7.10 Completion of the Examination Process

1.  The Chair must ensure that all sections of the Report and Result Form are completed immediately after the viva and that all sections are signed appropriately.

Successful Outcome

2.  Where the candidate is successful, the University requires Examiners to return temporarily bound theses directly to the Chair of the Examining Board after the examination is complete. Where the candidate has passed, but the work requires minor or typographical corrections, the Chair should arrange with the candidate for the necessary corrections to be made and for both copies of the thesis to be permanently bound in the form required for deposit in the libraries. It is the responsibility of candidates to make the required corrections and to have their work bound. Once this has been done to the Chair’s satisfaction, he/she should send the completed Examiners’ Report and Notification of Result forms to the Academic Registry.

3. The forms must not be sent to the Academic Registry until the work has been permanently bound.

4. The Chair should dispose of the bound copies of successful theses as follows: 1 copy direct to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3BU; 1 copy to the University Library. Any notes or marginal comments made by examiners in theses must be erased prior to their deposit in libraries.

5. In addition to the permanent bound volumes deposited in libraries, candidates must deposit an electronic copy of the final version of the thesis in the University’s Institutional Research Repository. Theses so deposited will be made available by the University to external repositories and search tools including the digital collection of the National Library of Wales and the British Library's UK database of theses.

6. 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 permission 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.

7. Material accepted for the institutional repository should conform to guidelines issued from time to time by Information Services.

8. When a thesis is subject to a bar on access, it will not be deposited in the open access electronic repository until the expiry of that bar. Students may request that the thesis is deposited in hard copy in the Libraries, but not made available electronically.

Unsuccessful Outcome

9. Where the candidate is unsuccessful: the student must receive written and clear feedback on the points which the examiners felt warranted the decision that the thesis must be re-submitted. The Chair is responsible for the collation of the feedback and ensuring it reaches the candidate. It is then incumbent on the candidate to ensure that the re-submitted thesis clearly addresses these points.

10. Both copies of unsuccessful theses should be returned to the candidate. Any notes or marginal comments made by the Examiners in theses must be erased prior to their return to the candidate.

Disputed results

11. In the event of a dispute between the Examiners as to the result of the examination, the Examiners’ Formal Recommendation on the Outcome of the Examination should not be signed, but instead the Chair should notify the Academic Registry. The Academic Registry will issue guidance and report forms for use by arbitrating external examiners.