawed and/or the thesis itself requires substantial re-working either on intellectual or presentational grounds, they may -provided that they can see some evidence that the candidate is capable of the modifications required (which may take months of concentrated work) -permit the candidate to re-submit the work. The re-submission shall take place within a period not exceeding twelve months from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the University.

Defects might, for example, consist of illegible or poorly-argued passages, sub-standard figures, graphs or photographs, or misinterpretation of some data. The Examiners should be satisfied that there is evidence that the candidate knows what he/she is doing, that the work substantially addresses the problems or issues posed but that its execution in thesis form requires modification of a scale capable of being accomplished by the author in a period of concentrated, uninterrupted work.

NB: This option is not applicable when a re-submitted work is being examined.

For doctoral degrees only (excluding PhD by Published Works):

(d) that the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD, but be approved instead for the degree of MPhil subject to completion of such minor corrections as may be required by the Examining Board.

A thesis may be deemed, on the grounds of scope, approach, execution, originality etc, to fail to meet the standard required for the award of the degree of PhD, but nevertheless to satisfy the requirements for the award of an MPhil. The award of the Degree of MPhil should only be made to candidates who have submitted work which is equal to that completed on an extended Masters course and involves a substantial element of research or equivalent enquiry. When deciding whether to recommend that a candidate be awarded an MPhil, the Examiners must be satisfied that the University's criteria for the award of the Degree of MPhil (see Section H) have been met in full.

Provided that the academic requirements are met, the MPhil may be awarded subject to the correction of minor or typographical errors prior to the work's deposit in the libraries. Such errors might consist, for example, of poor punctuation, mis-spellings, sentences which lack total clarity, badly-labelled graphs, figures or photographs, which do not detract from the view of the Examiners that a sound piece of work has been presented and which are capable of being completed within a period of four working weeks from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the Convener of the Examining Board. Please note that candidates who do not complete the corrections within the given time limit will be required to pay the full resubmission fee.

The Chair of the Examining Board must ensure that the final version of the thesis is labelled correctly as an MPhil. This is especially important in cases where the thesis was originally submitted for examination as a PhD and will have been labelled as such.

For doctoral degrees (excluding PhD by Published Works) only:

(e) that the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD, but be allowed to modify the thesis and re-submit for the degree of MPhil on one further occasion, upon payment of the examination fee.

A thesis may be deemed to fail to meet the standard required for the award of the degree of PhD, but the candidate be allowed to modify and resubmit for the degree of MPhil upon payment of the full-fee.

If the research design and execution are flawed and/or or the thesis itself requires substantial re-working either on intellectual or presentational grounds, the examiners may - provided that they can see some evidence that the candidate is capable of the modifications required (which may take months, as opposed to weeks, of concentrated work) - permit the candidate to re-submit the work on one further occasion only within one year from the date of the official notification to the candidate of the outcome of the examination by the University.

The thesis should be appropriately relabelled as an MPhil thesis when it is presented for examination for that degree.

NB: This option is not applicable when a re-submitted work is being examined.

(f) that the candidate be not approved for the award of a degree

A thesis may be deemed to have been failed, with no provision for re-submission for either of the degrees of PhD or MPhil, where the research design and execution and/or the thesis itself are flawed to such a fundamental extent that there are insufficient grounds for the examiners to believe that the candidate might salvage it.