Doctoral Exams FAQ
Before submitting the dissertation for external exam
No. We are perfectly happy to have the form scanned and sent by email to:graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca. Please note that the form must be signed, but the Faculty of Graduate Studies does not require the original hardcopy. Soon we hope to have this form submitted entirely online, but for now feel free to email a PDF version.
No. Please be sure to communicate any delays directly to Faculty of Graduate Studies at graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca. That way we can communicate clearly and effectively with your external examiner. This might help to prevent further delays with the external examination when the dissertation is ultimately submitted.
For your dissertation to be transmitted to your external examiner, the Faculty of Graduate Studies requires:
- Bound paper copy/copies of your dissertation
- Electronic version of your dissertation (PDF) sent by email to: graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca
- Graduate Program Approval Memo (with speed chart included). See template.
- Dissertation Review Sheet or printout of email
For full details, please see: Submitting the Dissertation
Yes. Everyone should submit a copy of his/her dissertation electronically in PDF format to graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca if the dissertation is less than 6MB. If the dissertation is larger, please upload the document onto a password protected FTP site and send the link and password instead.
If the electronic version of your dissertation is larger than 6 MB, we ask that you upload the document onto a password protected FTP site. Unfortunately, we cannot offer any technical assistance with this if you are unable to do this on your own; instead we suggest that you contact the systems administrator in your home department or enlist the help of a technologically savvy friend.
Once the dissertation is uploaded and ready for your External Examiner to download on his/her end, send the link along with the password to your dissertation to graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca.
Your dissertation cannot be transmitted to your external examiner without the expressed (and signed) approval of your graduate program. So until that memo arrives at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, your dissertation will not be sent out.
If you are sending your dissertation to us from a distance, please make arrangements with your supervisor and graduate secretary to have the memo sent over to the Faculty of Graduate Studies on your behalf.
Approximately 8 weeks in before the dissertation is to be submitted for external exam. External Examiners are busy people, if we can give them 8 weeks of notice, it is easier for them to accept our invitations. We have found that if we give these busy experts too much or too little notice, they tend to decline the invitation.
With that in mind, do not submit this form if you haven't got a clear sense that you are really and truly two months away from probable submission. You should be pretty much entirely finished with the writing and submitting the completed draft of the dissertation to your supervisory committee for their review and approval when you send this form to FoGS. If you are currently on Chapter 1, it is not time to send the form to us yet.
After submitting the dissertation, but before oral defence
You are responsible for completing the programme form, having it reviewed by your supervisor, and sending it to the Faculty of Graduate Studies at least 4 weeks in advance of your oral defence.
Please note that the Faculty of Graduate Studies does not proofread this public document. It is your responsibility to ensure that your programme is correct.
The Faculty of Graduate Studies prints copies of your programme and provides these at your oral defence. Read more
This form can be sent as early as the "Appointment of External Examiner" form (8 weeks prior to submission), but certainly no later than 4 weeks before the oral defence.
Please note that your supervisor should have already confirmed the willingness of the proposed University Examiners before submitting this form.
Please see the complete information on the eligibility of University Examiners.
Absolutely. Emeriti are very welcome to serve in all roles of the Final Doctoral Exam, provided they are affiliated with a doctoral program. The wisdom and experience that emeriti bring is an asset to the process.
Normally, no. The expectation of University Examiners is that they be tenured, experienced, and knowledgeable in the subject of the dissertation. In cases where the narrowness of the dissertation subject severely limits the number of qualified faculty members on campus, an exception will be considered. Please contact Jacqueline Webb about any such request.
You or your supervisor. You might check to see whether your University Examiners woud prefer a paper or an electronic version of the dissertation.
On the day of oral defence
Yes. You are welcome to bring coffee or light snacks for your examining committee to enjoy during the examination. If you do so, you are responsible for cleaning up after the exam. There is no housekeeping service and we rely on you to leave the room exactly as you have found it.
