Oral examination guidelines

You are required to organize a meeting with your supervisory committee as they must agree that you are ready to write your thesis/dissertation. Following the meeting, all members of your committee must sign off on the supervisory committee’s student progress report form—confirming that you are ready to begin writing your thesis/dissertation.

Your exam committee must include the following:

• a chair (appointed by FGS)
• your committee members
• an external examiner with no prior involvement with your supervision

It is your supervisor’s responsibility to find an appropriate external examiner. Once an examiner has been identified, your supervisor will confirm their availability to attend the oral exam on the specified date and time.

For MSc students, the external examiner can be a faculty member from the School of Medical Sciences.

For PhD students, the external examiner must be from outside the School of Medical Sciences. You must also submit a nomination of external examiner and confirmation of arm’s length status form to the Graduate Program Assistant.

You and your committee will choose a date and time for your oral exam that is convenient for everyone. The exam date must be far enough in advance to meet Faculty of Graduate Studies timelines.

The Graduate Program Assistant will work with you to identify specific deadlines, book a lecture hall in the Medical Sciences Building and create the calendar invite for committee members.

Email a PDF copy of your thesis/dissertation to your examination committee (except for your external adviser) and the graduate program assistant. Once your thesis/dissertation is sent, no further changes can be made to the document.

Your committee will have a minimum of 10 business days to determine if your thesis/dissertation is examinable. They will then notify the graduate program assistant of their decision.

Convocation takes place twice a year—June and November. To walk the stage at either ceremony, you must have completed and archived your thesis/dissertation by the posted degree submission deadlines. You can submit your application to graduate via online tools.

You must apply to graduate before the Graduate Admissions and Records Office can proceed with setting up your oral exam.

After the examination committee has reviewed your thesis/dissertation and agree it is examinable, you must have each member sign the ROE form; the graduate program assistant will complete and email the form to you before the end of the committee’s review period.

Your supervisor must sign the form first, and the graduate adviser must sign the form last; otherwise, signatures can be acquired in any order. The external examiner is not required to sign the form. You are responsible for ensuring all signatures are gathered and that the ROE is submitted to the graduate program assistant afterwards.

In addition to the ROE, the Graduate Program Assistant submits the following forms (as applicable):

• dissertation withholding form
• human ethics approval or waiver form (provided by your supervisor)

Once the ROE is submitted, you will receive an email from the Graduate Admissions and Records Office asking you to register for UVicSpace, an online repository where the defended version of your thesis/dissertation will be uploaded. Follow the instructions and register for UVicSpace.

On the day of your defense, the Graduate Program Assistant will prepare the thesis/dissertation approval form. This form requires original signatures from all your committee members. If a member is attending virtually, the Chair may sign on their behalf. Once signed, the form must be returned to the program assistant who will submit it to FGS.

Your supervisory committee is expected to be present for your oral examination. If a faculty member is unable to attend, they must provide questions for the examination and are responsible for finding a proxy to attend the examination and ask the questions of the candidate. See the academic calendar for more information.

At the defense, you will give a 10 to 20-minute presentation followed by questions. The external examiner may ask questions first, followed by the committee members, and finally the supervisor. There will be a second round of questions, including those posed by the exam Chair and/or audience members.

Following the question period, the student and audience will be asked to leave the room so the committee can evaluate the thesis/dissertation and render a decision.

After your exam, the Chair will:

1. Inform you of the exam outcome.
2. Identify actions and timelines associated with the outcome, as applicable.
3. Identify next steps including the review/approval process for any required revisions that must be made to your thesis/dissertation.

The final version of your thesis/dissertation must be uploaded by 12:00 p.m. the last day of the term you wish to complete your program—there are no exceptions.

Once you receive confirmation that your thesis/dissertation has been archived, please notify the Graduate Program Assistant. They will then submit the necessary documents to the Graduate Admissions and Records Office.

Read more about final submissions.