Examiner Nomination and Thesis Submission

Submission of the thesis and the nomination of examiners are both necessary for examination to proceed. Ideally nomination of examiners should occur two months in advance of submission, or at least at the same time. Submission should take place between 3 and 3.5 years (FT) and 5 and 5.5 years (PT) of the candidature.

Doctoral Candidates

You should:

• Accept full responsibility for the totality of your own thesis
• Consult the thesis guidance
• Check if there are any grounds for a thesis embargo and take action accordingly (see Doctoral Forms and Guidelines)
• Ensure where there are publications, that the Statement of Contribution has been completed for each publication and inserted at the front of the relevant chapter in your thesis
• Have the opportunity to propose names of potential examiners but also be aware that the decision lies ultimately with your supervisors and will remain confidential until just before the oral examination. The Nomination of Examiners should be submitted around the same time as the Application to be Examined so it is important that you liaise with your supervisors around timing
• Complete the Application to be Examined for the Doctoral Degree on the student portal. Please note that you will complete this before submitting it to your supervisor who will return it to you following review. You should read the supervisors responses and then submit it to the Head of School/Delegate
• Upload a single file PDF digital copy of your thesis in the student portal at the same time as completing the Application to be Examined for the Doctoral Degree.
• Should examiners require a soft bound copy of the thesis, the Graduate Research School will  request a printed copy from your Academic Unit.

Primary Supervisors

You should:

• Give candidates the opportunity to suggest suitable or unsuitable examiners
• Observe the Conflict of Interest Guidelines for Doctoral Examination
• Consult with co-supervisors and use the confidential Nomination of Examiners for Doctoral Examination form to ensure nomination of three examiners of correct origins and with the appropriate characteristics that will meet with the approval of the Doctoral Research Committee. This includes ensuring there are no conflicts of interest and that at least 2 of the 3 examiners have experience of examining doctoral theses and participating in oral examinations
• Contact the examiners informally and in confidence to check that that they are willing to be examiners, and are able to return their reports within six weeks from receipt of the thesis, and will be available to participate in the oral examination in person or by video conference (approx. 4-6 weeks after the 6 week submission of the reports). New Zealand examiners are expected to attend in person, internal examiners who are not on the same campus as the candidate are expected to attend on video conference
• Check if there are any grounds for a thesis embargo and take action accordingly
• Complete the Application to be Examined for Doctoral Degree on the Massey portal, once the candidate has completed their part
• Be mindful that the University cannot initiate the examination process until both the Application to be Examined and Examiner Nomination forms have been received by the Graduate Research School and approved by Doctoral Research Committee. For this reason we ask supervisors to submit the Nomination of Examiners 2-3 weeks before the thesis is submitted. This allows time for the approval process for examiners to happen in the Graduate Research School

Heads of Academic Unit/Nominee

You should:

• Check observance of the Conflict of Interest Guidelines for Doctoral Examination and ensure that appropriate examiners have been selected. In signing the Nomination of Examiners you are endorsing the suitability of the examination panel. A final approval will be given by the Dean, Research
• Sign off the candidate’s application to be examined on the Massey portal
• Ensure that the nomination of examiners form is submitted to the Graduate Research School before or at the same time as the application to be examined so that the candidate’s defence is not held up

Graduate Research School (GRS)

Once the Nomination of Examiners has been approved and the thesis and application to be examined submitted then the Graduate Research School will send an electronic copy of the thesis to the examiners along with the Thesis assessment Recommendation and the Guidelines for Examiners.  Tentative dates will then be scheduled for the defence and these will be confirmed nearer the time of the actual event.

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Last updated on Wednesday 13 January 2021