8. Nominating thesis examiners

It is a good idea to discuss potential examiners with your advisory team at the third Progress Review, or about three months before your submission date. Your Principal Advisor should make informal contact with potential examiners to confirm their interest and availability before nominating them in the HDR Thesis Examination request.

You can nominate a minimum of three and a maximum of eight examiners. All of your examiners need to be external to UQ.

It is essential that you don't contact your thesis examiners until you have been formally notified that you have met the requirements for your degree. Contacting an examiner prior to this may constitute a conflict of interest and compromise the independence of your examination.

Advice for choosing examiners

When you and your advisor nominate examiners, remember to choose examiners who:

  • have expertise appropriate to your research topic
  • have been active in research or scholarship in the past five years
  • hold (or have recently held) an academic role and are familiar with the standards required for your degree

Examiners are expected to hold a degree that is at least equivalent to the award you are being examined for (i.e. a PhD examiner must hold a PhD). However, it is possible to nominate an examiner who does not hold an equivalent degree, provided they have:

  • an outstanding record of research and scholarship, and
  • previous experience as an examiner of theses, at a level equivalent to or greater than your thesis.

Your nominated examiners should not work at the same institution as each other.

You and your advisor will need to justify why you have chosen each examiner and how their expertise relates to your thesis. The Dean of the Graduate School is the final approver of nominated examiners. 

When nominating examiners you should also consider the time zones where they are based. It can be very challenging to find a suitable time for your oral examination if you and your examiners are based in completely different time zones around the globe.

How to nominate examiners

Following successful attainment of the third Progress Review, the Graduate School will send you and your Principal Advisor a HDR Thesis Examination request through my.UQ. Your Principal Advisor will be asked to follow the link to nominate potential examiners online.

To avoid delays, your Principal Advisor should complete this request as soon as it becomes available.

Confirming your examiners well in advance allows us to send them your thesis as soon as possible after submission. You should be clear on your thesis submission timeline at the point of nominating examiners. This will allow examiners to confirm their availability, schedule sufficient time to examine your thesis and will help to prevent any delays.

Chair of Examiners

The Chair of Examiners is an academic staff member at UQ who is familiar with your research discipline and will provide advice to the Graduate School. The Chair may be an adjunct or hold an honorary appointment. Your advisory team will nominate your Chair as part of the HDR Thesis Examination request.

The Chair of Examiners is often the same person who chaired your Progress Review committees. The Chair is not an examiner but rather a person who coordinates, oversees, and facilitates the oral examination process.

Conflicts of interest

When you nominate your thesis examiners, you and your advisors will be asked to complete a conflict of interest declaration. All conflicts of interest will be reviewed by the Dean of the Graduate School, who may approve the examiner or request a replacement.

Before you submit the Nomination of Examiners request, read the following:

These policies are in place to protect you from any perception of bias or preferential treatment. 

What happens next

Once your principal advisor has nominated potential examiners, the examiners will be formally invited to examine your thesis by the Graduate School. You cannot invite your own examiners outside of the HDR Thesis Examination request. If a nominee is not available for thesis examination, the Graduate School will invite another nominee from your list.

Need assistance?

Chat to the Graduate School Team