Doctoral Oral Thesis Examination

1. Chairperson
2. Head of the Department (or delegate) (who may serve as Chair and therefore not a voting member)
3. Supervisor(s)
4. Examiner: At least one faculty member from Queen's
5. Queen’s Examiner - Internal/External Examiner: At least one faculty member from another Department
6. External Examiner: An external examiner from outside Queen's University
7. Additional Examiner: An optional additional examiner

It is the responsibility of the Department to select, verify eligibility, and invite all members of the Thesis Examining Committee.

Final approval of the Thesis Examining Committee members lies with the Dean of School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

The Thesis Coordinator will circulate the oral examination details and confidential report forms to each member of the Thesis Examining Committee by email. The confidential report – typically less than a page – is to be submitted to thesis@queensu.ca 5 working days before the oral thesis examination.

This report is not to be shared with the candidate or the supervisor(s) prior to before the oral examination. You should address any concerns or questions directly to the School of Graduate Studies and not the candidate or the supervisor(s).

This report will be read aloud at the examination.

In the event that the examination is cancelled due to two or more negative reports, and one of the negative reports is from you, your written comments will be distributed to the supervisor(s) and candidate.

No member of the examining committee can be in conflict of interest with the candidate. Conflict of interest is defined as a personal or family relationship with the candidate and/or vested interest in the thesis or research for personal or financial gain. Further the Chair, External Examiner, and at least one other examiner must be ‘arms-length’ to the candidate (e.g., must not have a prior supervisory relationship, must not have co-authored with or co-presented with the candidate). Provided the conditions above are satisfied, members of a candidate’s supervisory committee are eligible to be thesis examining committee members. Further, the supervisor must be arms-length from the external examiner (i.e., does not hold a current grant with nor has published with the external examiner within the past five years).

The outcome of the oral thesis examination is based on the acceptability of both the thesis and the defence of the thesis at the oral thesis examination. The purpose of the oral thesis examination is to ascertain that the student is able to adequately present and defend the thesis and its underlying assumptions, methodology, results and conclusions in a manner consistent with the degree being sought. At the oral thesis examination, the examining committee will reach one of the 4 decisions listed below and record it on the “Thesis Examination Results” form. The 4 decisions are Passed, Passed with Major Revisions, Referred or Failed.

Passed: A thesis is passed if it is acceptable in its present form or pending minor revisions, and its defence at the oral thesis examination was satisfactory. A thesis may be passed if no substantive changes are required. Changes in the form of corrections of typographical or grammatical errors, minor modifications to the thesis, editorial revisions to improve clarity and revisions to clarify results, findings or conclusions, or the like, may be recommended with a thesis classified as passed. A list of the required revisions must be provided by the Chair to the candidate and the supervisor and the completion of the revisions must be certified to the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs by the thesis supervisor or other designated person.

Passed with Major Revisions: A thesis is passed with major revisions if it is not acceptable in its present form or pending minor revisions but could be acceptable pending major revisions. Major revisions could include, for example, rearticulation and repositioning of research purpose, substantive integration of new literature, significant additions or revisions to conceptual framework, methodology, results, and/or discussion. In cases of portfolio or manuscript theses, a passed with major revisions outcome may be assigned if one or more of the manuscripts requires major revisions. A result of passed with major revisions does not require a second oral examination; however, all revisions must be completed within 4-months (i.e., one term). All required major revisions must be documented by the Chair and certified to the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs by those whom the examining committee deem responsible for oversight of the major revisions. A minimum of two members of the thesis examining committee are responsible for overseeing the major revisions.

Referred: A thesis is referred if it is not acceptable in its present form and, after extensive revision by the candidate, requires re-examination by the PhD oral thesis examining committee. For example, a thesis will be referred if it requires substantive changes such as rewriting a substantial portion of the thesis, substantial reinterpretation, reanalysis or recalculation of data or findings, or additional research in order to attain acceptable standards of coherence and integrity in argument and presentation. The committee will reconvene and hold another oral thesis examination of the revised thesis.

The examining committee may also use the Referred category if it determines that the oral thesis examination itself, either separate from or in conjunction with the written thesis, is unsatisfactory. This means that the candidate did not adequately present and defend the thesis and its underlying assumptions, methodology, results, and conclusions in a manner consistent with the degree being sought. Following the second oral thesis examination, the committee must then return a decision of either Passed or Failed; Passed with Major Revisions or Referred outcomes are not options.

In all cases of referral, the nature of the revisions and/or additional work, and/or the deficiencies associated with the oral thesis examination, must be specified in writing by the Chair to avoid dispute or ambiguity. When outlining the revisions and/or additional work required, the Chair must be as specific as possible. These comments will be passed on to the candidate in a letter from the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs as revisions and/or improvements that must be met for the thesis to be reconsidered.

Any outlined revisions in relation to a referred outcome must be certified by the Chair or delegate as having been completed satisfactorily. Usually, this certification is delegated to at least two members of the Committee. In all cases of referral, the examining committee continues to exist until it has agreed that the thesis outcome is either Passed or Failed.

The outcome of ‘Passed with Major Revisions’ is not an option once the thesis and/or oral examination has been placed in the Referred category.

Notes On The "Referred" Category

1. If the committee returns two or more votes for referred it will hold another examination after the candidate has carried out further research and/or rewritten the thesis, but normally not more than one year later.
2. Candidates have up to twelve months from the date of the first oral thesis examination to complete revisions to their thesis but should be encouraged to do so as soon as possible.
3. A thesis that has been defended by oral thesis examination can be submitted once more only in revised form. A candidate whose thesis and/or defence of the thesis at the second oral examination, does not satisfy the examining committee on the second submission will be failed.

Failed: Failure can occur in two ways:

1. A thesis is failed if the document is unacceptable to the discipline even with substantive revisions. If the committee returns two or more votes of Failed on the basis of the document, this means that the committee recommends that the student be required to withdraw on academic grounds.
2. Failure may also result from an unacceptable second oral thesis examination, where the student was manifestly unable to adequately present and defend the thesis and its underlying assumptions, methodology, results and conclusions in a manner consistent with the degree being sought. A decision of Failed on the basis of the second oral thesis examination requires agreement by the majority (more than half) of the examining committee.

Attendance & Remote Participation: It is preferred that all examiners and the candidate being examined are physically present at Queen’s University for the oral thesis examination. However, in certain circumstances, it is acceptable for the oral thesis examination to be scheduled so that a member or members, or all members, and/or the candidate being examined could participate in the oral thesis examination remotely using some method of videoconference or teleconference or online meeting arrangement (e.g., via Zoom, Teams, etc.). Arrangements for the use of remote access services must be made by the graduate department/program.

All examiners, Chair, and/or the candidate connecting remotely must be present for the duration of the examination and if joining via videoconference are advised to keep their cameras on unless it interferes with communication and bandwidth. All examiners, the candidate, and guests must verbally agree not to record the examination and not to be in communication with the candidate during the examination (e.g., sending texts, photos, or any answers during the examination).

Unexpected Absences: In instances where an examiner is unexpectedly absent, the exam may proceed without the examiner present. If the examiner has provided their questions to the chair in advance, their questions may be read during the examination; however, the examiner will not be able to vote in the outcome of the defence.

Visitors: Examinations are typically open at Queen’s to visitors. Visitors will leave proceedings during all closed deliberation sessions.

The external examiner will receive a $100.00 honorarium and be reimbursed for travel, meals and accommodations up to a maximum of $800. Departments may cover additional costs for examiner travel.

• The most reasonable and affordable means of travel and accommodation should be sought as per the University’s travel policy (note: business travel costs are not normally covered)
• Meals/per diems are reimbursed up to maximums specified in the Treasury Board of Canada Joint National Council guidelines (Travel Directive-Appendix C). Please see their website for current rates. Please note that alcohol purchases will not be reimbursed
• Itemized travel receipts (including meals) are to be scanned and submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs at sgspa.admin@queensu.ca along with the examiner’s home mailing address
• Out-of-country examiners are reimbursed in USD, on par with CAD

The examiner will receive an email following the exam with instructions for receiving their honorarium.