PhD Submission Procedures

1. Set a date and time for your oral examination.  All members of your supervisory committee must be available on the day of your exam. Use the submission deadlines page to determine your timeline, and schedule your examination as early as possible to ensure that the maximum number of participants can attend in person.
   
   The external examiner can attend via videoconference. However, only one other participant (you or your law supervisor) can attend via videoconference. This is not recommended and is possible only under exceptional circumstances and with special permission from the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
   
   
2. Review the guidelines for appointing external examiners and submit a list of three external examiner nominees and your agreed upon exam date and time to our graduate program coordinator.   All members of your supervisory commitee must sign off on the list of nominees, the proposed examination date, and agree that your full draft of the dissertation will be examinable within four weeks.  Let the graduate assistant know if video-conferencing is required for the oral examination. They’ll book a suitable room for the examination.
   
   Do not approach any of the nominees directly. The director will contact the external examiner on your behalf and confirm their availability to attend the examination on the specified date and time.
   
   This external examiner nominees form is due no later than eleven weeks prior to your chosen exam date and time, to allow four weeks before your ROE submission and another 32 business days before your exam.
   
   
3. Submit an application to graduate. To do this, you must log in to your My Page account, navigate to your 'Graduation' tab, complete the application and submit online. This will let the Graduate Admissions and Records office know you’re preparing to complete your dissertation. The graduation fee will be applied directly to your tuition account. Application deadlines are:
   
   July 15 (for November convocation)
   November 15 (for June convocation and those completing in December)
   February 15 (for June convocation and those completing in April)
   
   At this time, also pre-register for a UVicSpace account for digital submission of your final dissertation.
4. Submit final draft dissertation to all members of your supervisory committee for review and approval. Include the title page, supervisory committee page, and abstract page (the abstract should not exceed 150 words). This copy should be letter-perfect: revised, proof-read, grammatical, and with citations in proper form. You must confirm that it meets UVic's thesis and dissertation guidelines and it may be easiest to use the UVic thesis template.  All interviews must be completed and signed off before the examination. If any further revisions are requested by supervisory committee, incorporate those changes and then provide all members of supervisory committee with a copy of the final exam-ready dissertation.
   
   
5. Once you have received approvals from each member of your supervisory committee that your dissertation is ready for examination, submit a .pdf copy of your dissertation to the Graduate Program Coordinator. You cannot make changes to your dissertation after submitting it for examination.
   
   
6. Send the Graduate Program Coordinator the most recent copy of your human research ethics approval or waiver certificate(s) – if applicable.
   
   
7. Once your external examiner has been confirmed, the Graduate Program Coordinator will send you the following forms.  Complete and submit them to the Graduate Program Coordinator no less than 32 working days prior to the oral examination:
   • Request for oral examination form — signed by your entire supervisory committee
   • Thesis/dissertation withholding form — if you wish to publish all or parts of your dissertation elsewhere. It must be complete with signatures from you, your law supervisor and the graduate program director.
8. The Graduate Program Coordinator will obtain:
   • External examiner’s CV – obtained by the graduate assistant. Do not contact the external examiner directly.
   • Confirmation of arm’s length status form — completed and signed by your law supervisor.
     
     
9. Oral examination - The graduate assistant will provide your supervisor with a thesis/dissertation approval form to bring to the oral examination. Signatures of all committee members and the external examiner will be obtained at the time of the oral examination by the chair, and the graduate program coordinator will collect any required electronic copies after the pages have been returned.
   
   
10. If the dissertation has been approved, or approved with edits, discuss any recommendations made by the external examiner with your supervisory committee and complete as required.
    
    
11. When any applicable changes are approved by all members of your supervisory committee, forward an approval email from your supervisor to the graduate assistant.  The graduate program coordinator will then collect remaining signatures for your thesis/dissertation approval form and the Letter of Recommendation from the Faculty of Law, and forward them to the Graduate Admissions and Records Office. GARO will then open your UVicSpace account.
    
    
12. Submit your entire dissertation (as a PDF) to UVicSpace for confirmation that your formatting is correct (allow three business days).