Student FAQs- Thesis Examination Process

You can access the overview of your submission and examination by logging in to our dedicated Service Now page. You will need to log in with your University credentials.

You will only be able to see a record when you have submitted your Notice of Intention to Submit.

There are several states that your thesis examination can be in, and these are defined as below:

Verification- You have submitted your notice of intention to submit form, and the Research Student Administration (RSA) team are creating your nomination of examiners form.

Examiner Nomination- RSA have sent your nomination form to your School and are awaiting information relating to your examiners.

Examiner Approval- RSA have received the nomination of examiners form back from your School and the examiners have been added to the record ready for examination.

Thesis Submission- You have provided your submission forms to RSA following submission to Canvas and RSA have processed these.

Examination- Your thesis has been sent to your examiners and is currently being examined.

Post-Examination- Your examiners have returned their reports to RSA and a result has been issued by email, with a deadline for completing any corrections.

Post-Examination- Further Corrections- After review of your corrected thesis your examiners have indicated further corrections are required. You have been permitted a further opportunity to complete these by the University Research Progress and Awards Committee.

(Please note a further opportunity to complete corrections is subject to approval by the Research Progress and Awards Committee)

Final Submission- Your corrections have been completed, and you now need to provide a copy of your e-thesis to the library repository. N.B This does not apply to Master of Research (MRes) courses.

Closed Complete- All requirements of the award have been completed, where appropriate this includes, the receipt of your e-thesis by the library.

Closed-Resubmission Required- Your examiners have indicated a result of revise and resubmit. A new record will be created for your resubmission.

Closed- Thesis Rejected- Your examiners have indicated a result of ‘reject’, without the opportunity to resubmit.

We advise that you submit your Notice of Intention to Submit form 3 months before your planned submission. This will formally begin the nomination of examiners process.

If you submit this form closer to your submission, your examiners may not have been appointed prior to submission which will delay examination.

You only need to submit one notice of intention to submit; if your planned submission date changes, provided you intend to submit prior to or on your maximum period of registration, you do not need to submit another form.

If you require additional time to submit after your maximum period of registration you will need to apply for an extension.

If you have declared that you are working, or have previously worked, for the University of Birmingham, RSA will need to carry out a check with HR regarding your employment. This is to determine whether you require two external examiners in line with 3.2 of the Code of Practice on Assessment of Research Degree Theses.

Your state will be updated once we have this information and have provided your School with the nomination of examiners form.

RSA expect to be in receipt of the nomination of examiners form 2 months after it has been sent out to the School.

The deadline for return will be indicated in ‘Nominations Deadline’ field of your record.

This a process you should be involved in, and you should be afforded the opportunity to comment on the nominations.

Where RSA have not been in receipt of the nomination form and the deadline has passed, we will conduct weekly chases for this information, escalating as necessary.

The word count limit set out in 7.4.2(d) of the University Regulations cannot be exceeded.

When declaring your word count, please ensure that you have excluded: abstract, acknowledgements, contents pages, appendices, tables, diagrams and figures (including associated legends), the list of references, bibliography, footnotes and endnotes.

Any submissions over the word count cannot be considered for examination.

Your word count limit will be recorded in the ‘Maximum Word Count’ field on your record.

There is no minimum word count limit.

Please ensure that you have provided your thesis submission forms to pgrstudentrecords@contacts.bham.ac.uk. We will be unable to update your record if you haven’t informed us of your submission.

Due to limitations in the Thesis Processing System (TPS) if you submit your thesis prior to the nomination of examiners form being returned, RSA are unable to change the state from ‘Examiner Nomination’ until this information has been provided.

Upon receipt of the nomination form, your record will be moved to the ‘Thesis Submission’ state.

The plagiarism check is a School process where a nominated academic will review your submission. Your School will notify you of the outcome of this.

Once your thesis has passed the plagiarism check your School will inform us and provide a copy of your thesis for examination. The date we receive this will be recorded in the ‘Turnitin Check’ field of your record.

If this field is blank RSA have not yet received this confirmation. We would expect to receive this within 2 weeks of your submission.

We will chase for this but need to have been notified of your submission for it to appear on our overdue reports.

Various factors could cause a delay in sending out your thesis for examination, the most common are-

• RSA have not been in receipt of the nomination of examiners and do not hold details of who to send your thesis to for examination.
• RSA have not received your submission forms.
• RSA have not received confirmation from your School that your submission has passed the plagiarism (Turnitin) check, along with a copy of your thesis.
• Taught requirements will need to have been completed and reflected on your academic record by your School.
• You have a financial hold on your account for unpaid tuition fees; you will need to contact Accounts Receivable to arrange payment.

We aim to send out a thesis within 7 working days of receipt of all the documentation related to your thesis submission.

Please note that in busy periods of the year we may have many theses to send out and there may be a delay to sending your thesis out within this timeframe.

We ask examiners to complete the examination of your thesis, including the viva, within 8 working weeks of the thesis being sent out to them.

If they are unable to examine within this timeframe they should notify you of any delay, either directly or through your supervisor.

The ‘Thesis Sent’ and ‘Report Due Date’ fields on your record will indicate when your thesis was sent for examination and when we expect to be in receipt of the examiners’ reports.

It is the responsibility of your internal examiner to make arrangements for your viva and notify you of these. If you have two external examiners, it will be the responsibility of the Chairperson to make these arrangements.

Please speak to your supervisor if you have not heard from your examiners about arrangements.

If RSA have been notified of your viva date by your examiners this will recorded in the ‘Viva date’ field on your record.

A viva is not mandatory for a masters level thesis but may be held at the discretion of the examiners. In these circumstances, you will be contacted by your internal examiner with any arrangements for the viva.

Your examiners will provide an informal result to you at the viva; this will be formalised when RSA email with the result and deadline for any corrections.

RSA will send this result once we have been in receipt of all the examiners pre- and post-viva reports.

Any timeframe for corrections will be calculated from the date that we write to you with the result.

The date RSA expect to be in receipt of all reports is indicated in the ‘Report Due Date’ field on your record. Where RSA have not been in receipt of the examiners reports for your thesis examination and the 8 working week deadline has passed, we will conduct weekly chases for this information, escalating as necessary.

We appreciate it is frustrating to be waiting for results and endeavour to provide these to you as soon as possible once they become available.

You will need to submit minor corrections to your internal examiner, or a nominated external examiner; if you had two external examiners.

You will need to submit major corrections to all your examiners.

In all instances, Research Student Administration should be copied in via pgrstudentrecords@contacts.bham.ac.uk so we are aware that you have submitted your corrected thesis on time.

Your deadline for submitting your corrections is indicated in the ‘Corrected Thesis Deadline’ field of your record.

Upon receipt of your corrected thesis, RSA will contact your examiners and provide them with a deadline by which to review these. This will be 4 working weeks for minor corrections and 6 working weeks for major corrections.

The deadline for your examiners to return this by will be indicated in the ‘Corrections Certificate Due’ field of your record.

If you have not copied in RSA to your corrections submission this may cause a delay in receiving confirmation from your examiners whether your corrections have been completed. It may also result in an ‘out of time for corrections’ email being sent after the ‘Corrected Thesis Deadline’ has passed if this information is not known by RSA.

Where RSA have not been in receipt of the outcome of your corrected thesis and the ‘Corrections Certificate Due’ deadline has passed, we will conduct weekly chases for this information, escalating as necessary.

We appreciate it is frustrating to be waiting for results and endeavour to provide these to you as soon as possible once they become available.

When we write to you to confirm completion of your award we will indicate a standard month by which to submit your final copy of the e-thesis to the library. It is a requirement for graduation to have submitted your e-thesis to the library.

If this requirement is missing ahead of the deadline, a reminder email will be sent out to you to provide this to the library. If you miss the deadline, you will be deferred to the next set of ceremonies.

Please note that for MRes programmes, an e-thesis is not required to be submitted.

The ‘Final e-thesis Submitted’ field on your record will be filled when the library have receipted this for you.