PhD external examiner - Steps, tips, and templates

How to choose a PhD external examiner: the steps. What you need to know. What to expect. Tried and true tips and templates.

I obtained my PhD in Digital Transformation and Innovation in April 2020 from the PhD in DTI uOttawa Program, School-EECS, Faculty of Engineering. I did my PhD thesis (titled Technoethics and sensemaking: Risk assessment and knowledge management of ethical hacking in a sociotechnical society) on the topic of ethical hacking sociotechnology (thesis advisory committee: uOttawa professors Rocci Luppicini, Liam Peyton, and Andre Vellino).

The following discussion emphasizes the University of Ottawa’s procedures for submitting a PhD thesis for evaluation (Academic Regulation II-7 Theses) but the explanation is generalized.

Step 1: Decide whether your dissertation is ready for submission
Step 2: Prepare a list of examiners
Step 3: Prepare your submission documents/package

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Step 1: Decide whether your dissertation is ready for submission

Submitting a PhD thesis or dissertation for evaluation is typically the last stage in a PhD program. “Before submitting the thesis for evaluation, the student must complete all other program requirements.”

At this point, in consultation with your academic supervisor(s), you’ve decided that you’ve completed the research project, i.e., your thesis (including data collection and analysis), and that your thesis is ready for evaluation by a thesis evaluation committee (a jury).

This is an important decision. Look at examples of completed theses in your field and preferably/if possible theses completed under the supervision of your thesis supervisor.

Keep in mind that during the thesis evaluation stage, you typically will not be enrolled in the PhD program, and the evaluation process can take months to complete.

Tip: if you’re 50/50 confident that the thesis will successfully pass the evaluation stage, you’re probably better off improving the quality of the thesis before deciding to go through with the submission. If you’re 75% or more confident that the thesis will pass the evaluation, you should probably go ahead with the submission.

The student must submit the completed thesis document in accordance with university regulations and the regulations of the student’s graduate program. The student is responsible for ensuring that the thesis meets the standards set by their university.

“When the thesis is submitted for evaluation, the thesis supervisor(s) must certify that they have examined the thesis, that it is ready to be sent to a jury for evaluation,” which is typically done through digital submission and supervisor approval on the university’s student online account (“Self-Service” in the “Student Centre” or such).

Tip: proceed with caution! As my former uOttawa PhD thesis advisory committee member and PhD thesis examiner at the University of Ottawa Professor Andre Vellino reminded me, academia is very political.

Step 2: Prepare a list of examiners

“A doctoral thesis will be evaluated by, and then defended in person before, a jury of no less than four, and no more than seven, examiners of whom at least one will be an external examiner who meets the requirements specified in this regulation.”

“The examiners are appointed by the dean (or delegate) of the student’s faculty (or equivalent). The person responsible for the program must ensure that potential examiners meet all University requirements and agree to evaluate the thesis and attend the oral defence in person. If the thesis supervisor(s) are invited to submit a list of potential examiners, the supervisor(s) must ensure that these individuals meet these requirements.”

At this point, in consultation with your supervisor, you need to decide on a jury list.

Tip: put together a list of potential PhD examiners and run it by your supervisor (example: List of examiners for the DTI uOttawa PhD thesis). Give extra suggestions. For example, if you think you should have four examiners altogether, suggest to your supervisor four internal examiners and two or three external examiners. The professors on your thesis advisory committee should probably be included in the list of examiners. Your supervisor cannot be an examiner.

Internal examiners must be authorized to supervise theses at the university, though an exception can be made/the dean (or delegate) of your faculty may permit an exception in certain cases (consult your university’s regulations).

What is an external examiner?

External examiners must be from outside your university. Think long and hard about whom to suggest as external examiner. They should be experts in the topic and field of your thesis. Further, they “must be at arms-length from the student and the thesis supervisor(s), and be in a position to examine the thesis independently and without any conflict of interest or reasonable apprehension of bias.”

In the “List of Examiners for the Evaluation of the Thesis” (more on this in a minute), you will need to suggest an extra name for the external examiner (but typically only the exact number of internal examiners).

So you will need two external examiners to agree to fulfill the external examiner role. You can “recruit” a PhD external examiner via email (example: Invitation for the role of external examiner for a PhD thesis at uOttawa).

“The dean (or delegate) of the faculty (or equivalent) offering the program reserves the right to refuse external examiners for reasons linked to possible or perceived conflicts of interest, or where these examiners are not deemed to be qualified or have the professional experience required to evaluate the thesis.”

Step 3: Prepare your submission documents/package

For a thesis submission for evaluation, you typically submit a package to the office responsible for organizing the evaluation and defence (typically through your academic unit, the graduate office) comprised of 1) paper copies of the thesis, one copy for each examiner and a copy for the chair of the defence, 2) the thesis in electronic format (in Word and pdf formats), and 3) the “List of Examiners for the Evaluation of the Thesis” form.

Typically, the “List of Examiners for the Evaluation of the Thesis” form must be filled out and duly signed and submitted to your academic unit (the graduate office) one month before the thesis is submitted for evaluation.

“Once the thesis has been submitted for evaluation, the student and the thesis supervisor(s) may not communicate with the examiners about the thesis evaluation until the thesis has been defended.”

There are three steps in the evaluation of a thesis: 1) the written evaluation, 2) the oral defence and, 3) the final submission. A failing grade, NS (unsatisfactory) or EIN (incomplete), may be assigned to each of these steps.

“If two grades of NS or EIN are assigned during the evaluation process, the student will be withdrawn from the program. The student will not be withdrawn from the program if only one mark of NS or EIN is assigned during the thesis evaluation.”

Does a PhD external examiner get paid?

Not typically. Not necessarily. But it varies from country to country and from university to university – What has been your experience on this issue? Tell us in the comment box below.

Before we part ways, you’re invited to read my letter to uOttawa President Jacques Frémont about how to easily implement policy reforms to prevent supervisor bullying of uOttawa students: uOttawa President Jacques Frémont ignores university bullying problem. You may also be interested in How to end supervisor bullying at uOttawa.

My PhD thesis submission email timeline DTI uOttawa

My PhD thesis completion timeline DTI uOttawa

My PhD thesis evaluation report (example for what examiners look for in a PhD thesis)

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The case study methodology

Back to MA/PhD Thesis Writing Resources (templates)