Student Records and Exams

Contact Info

Student Records and Examinations Division
Student Guidance Centre
University Road
Belfast
BT7 1NN
Tel: 02890 97 2727
Fax: 02890 97 2828
Email: s.records@qub.ac.uk

Submitting your Thesis

Notification to Your School

You must notify your School Office, well in advance of submitting your thesis, specifying the exact title of your thesis. This is the title under which you will be submitting. If there is any change in your title before you submit, the new title must be approved by your School Office. This should all be done before 1 February for Summer graduation and before 1 May for December graduation.

Submission Dates for Soft Bound Thesis

Your thesis should be submitted not later than the following dates:

  • For December Graduation: 15 September
  • For Summer Graduation: 1 May

Submitting of Soft Bound Thesis

Candidates presenting a thesis for a higher degree shall firstly submit soft bound copies to Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations. These copies can be bound in either spiral or soft binding. The numbers of copies required are normally 2 for PhD, MD and MPhil, and 3 for Higher Doctorates. The title of the thesis should be the title as approved by the School Postgraduate Research Committee. Every thesis submitted for a degree, diploma, exhibition or prize in the University shall include a statement from the candidate giving a list of authorities consulted in its composition and a brief summary of the work contained in the thesis. Theses are then forwarded to the internal and external examiners, by Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations, along with the completed submission forms (see below).

Submission Forms for Submitting along with Soft Bounds

Before you submit your soft bound thesis to Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations submission forms must be completed. These forms must be submitted with your thesis; it cannot be sent to your examiners until they have all been received fully completed. The forms are as follows:

  • Application Form
  • Summary Forms, 2 copies
  • Agreement Form
  • Declaration Form

The Agreement Form should be completed for all theses except for Masters theses. Sections 11 & 12 of the Agreement Form are not to be completed.

Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations when dispatching the thesis for examination to the examiners shall send a copy of the summary and declaration forms submitted by the candidate.

Length of the Thesis

PhD and MD theses must not normally exceed 80,000 words (excluding appendices and the bibliography). MPhil theses must not normally exceed 50,000 words (excluding appendices and the bibliography). Where a thesis has a significant content of graphs, diagrams, scientific formulae, etc, a page limit will apply instead of the word limit; for PhD and MD theses this limit is 400 single-sided A4 pages, for MPhil theses it is 250 single-sided A4 pages.

Text and Layout of the Thesis

The first page of the thesis must include the following:

  • Author’s full names
  • Degrees held by the author
  • Title of Thesis (as approved by the School Postgraduate Research Committee)
  • Degree for which it is offered
  • School to which it pertains
  • Date

Must be printed on good quality paper, size A4, single sided. The minimum margins should be a left margin of 4cm (to allow for binding) and right, top and bottom margins of 2½ cm. The pages and illustrations must be numbered consecutively. The text may be presented in either one-and-a-half or double-line spacing on single sided pages.

Declaration Form

A candidate shall also supply at the time of presentation of the thesis a signed statement (declaration form) stating that:

  1. the thesis is not one for which a degree has been or will be conferred by any other university or institution;
  2. the thesis is not one for which a degree has already been conferred by this university;
  3. the work of the thesis is the candidate’s own and that, where material submitted by the candidate for another degree or work undertaken by the candidate as part of a research group has been incorporated into the thesis, the extent of the work thus incorporated has been clearly indicated;
  4. the composition of the thesis is the candidate’s own work.

Language of Thesis

Regulations regarding the language in which a thesis may be presented are as follows:

Application may be made to write a thesis in another language other than English where the language is relevant to the subject of the research. Application for permission should be made upon first registration to the School Postgraduate Research Committee.

When permission is given the summary forms, the abstract of the thesis, and its title must be given in English as well as the other approved language.

Presentation of Successful Thesis - Hard Bound Copies

Where the examiners recommend the award of a degree and before the result is officially posted, the candidate shall submit two hard bound copies of the thesis to Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations. Presentation is the same as for soft bound copies, with modifications made where applicable.

They should be in the manner of a book and include a Library Form (supplied by Student Administrative Services and Systems – Student Records & Examinations) certified by the internal examiner as containing all corrections required by the examiners. The Library Form should be bound into the front of each of the hard bound copies.

The final version of the thesis must have the candidate’s name, year, and degree printed on the spine. The pages should be single sided in either one-and-a-half or double-line spacing.

Student Records will then deposit one copy with the University Library and one with the relevant School/Department. The Library copy will be made available to readers under such regulations as may be made for this purpose by the Library Committee.

General

All copies of theses presented whether or not adjudged by the examiners to deserve the degree shall remain the property of the University. Every candidate presenting a thesis may be required by the examiners to submit to an oral examination on the subject of the thesis.

Further Information

Any further information relating to the presentation of your thesis may be obtained from your supervisor, department or by referring to previous theses in the University Library. Information is also given in the Postgraduate Research Student Handbook, available in the online Institutional Code of Practice on the Postgraduate Office website.