Examiners' Reports

After years of hard work, including burning of the proverbial 'midnight oil', a PhD student submits a thesis and waits for the examiners' reports. Given that a doctoral degree can be a passport to an academic or research career, the future of that person may depend on those reports. So what does a typical report look like? Is there a particular format? Who monitors the quality of the reports? What are the common remarks made by examiners? Why require a report at all?

Ever since the first recorded awarding of a doctoral degree in 1150, some of the associated processes seem to have evolved but others have resisted change, e.g. a thesis may or may not be defended orally, but it is always examined by more than one person (Nobel, 1994, chap. 7). The fiercely independent nature of academia can show up in the way examiners write their reports. In an analysis of examiners' reports at an Australian university, Johnston (1997) found this variation in the nature of recommendations, style, length and layout. She suggests that the differences may be due to inconsistent interpretation of guidelines provided to examiners. Since UWA has a standard form for PhD examiners' recommendations, and provides general guidelines for their reports, could we expect similar findings at this university?

The two common types of comments made by examiners about theses are those about the scholarly aspects and those about the 'communication' aspects, particularly the technicalities of language (Johnston, 1997). The former is an important part of the thesis assessment. How important is the latter?

The purpose of thesis examination and the examiner's report is to substantiate the university's action relating to awarding of a degree. Could this assessment be used more effectively to assist the student's on going development as a researcher?

• Johnston, S. (1997). Examining the Examiners: An analysis of examiners' reports on doctoral theses. Studies in Higher Education, 22(3), 333-347.
• Nobel, K.A. (1994). Changing Doctoral Degrees: An international perspective. Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press.