gr@du@te

Degrees of D.Sc. and D.Litt.

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Criteria for application
Consideration of applications
Duties of the external examiners
Recommendations of the Graduate School Committee
General notes

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Criteria for application

To be eligible for the degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) or of Doctor of Letters (DLitt), candidates shall be either graduates of the University, or members of staff of the University, whose record of published work and research shows conspicuous ability and originality and constitutes a distinguished and sustained achievement.

Consideration of applications

Any person who wishes to be considered for the award of the degree of D.Sc./D.Litt. shall submit a formal written application to the Student Registry. As soon as possible after the application has been submitted, the Graduate School Committee, acting on behalf of the Committee of the Senate, shall appoint a Moderator, from within or outside the University, who shall:

  • consider the work and submit, through the Student Registry, a preliminary report, which shall indicate whether, in the Moderator's opinion, the examination should proceed or whether the candidate should be advised to withdraw the application;
  • recommend not fewer than two persons, from inside or outside the University, as suitable examiners in the field covered by the work submitted, provided that the Committee of the Senate in appointing examiners under these Regulations shall not be restricted to the persons so named.

If the Moderator recommends that the candidate should be advised to withdraw the application, the candidate shall be notified of the recommendation by the Student Registry and in such case the candidate may:

  • withdraw the application, whereupon he shall be entitled to a refund of one half of the fees paid, or
  • elect to proceed with the examination.

If the examination is to proceed the Graduate School Committee, acting on behalf of the Committee of the Senate, shall appoint at least two independent external examiners taking note of the Moderator's recommendations. The contents of the Moderator's report shall not be communicated to the examiners.

Duties of the external examiners

The duties of each examiner shall be:

  • to report independently on the quality of the work and its value as a significant contribution to learning; and
  • to recommend whether or not the degree should be awarded, provided that where the recommendation is that the degree should not be awarded the examiner may recommend that the candidate be permitted to resubmit the work together with further published work at a later date. A re-submission shall be accompanied by a further full examination fee.

Before making their reports the examiners may enter into discussion with the candidate about the work submitted.

Recommendations to the Graduate School Committee

The Moderator, having seen the reports of the examiners, shall prepare a report based upon them which, together with the reports of the examiners shall be submitted to the Graduate School Committee which shall recommend to the Committee of the Senate whether or not the degree shall be awarded.

The Moderator shall advise whether or not it is appropriate to appoint further examiners and in such case the Graduate School Committee, acting on behalf of the Committee of the Senate, shall appoint the person so named or some other suitable person to be an additional examiner to submit an independent report which shall be considered by the Graduate School Committee together with the other reports.

General Notes

If the candidate desires to submit work done in conjunction with others, the application shall contain a written statement indicating precisely the share which the candidate personally has taken in the work.

A candidate shall be required either to declare that none of the work submitted for the degree has already been submitted, whether successfully or not, for any degree of this or any other university, or, if this be not the case, to identify which work or works have been so submitted. Work previously successfully submitted for a degree may not constitute a substantial proportion of the work or works submitted for the degree of D.Sc. or D.Litt.

Any book or paper submitted in support of the application for the degree normally must have been published for at least one year at the time of application.

 

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