T&L Centre and Web Resources

Resources from the Teaching & Learning Centre

Articles and chapters on thesis and dissertation assessment which might be of interest can be found in the following books.

• Cryer, P. (1996). The Research Student's Guide to Success. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Chapter 15, 'Coming to Terms with Originality in Research' explores a range of possibilities for originality in a research, discussing the difficulties faced by some examiners in assessing highly original research and possible consequences for the student.
• McCormack, C. (1994). Constructive and Supportive Postgraduate Supervision: A Guide for Supervisors. Canberra: Centre for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Scholarship, the University of Canberra. Pages 19-20 provide suggestions to assist supervisors in reading draft theses.
• Parry, S. and Hayden, M. (1994). Supervising Higher Degree Research Students: An Investigation of Practices across a Range of Academic Departments. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. The section 'Selecting Examiners' looks briefly at different departmental practices for selection of examiners.
• Zuber-Skerrit, O. (ed.) (1992). Starting Research - Supervision and Training. Brisbane: The Tertiary Education Institute, the University of Queensland. Chapter 7, 'The PhD - Assessing Quality at Different Stages of its Development' by Estelle Phillips, describes research carried out in the UK which endeavoured to 'better understand the nature of the PhD and the experience both of staff in assessing and students in meeting standards of quality which are implicit, but are rarely made explicit, in the process of submitting and evaluating a PhD thesis' (121).

Web Resources

• UWA PhD Examination Procedure: <http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/research/phd/exam.html>
• UWA Honours Working Party Report: <http://www.acs.uwa.edu.au/reg/internal/sec/hwprept.htm>. Published in June of this year, this report describes a review of practices associated with the awarding of first-class honours grades at UWA.