Access to Theses

47. Two copies of every work approved by the examiners shall become the property of the University. The Chair must arrange for the deposit of one hard copy of a successful thesis in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and for the deposit of a second copy in the University Library. In addition to the permanent bound volumes deposited in libraries, candidates must provide an electronic copy of the final version of the thesis for deposit in the University’s Research Repository. Theses and theses metadata so deposited will be made available by the University to external repositories including the digital collection of the National Library of Wales and the British Library's UK database of theses.

48. The candidate will be expected to sign a declaration that the electronic copy as deposited in the electronic repository is identical in content to that deposited in the Library, and that the candidate has obtained the appropriate copyright permissions for the inclusion of any third party content within the thesis so that the work can legally be made available in an open access repository. Material accepted for the repository should conform to guidelines issued from time to time by Information Services.

49. A hard copy thesis submitted for a higher degree of the University shall normally be openly available and subject to no security or restriction of access. However, candidates may request either a bar on photocopying and/or access to the thesis for a specified period of up to five years, or that it is not made available in the University’s Research Repository. Any recommendation for a bar on access must be made to the University via the Research Degrees Committee or its Chair, by the Institute after consideration of an application by a candidate's supervisor, supported by the Director of Postgraduate Studies. It shall be the responsibility of the supervisor to make the application as soon as is reasonably practicable. Ideally this should be at the time of registration of the candidate's scheme of research. The recommendation must include a statement of the grounds on which the request is being made. Most requests of this nature are made on the grounds of the commercial sensitivity of the research, which may have been partially sponsored by a commercial or industrial organisation.

50. Following a successful examination, the Chair of the Examining Board must notify the University Librarian, the National Library and the Research Repository that the work is to be withheld from access for a specified period. The period approved shall be calculated from the date on which the candidate is formally notified by the University that they have qualified for a degree. When a thesis is subject to a bar on access, it will not be deposited in the University Research Repository or any other open access electronic repository until the expiry of that bar.

51. The Institute may approve a request by the student that the thesis should not be made available in the University Research Repository. This should be clearly stated in the declarations accompanying the thesis. This does not constitute a bar on access to the thesis.