Nomination of examiners
Information on the nomination of examiners process.
Once you have submitted your 'Notice of intention to submit forms' to the IGS, the official Nomination of Examiners process can begin.
The College PGR Administration team are responsible for approving all PGR examiners / examination teams. No PGR viva/examination should take place until the College Office have formally approved the examiners/examination team and the examiners have formally received a copy of your thesis from the College Office.
College Academic Affairs Sharepoint
Following submission of your Notice of Intention to Submit (NITS) forms, the College Office will send an email to the Informatics Graduate School asking them to begin the Nomination of Examiners process.
The Informatics Graduate School will then contact your Principal Supervisor asking them to nominate suitable examiners to examine your thesis.
Nominations are subject to the approval of both the Deputy Director of Graduate School and the College Office and this process can take one or two months.
At least two examiners are appointed for each candidate; one internal examiner and one external examiner. If you have been or are currently a member of staff at the University during the time of your Research degree you may be required to have one internal examiner and two external examiners; you should discuss this with your supervisor.
Students may volunteer names of possible Examiners, and should inform the Principal Supervisor of any problems that might arise should a particular examiner be appointed. However, students have no right to play any part in the final choice, and therefore no right to veto any particular appointment. The University of Edinburgh places great emphasis on maintaining the academic integrity of the examination procedures.
For this reason:
- External Examiners should be of recognised eminence in the subject matter of the thesis;
- all Examiners are expected to provide an impartial assessment of the submitted work;
- anyone who has been a member of staff, held an honorary or part-time appointment or been a student of the University at any time during the previous four years may not act as an External Examiner;
- anyone directly involved in the candidate’s work towards the thesis may not be an Examiner (e.g. anyone who has been a supervisor to the student during their research programme);
- potential professional or personal conflicts of interest should be considered; and
- if the student has previously been employed by the University then two External Examiners may be required. Each students circumstances will be looked at individually so please contact IGS for further advice on this. There is no requirement for students who are or have only been tutors or demonstrators (or have undertaken similar roles) to have two external examiners.
- The College must appoint a Non-Examining Chair if the Internal Examiner is acting for the first time, or is a member of honorary staff.
Other regulations or restrictions may also apply and guidance should be sought from the Graduate School Office if the appointment of any examiner is likely to give rise to any issues affecting the examination process.
The Principal Supervisor must submit the NoE form to the Informatics Graduate School (igs@inf.ed.ac.uk).
The Principal Supervisor should inform the student about the choice of examiners and if the student has any concerns regarding the selected examiners, they can discuss them with the Deputy Director of IGS.
The examination team will then be considered, and if appropriate, approved by the Deputy Director of IGS.
Once School approval has been given, the IGS team will submit the NoE form to the College Office.
The College Office will give the final approval of the nominated examination team.
If the College Office have any issues/concerns about the nominated examiners, they will raise them with the Principal Supervisor via the IGS. On rare occasions, it may be necessary for the Principal Supervisor to nominated a different examiner.
The College Office will confirm final approval to the IGS team, who will then share this with the Principal Supervisor.
The College Office will then send a copy of your thesis to the approved examiners.
Your oral examination must not be organised until your examiners have officially received a copy of your thesis and the examination paperwork from the College Office. This benefits you as it gives the examiners suitable time to read and preliminarily examine your thesis before the viva; examiners must complete a report form before your viva. Please read the Examination Process page for more information:
Useful Links
Postgraduate Assessment Regulations for Research Degrees