The list of examiners is proposed by the student in consultation with his or her supervisor. The student must ensure that the nomination form of the examiners has been completed and forwarded using a Service request in his or her Candidate Center (uoZone). The list must be submitted at least one month before the filing date. Any delay in the submission of this form will delay the entire evaluation and defence process and may have financial consequences since the submission of the thesis can not be accepted if the list of examiners has not been submitted .

• Form - List of examiners for the evaluation of the thesis (PDF)

Each PhD thesis has an external examiner in addition to the internal examiners. The proposed external examiner should be at arm’s length from the PhD candidate, from the thesis research and from the thesis supervisor. Examiners must be seen to be able to examine the student and the thesis free of substantial conflict of interest. The test of whether or not there is a conflict of interest is whether a reasonable outside person could consider a situation to exist that could give rise to a potential for bias.

To enable the faculty to check that external examiners have appropriate expertise and to validate that they are not in conflict of interest, a curriculum vitae, including a list of publications, must be provided for each proposed examiner.

In signing the form with the names of the proposed examiners, the chair of the academic unit or delegate is indicating that, to the best of their knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.

For more information, or if there is any question about whether a potential external examiner is at arm’s length, please contact your faculty.

• Examples of conflict of interest

When submitting a thesis for evaluation, the student must be enroled. It is important that the student submits the final draft to his or her thesis supervisor sufficiently early in the term. By doing so   the thesis supervisor can read it, provide feedback and deliver it to the student in a timely manner and consequently,  the student can then make the latest revisions or corrections and to submit his or her thesis for evaluation.

The student has to submit an electronic copy of the thesis in the Candidate Center accessible through  uoZone. Examiners may require a paper copy. The student must verify if one or more examiners have requested paper copies and must provide them on request. The student must submit paper copies (if necessary) to the office responsible for the organization of the evaluation and the defence of his or her thesis. 

The supervisor acknowledges having examined the thesis and propose to submit it to the jury. The thesis supervisor will approve or refute the thesis submission throughout the uoCampus portal.

The thesis supervisor will approve the submission of the thesis if he or she is convinced that the thesis meets the standards of the program of studies. In some cases, the thesis supervisor may ask the student to further develop his or her work.

Students who wish to know their status at this stage must log in to the Candidate Center (uoZone).