Exam information for HDR examiners

Flinders University engages two examiners for HDR theses. Examiners are external to the University, have no real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest. They are research active experts of international standing in the discipline and have appropriate qualifications.

As with many Australian universities, the examination is based on the written thesis. An oral defence is not required. Travel to Adelaide is not required.

Examiners are kindly requested to return their recommendation within 6 weeks.

All students are required to put their thesis through Turnitin before examination. The Turnitin report is used as an education tool for the student and supervisor.

If an examiner has concerns relating to academic integrity these should immediately be raised by contacting us.

The HDR examination process is managed by Flinders University online candidature management system - Inspire

Examiners will be sent an email with login details and will be required to login as an external user.

The thesis will be made available for examiners in Inspire. Once an examiner is ready to finalise their report, they can upload their written comments and make a recommendation for a grade in Inspire.

Please note that emails from inspire are system generated. Please do not reply to these emails. If you have questions please contact us.

We request that examiners do not contact the supervisors or students in relation to any material that is under examination.

If an examiner requires clarification or has questions, they can contact the HDR Examinations Coordinator.

All students are required to demonstrate:

• evidence of an original investigation or testing of ideas
• competence in independent research or experimentation
• thorough understanding of the appropriate techniques in the field demonstrated both by their application and a thorough review of the literature
• critical use of source material, experimental results (where appropriate) and published works
• appreciation of the relationship of the special theme to the wider field of knowledge
• capacity to present well written work
• a higher degree of independence of thought and approach
• a significant original contribution to knowledge in the thesis (For doctoral theses only).

Examiners are asked to review the course rules for the specific thesis they are examining. The type of thesis will be indicated in Inspire.

• Course rules for doctorates
• Course rules for masters.
  
  

Flinders University encourages students to publish their work. Publications benefit the student’s career and contribute to knowledge. Students may include publications completed during their candidature in their thesis if they follow the guidelines as set out in the HDR thesis rules.  However, our students are not required to publish their work in order to obtain an HDR.

We consider that a standard thesis is a different form of scholarship than academic publications.

• The quality of a standard thesis cannot be determined only by publications.
• A thesis must have a longer, sustained and integrated argument through the whole work.
• Theses often place more focus on the argument rather than the data.
• The criteria for assessing a thesis differs from the criteria of reviewing a publication. Please refer to the Flinders examiners report form to provide guidance on what a thesis should be assessed against.  

Publications:

• must contribute to the overall theme of the work and be conceptually linked to the chapters
• be formatted in the same way as the other chapters (except for reprints included as an appendix)
• appropriately referenced
• avoid unnecessary repetition.

Multi-author papers may be included within a thesis, provided:

• the student is the primary author
• there is a clear statement for each publication documenting the contribution of each author to the publication, from conceptualisation to realisation and documentation, in accordance with the Authorship of Research Output Procedures.

Examiners will be provided with a copy of co-authorship approval for student publications that are included in the main body of the thesis.

If a student is enrolled in a PhD by Prior Published Work, this will be highlighted in the student details in Inspire.

The PhD by Prior Published Work is only for individuals who have already generated a range of high-quality publications that form a substantial contribution to knowledge, that is, publications completed prior to the commencement of the degree.

The maximum duration of candidature is one year from approval of enrolment.

In addition to the relevant publications intended for examination, and all the items listed in Rules 3. to 5. in the HDR Thesis Rules, the thesis must include:

• A significant contextual statement (but not a detailed reworking of individual papers) with:
  • the aims underpinning the publications
  • the field of knowledge within current literature
  • how the publications are linked, and
  • a conclusion showing the overall significance of the work and contribution to knowledge, problems encountered and future directions of the work.
• A statement which indicates which portions of the published works are claimed to be original.

Multi-author publications may be included within a thesis, provided:

• the student is the major contributing author
• there is a clear statement for each publication documenting the contribution of each author to the publication, from conceptualisation to realisation and documentation, in accordance with the Authorship of Research Output Procedures, and
• each of the other authors provides permission for use of their work to be included in the co-authorship form.

Publications where the student is not the major contributing author may be included within a thesis if a clear justification for the publication’s inclusion is provided, including the circumstances relating to production of the publication and the student’s position in the list of authors. However, it is preferable to include such publications as appendices, rather than in the main body of the thesis.

For more information about the PhD by prior published work refer to the Course Information Page.

Please read the additional information if you are reviewing a thesis with an artefact and exegesis.

A Cotutelle Degree refers to a doctoral degree program that is undertaken jointly at Flinders University and an international higher education institution. If students are managed under a Cotutelle agreement this will be highlighted in the student details in Inspire.

The examination process may vary for students enrolled in Cotutelle degrees. Examiners will be notified if there are any changes to the standard Flinders University process.

All theses submitted for examination must have a high standard of presentation. Students are required to adhere to Flinders HDR thesis rules when laying out their thesis. 

Students are permitted to use the services of a professional editor for formatting, grammar and style only. Students are encouraged to acknowledge the editor’s assistance in the thesis.

The following word limits are provided as guidelines to students:

* Exegesis must have a min word count of 15,000 for the Masters and 40,000 for the PhD.  The word count does not  include the artefact.

Flinders University examination rules permit a student to submit the thesis to examiners, even if this is against the advice of the supervisor.

Examiners will not be informed at any stage whether the thesis submission was supported by the supervisor. 

1. After reviewing the thesis, please login to Inspire.
2. On your home page, you will see Forms for Attention.
3. Please click on the examiners report form to complete your recommendation.

You will be required to upload a written commentary on the thesis, provide an assessment of the thesis against an academic framework and recommend a grade.

Results will be released to student after we have received both examiners' reports. The next stage of the examination process depends on the combination of examiners' results.

Students who receive any combination of A, B, C will be required to make amendments to their thesis based on the examiners' recommendations. Amendments to the thesis must be approved by the supervisor, the college HDR coordinator and the Dean of Graduate Research.

Students who are required to revise and resubmit their thesis will be re-enrolled in their degree, make amendments to improve their thesis and submit it for a second examination. Re-examination is only permitted once.

When examiner reports are significantly divergent the case will be referred to the University HDR Committee. The committee can make a determination on the grade or choose to engage a third examiner to provide additional expertise.

Students are required to submit a final electronic copy of their thesis to the library. There may be some theses that are embargoed for a period of time for various reasons, such as confidentiality or future publications.