Examining a revised thesis

Normally, the same pair of examiners is appointed to conduct the second examination, but occasionally one or both of the examiners may not take part in the second examination. The Degree Committee will contact you when the revised work has been submitted and ask if you are willing to act again. Should an oral examination be required, an Independent Chair will normally be appointed.

In either case, the extent to which the revision advice given after the first examination has been addressed should be taken into account. The candidate is made aware that the action of addressing the points raised may not in itself necessarily be sufficient for success because the quality of the work will be judged.

If both Examiners also examined the thesis on its first submission:

• If your independent reports on the revised work clearly recommend the award of the degree sought (subject to corrections if necessary), you may recommend that the oral on the revised thesis be waived. Please make this clear in your independent report - in this case, no joint report is required;
• if however, your independent decision is that the candidate should not be approved for the degree, or if you are in any doubt in your recommendation, an oral examination must be held and a joint report written.

If one or both Examiners did not previously examine the thesis on its first submission:

• The revision advice given by the first examiners will be made available to you;
• an oral must be held;
• ​​providing the revisions required by the first Examiners have been made to a standard commensurate with the degree sought, you should normally recommend that the degree be awarded (subject to corrections if necessary); you should avoid introducing new grounds if to do so would mean that the degree sought cannot be awarded.

Please note that the forms/coversheets provided for examination of revised theses are different from those issued for a first examination: PhDrev1/MScrev1/MPhilrev1 and PhDrev2/MScrev2/MPhilrev2.