Oral Examination: Doctoral Degree

Pre-Examination

Procedures

The guide below includes the steps and policies normally required as per the . Requests for exceptions to these for extenuating circumstances can be made by the academic supervisor or graduate chair to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in writing to defence@sfu.ca.

You must be registered in order to defend and graduate.
In addition to defending your thesis, you must apply to graduate .
IMPORTANT: the deadline to apply to graduate is not the same as the library thesis submission deadline. Students can apply to graduate at any time in what is planned to be their final term of graduate studies.
- It is a straightforward process to withdraw your application, but more challenging to add you to the graduation list after the deadline.
If you complete your degree requirements during the first calendar month of the term, you may be eligible for an early completion refund. You do not need to formally apply for this. More information can be found on the Degree Completion page.

Degree Completion Timeline

This timeline is meant to give you a rough guide only. As everyone's writing speed is different, and your academic supervisor's and committee members' commitments and schedules can fill up quickly, we recommend that you give yourself, your academic supervisor and your committee as much time as possible.

6-8 months before your intended date of defence
Present your academic supervisor and committee members with an outline of your thesis and notify them of your intention to defend in 6-8 months' time. Review your thesis progress regularly with your academic supervisor.

8-10 weeks before intended date of defence
Consult with your academic supervisor and committee to ensure that they have read your thesis and agree that you are ready for defence. Make any last revisions they require and make sure your thesis is formatted to 51社区黑料standards. These are delineated on the . Prepare an abstract (max 350 words). Your academic supervisor will share the abstract with potential Examiners.

6-8 weeks before intended date of defence
Provide your graduate program assistant with a complete, properly formatted defence version of your thesis (.pdf) along with the thesis abstract and any other documents required (e.g.ethics approvals)

NOTE: You are not responsible for filling out any of the pre-defence paperwork or submitting it to Graduate Studies. It is the responsibility of the academic unit.

The documents must be submitted to Graduate Studies a minimum of 6 weeks prior to your intended date of defence. Your academic unit may have earlier deadlines; please consult your graduate secretary or program assistant.

6 weeks before intended date of defence
You've accomplished an important milestone. Take a few days to relax before you begin preparing for your defence.
Your academic unit submits doctoral forms and thesis file (PDF format) to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The email and associated PDF file should include the title "Academic Unit - YourLastName.pdf" (ie. "Mathematics - Smith.pdf").

After the defence
As per , if thesis revisions are required, you may complete them and submit the thesis to the Library no later than the end of the next term.

Preparing to Defend

Scheduling a Defence

Once your thesis is substantially complete, your academic supervisory committee will work with your graduate program chair to determine the date, time and location of your defence (-). Students and academic supervisors are expected to discuss defence dates well in advance, and to plan defences around known absences.

At least six weeks before your defence date, your graduate secretary or program assistant will require information from you and your academic supervisor to fill out and submit a form for the Approval of Examining Committee for a Doctoral Student to the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Once the paperwork is received, the Dean of Graduate Studies will formally invite your external examiner and distribute an electronic copy of your thesis to the external examiner and the rest of the examining committee.

Forms

Approval of Examining Committee Form
Graduate Program Assistants can access it in the Faculty & Staff area now

External Examiner Selection Process

External examiners should be selected in a collaborative manner by the academic supervisor and chair/director of the graduate program committee. The goal is to find an external examiner who is expert, available, not in a conflict of interest with your or your academic supervisory committee (see also below).

Selecting and inviting the external examiner is the responsibility of your academic supervisor.

Students are not permitted to contact potential external examiners. Once a date has been set, the academic unit is responsible for filling out the appropriate forms.

Conflict of Interest

Our regulations () and common sense dictate that the external examiners of theses should be free of potential conflict of interest. An examiner should be a disinterested evaluator of the work and should not be placed in a position in which it might be perceived that personal considerations could sway the examiner's assessment of a piece of work.

The following is a list of relationships that could be perceived as creating a conflict of interest:

Student and external examiner have or had a relationship unconnected to the student's academic work. Examples: family connections; business connections.
Student and external examiner had or have an academic relationship. Examples: examiner was student's instructor or a member of a previous academic supervisory committee; they have participated together in a research project; they have published together.
Student and external examiner are planning a future relationship, contingent on a successful defence. Examples: student will work as post-doctoral fellow in examiner's lab; student will be hired by examiner's company.
External and supervisor have the kinds of relationships discussed in points 1 through 3. Examples: external examiner was academic supervisor's student (or vice versa); they have been recent collaborators in a research project.

Given the interconnections between researchers, the need for students in many disciplines to publish, and the very specialized nature of some areas of research, it is unrealistic to expect that external examiners will have no knowledge of, or no connection to, the student in all cases. It is also unrealistic to try to write precise rules for avoiding such problems.

A better approach is for academic supervisors and graduate program chairs to ask themselves before contacting an external examiner whether a potential conflict of interest could be perceived. In addition, when the potential examiner is contacted, it would be worth checking whether there is a conflict of interest that ought to be declared. Learn more about Conflicts of Interest + Graduate Studies.

Leaving/Retiring Supervisors

If the student's expected completion time is within a year of the supervisor's retirement, then the retired faculty member may remain as an academic supervisor.

If the student's expected completion time is within six months of the academic supervisor's departure from SFU, the departing faculty member may remain as an academic supervisor. If the expected completion time exceeds six months, then the request for approval of a new academic supervisor or academic co-supervisor must be submitted to the graduate committee.

At the Examination

Thesis examinations are .

Tip: We strongly recommend that you attend other defences in your academic unit so that you know what to expect during your defence.

Preparation

Below, we've outlined the basic steps you'll go through to prepare for your defence. You are only responsible for checking that technology requirements, if needed, are ordered by your academic unit. As you begin preparing for your defence, arrange a meeting with your academic supervisor to discuss the format of the defence and especially the length and style of your oral presentation.

There are 4 parts of a thesis defence

Introductions: The Chair of the defence will welcome and introduce you and the members of the examining committee. The chair will also outline the procedures that are to be followed during the defence.
Oral Presentation: You make a presentation of your thesis research. Your academic department can provide you with guidelines about length, though normally, the oral presentation should not exceed 20-25 minutes.
Examination: The examining committee will ask you questions about your presentation, the contents of your thesis, and, sometimes, about other relevant ideas. There are usually 2 rounds of questions, and each person may ask multiple questions during their turn. The external examiner asks the first questions, followed by your academic supervisory committee members, and finally your academic supervisor. After the examining committee is finished, and time permitting, members of the audience are invited to ask questions.
Assessment: Everyone who is not a member of the Examining Committee will be asked to leave the room while the committee determines the outcome of your examination. There are 4 possible outcomes:
1. The thesis is passed as submitted 鈥� you may make small corrections and fix typographical errors only.
2. The thesis is passed conditionally pending revisions 鈥� your academic supervisor will ensure that you have attended to the required revisions before you may file the thesis with the library.
3. The decision is postponed pending revisions. - in this case, the committee will read the thesis after you have made revisions and may also choose to require a new defence.
4. The thesis may fail and you will be required to withdraw from the university.

Once the Examining Committee has reached their decision, you will be invited to return to learn the result and what, if any revisions are required.

Pro Tips

Provide a professional looking thesis 鈥� correctly formatted, proofread for grammar and typos, properly referenced, and with a correctly formatted bibliography.
Develop the structure of your oral presentation in consultation with your academic supervisor - it may include the following (but probably not all):
- research question or hypothesis
- scope & depth
- methods or methodology
- new knowledge generated
- practical applications
- future research
Practice your oral presentation (timing, length, pace, aids)
- in the examination environment, if possible, and in front of your supervisor, group members, and friends
- with those who will provide objective critical feedback - then critique the feedback, and consider presentation adjustments
Develop questions about your thesis work from your oral presentation and/or the thesis itself. (These questions may be your own or come from others.)
Think of the defence, and especially the examination part, as a conversation among knowlegable experts, of which you are one.
Remember you are the expert on the subject of your thesis, and you know more than you realize.
It is normal that changes and/or edits to the thesis may be required after your defence; the manner in which the thesis is revised is a reflection of your behaviour, your potential as a colleague/collaborator/mentor/leader, and is on file permanently in the library and Library and Archives Canada.
Complete any required revisions and submit your thesis to the library. You will need to make an appointment with the thesis intake librarian.

What to Bring

You only need to bring your thesis and presentation notes. You may also want to bring your own laptop computer. Normally, your Graduate Program Assistant (GPA) will ensure that the following are available:

Copies of your thesis abstract for the audience at your defence. Some information about you may also be included with your abstract, such as previous credentials, list of publications, list of awards.
Appropriate audio-visual or videoconferencing equipment, if required to support your presentation.
Water for you and the examination committee. (Additional refreshments may be ordered at the discretion of your academic unit)

Revisions

The second and third outcomes cited in Graduate General Regulation 1.10.2 both involve revisions, and can be subject to interpretation.

Outcome 2
^{The thesis may be passed on the condition that revisions be completed to the satisfaction of the supervisor}

There is sometimes considerable discussion among members of the examining committee of the meaning of 'revisions'. Although there is no University-wide definition, some academic units have developed their own guidelines.

Typically, these revisions address deficiencies in spelling, grammar, punctuation and presentation or minor deficiencies in the work itself.

Outcome 3
^{The examining committee may defer making judgement if it judges that the thesis could pass after additional work. A thesis upon which judgement is deferred shall come forward for re-examination within a period specified by the examining committee. The examining committee may require formal re-examination under section 1.10.1 or may reach its decision by examination of the revised thesis.}

If your defence falls under outcome 3, the participation of all members of the original examining committee is required in the re-examination leading to a final decision. The role of the external examiner should normally be limited to providing a critique and suggestions for improvements at the time of the original defence.

A second oral examination may not be required, depending on the performance of the candidate in the original defence.

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Faculty of Graduate Studies