Examiners

Examiners play an integral role in ensuring the integrity and reputation of The University of Queensland’s research higher degree (RHD) program. The examination process is an important part of the dissemination of the University's research, and examiners have a key role in 'admitting' the RHD candidate into the international community of scholars. Examiners assist the candidate in bringing their work to publication and even in securing employment, potentially becoming referees or sponsors.

Examiners ensure quality to the University and the research community, and add pedagogical value to the research experience of the candidate. The examiner has several responsibilities:

  • to ensure that the work is of high quality;
  • to benchmark the work against standards that apply in other leading institutions;
  • to assure the university that the work complies with the appropriate research protocols in the field of study;
  • to certify that the work in the thesis is original; and
  • to provide an expert written response to the candidate's work that indicates not only its strengths and weaknesses, but also makes suggestions for further research and for its publication.

The role of the Examiner

An examination panel should collectively possess the following characteristics:

  • have research and/or professional expertise appropriate to the candidate's research topic;
  • have been active in research and/or scholarship within the preceding five years;
  • hold or have recently held an academic appointment and be familiar with the standards of the degree;
  • not be unduly narrow in geographical or institutional terms, with usually no more than one examiner being appointed from a university, research organisation, or geographical region; and
  • cover the full disciplinary range of the thesis.

Individual examiners must either:

  • hold a degree of a level equivalent to or greater than the one the thesis is being examined, or
  • have an outstanding record of demonstrated research ability and performance plus previous experience as an examiner of theses at a level equivalent to or greater than the one the thesis is being examined for.

The candidate is advised of the composition of the examination panel before the thesis is sent to the examiners for review, and asked to declare if there is any potential conflict of interest or other reason why the appointment of an examiner may be inappropriate.

The examiners and the candidate are required not to make direct contact until the UQ Graduate School has made a decision on the outcome of the thesis examination, based on the examiners' reports. Once that decision has been made, the examiners and the candidate are permitted to make direct contact and discuss any corrections required to the thesis. Examiners are not required to do so, and can choose not to reply to communications from the candidate if they wish.

Download the Examiners Guide

Examiner Information Pack

If you have been requested to be an examiner of a UQ RHD thesis, please download your Examiner resources.

Chair of Examiners

UQ also appoints a Chair of Examiners who acts as the delegate of the School/Institute’s Postgraduate Coordinator (PGC) for academic matters regarding the candidate’s thesis. The Chair of Examiners is an academic staff member of The University of Queensland and is nominated for each research higher degree student whose thesis is submitted for examination. They are appointed to ensure that changes requested by the Examiner(s) are made and also provide discipline specific academic advice to the Graduate School.

Download the Chair of Examiners Guide (394kb, PDF).

Thesis honorariums

UQ is grateful to examiners for the significant contribution they make to the quality of UQ research through their actions as external reviewers of RHD theses. As such, UQ examiners are paid an honorarium.

The UQ Graduate School pays the honorarium when the Summary Recommendation form and detailed report have been received. Simply complete an Honorarium Request form once you have provided these documents. Please allow up to four weeks for payment.

Honorariums are set for all Australian universities by Universities Australia and the standard honorarium payments are:

  • $435 AUD for examining a PhD thesis, and
  • $245 AUD for examining an MPhil thesis.

 

Thesis Adjudicators

A thesis adjudicator may be appointed by the UQ Graduate School in cases where examiners' reports vary significantly in their recommendations. The role of the thesis adjudicator is to review both the thesis and the examiners' reports, and to make a recommendation to the UQ Graduate School on the most appropriate outcome of the thesis examination process.

The adjudicator does this using the Thesis Adjudicator's Summary Recommendation form, and also provides a detailed written report. The written report should:

  • include comments on the thesis and any suggestions for improvement;
  • be intelligible to an academic reader with no discipline-specific knowledge;
  • be sufficiently detailed for the UQ Graduate School to gauge the quality of the thesis; and
  • give clear direction about which parts of the examiners' reports should and should not be acted on by UQ Graduate School and the candidate.

The thesis adjudicator must meet all the criteria for nomination as a thesis adjudicator and must not have any potential conflict of interest.  Because a thesis adjudicator is usually appointed after the thesis has been under examination for several months, adjudicators who expedite their examination and provide their report within 3 weeks receive an honorarium that is double the standard amount.

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