Final viva and thesis submission

Between twelve and three months prior to your viva, your Director of Studies must submit an EX1 (Doc) form to the College Research Degrees Committee (FRDC) proposing your examiners (please check paper deadline dates of the next RDC). The EX1 form is created so that your internal and external examiners can be approved as well as your thesis title (the thesis title that appears on the EX1 cannot be changed once it is approved).

You will need to complete some parts of the EX1 yourself, such as personal details. Some parts, such as the names of the internal and external examiner, will need to be completed by your Director of Studies. Appended to your EX1 form should be an EXCV (Doc) for each proposed examiner, again, this is something that your Director of Studies will arrange.

See the final submission section of the Doctoral Academy Handbook for information on the format of the thesis.

An application can be made for parts of the thesis, and very exceptionally all of it, may be presented in other formats such as CD-ROM or using page sizes other than A4, where it can be demonstrated that the contents can be better expressed in that form and are capable of being assessed.

An application to submit a thesis in another format must be made to the PGR Assessment Manager via the email address research.degrees@uwe.ac.uk on the form RD20 (Doc) for consideration by the Research Degrees Award Board as early as possible in the students enrolment, and must have the support of your Director of Studies.

See the final submission and final examination sections of the Doctoral Academy Handbook for information on presenting parts of the thesis in other formats.

Do not submit your thesis for examination if you have used images, diagrams or large amounts of text that have been produced by another person unless you have permission to do so.

Further information on depositing your thesis and copyright can be found via how to deposit your research.

The thesis title on the submitted version must be the title that has been approved on your EX1 form; if different, this may cause a delay in the process.

You are required to submit an electronic copy of your soft bound thesis to the University's Research Repository and each time you amend your thesis during the assessment phase. Your thesis will be held on a closed access basis until you have completed your degree, when it will be replaced by the final version of your thesis. The electronic soft bound copy will be used to facilitate examination processes, and will be accessible only by designated members of University staff and examiners. Please see detailed guidance on how to deposit your research. You will also need to read, sign and return form RD14 (Doc) 'Initial submission declaration' at the same time as your soft bound thesis is submitted for examination.

Your Director of Studies will be notified when the internal and external examiners have been approved, and will then contact you and the examiners to arrange the date of the viva. You will be required to attend your viva in person. If you have any queries about the date of your viva, please do not hesitate to contact your Director of Studies or the Doctoral Academy Hub.

Once you have been notified of the outcome of your viva and have fulfilled all requirements that the examiners requested and these have been approved, the PGR Assessment Team will write to you regarding the submission of the final thesis. The final version of your thesis must be deposited on the UWE Bristol Research Repository and be ready to be made public. This includes all Copyright Law issues being addressed. You will also need to submit a completed and signed final thesis deposition candidate declaration form (RD15 sent to you by the PGR Assessment Team) to the PGR Assessment Team at research.degrees@uwe.ac.uk.

Please note that there is no longer a university requirement to submit a hard bound copy of your final thesis.