Masters Thesis

Getting to Defense

A Guide to the Final Stages of Thesis Writing

You’ve worked hard, you’ve read a lot, you’ve written like mad, and now you have the first draft of your thesis.  Congratulations!  What next?

Application for Graduation:

Students must apply to graduate  In order to have their application for graduation go forward for conferral of degrees, all requirements for the degree must be met by the end of the previous month. For example, if Executive of Council meets on September 22, all requirements for the degree must be met by August 31.

Although degrees are awarded every month, diplomas are distributed at the formal convocation ceremonies held in the Spring and Fall. Students who are unable to attend a formal convocation ceremony to receive their diploma can request early release of the parchment by completing the Early Release of Parchment form  and submitting it, along with the required fee, to the Registrar’s Office. There is no charge for diplomas handed out at ceremonies.

You should complete your application for graduation at the start of the semester in which you plan to defend your thesis.  If you have not completed the program requirements by the end of that semester, including defending the thesis and completing any required revisions before final submission, you must re-apply the following semester in order to graduate.

Spring Convocation

January 31^st: Students who apply for graduation by January 31st and have successfully completed all of their program requirements* by April 30th are eligible to attend Spring Convocation.

March 31^st: Thesis–based students: Submission of final corrected copies (electronic) for Library Approval following the thesis defense must be in the FGSR office no later than 4:00 p.m. on March 31st and should have had their Application for Graduation submitted by the January 31st deadline.

Fall Convocation

July 31^st: Students who apply by July 31st and have successfully completed all of their program requirements* by August 31st are eligible to attend Fall Convocation.

July 31st: Thesis–based students: Submission of final corrected copies (electronic) for Library Approval must be in the FGSR office no later than 4:00 p.m. on July 31st. Students should submit their Application for Graduation at this time, if they have not already done so.

You can see, then, that submitting the ready-to-defend thesis to FGSR by March 16 or July 13 gives you little time to allow the external to read the thesis, get their report to FGSR, and schedule a defense, while leaving the student ample time to undertake revisions.  It might help to know that there are two issues behind these deadlines.  Students must be registered in the term when they defend.  As well, students only have 5 years to complete their work, and they may not be eligible for an extension.  In these two cases, the mid-March and mid-July dates will do, though the student in all likelihood will not convocate, unless a date has already been agreed upon and there are few or no corrections to the thesis.  If the student wants to convocate, you need to get the process moving by early March or early July at the latest.

Deadlines:

Keep in mind that FGSR requires the student to submit the ready-to-defend thesis six weeks prior to the last day of the specific semester they hope to finish in.  Also keep in mind that there is a second deadline for revisions.  Students hoping to graduate in the spring must have the corrected thesis copies to FGSR no later than 4 p.m. March 31.  Students hoping to convocate in the fall must submit the corrected thesis to FGSR by July 31.

Formatting:

The Department of English requires that the thesis use recent MLA style for notes and the List of Works Cited.  In addition, the thesis must conform to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research’s guidelines for thesis preparation, available here:

http://www.uregina.ca/gradstudies/thesis-defense/thesis/thesis-procedures/guide-thesis-preparation.html

Review by the Committee:

Typically, the student and supervisor will consult with the rest of the committee either on a chapter-by-chapter basis, or once a full draft of the thesis has been completed. Many committees prefer to wait until the manuscript of the thesis is complete, but there are good reasons to consult the committee earlier, for example if a member of the committee provides special expertise that the supervisor lacks.

In any event, once the manuscript is complete, the committee must be consulted, and it is usual to allow a month for the committee to review the complete manuscript, especially if the readers have not seen any part of the thesis in advance.  Once the revisions suggested by the committee have been reviewed and acted on by the student in consultation with the supervisor, then the revised thesis is re-submitted to the committee for review of the changes. 

If the committee members are all satisfied with the thesis, you are ready to submit!

Selecting an External Examiner:

It is important to follow FGSR’s guidelines for the selection of an external examiner:

http://www.uregina.ca/gradstudies/thesis-defense/defense/selection-external-examiners.html

If the student is planning to submit near the end of a semester, the supervisor should line up an external well in advance.  If you wait until the end of term approaches, many candidates for external will already be too busy to be available. You also need to keep in mind that the external must be given at least two weeks to read an M.A. thesis.  It’s usually appropriate to contact a potential examiner about the time that a complete draft of the thesis is being sent to the committee for the first time.  Don’t forget to make it clear that we cannot bring external examiners to Regina for the defense, but that we will pay the expenses of teleconferencing or Skyping in an examiner from elsewhere.

It’s also a good idea at this point to get the external and the committee to commit to a couple of likely dates for the defense, or at least to pitch a likely time.  Keep in mind that once you have confirmed an external examiner, neither the supervisor nor the student may consult with this person; it’s at this point that pre-arranged dates become important. 

Submission of the Thesis:

If the committee approves the thesis/project/exhibition, the members sign the release form (see below) and the completed, approved, correctly formatted thesis may be submitted to FGSR in hard copy as follows:

a) One hard copy of the thesis to FGSR and one hard copy to the Graduate Co-ordinator, along with one electronic copy to the Graduate Co-ordinator, who will ensure that the chair of the defense and the external examiner get the thesis.

b) Thesis Committee Release Form  prepared by the supervisor and signed by all committee members agreeing to the acceptability of the thesis to go to defense and by the Graduate Co-ordinator.  

c) Nomination Form: External Examiner , prepared by the supervisor and signed by the Graduate Co-ordinator.  Note that a current CV is required for nominees who are not accredited members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (see above, “Selecting an External Examiner”). 

d) Checklist for the Submission of a Thesis   prepared by the candidate and signed by the Graduate Co-ordinator.

e) Registration Form   prepared by the candidate.  Candidates must be registered in order to facilitate the submission of the thesis and in the semester the defense takes place.

If additional forms are necessary, such as Ethics Approval or Request for Confidentiality of a Thesis, it is the responsibility of the student and supervisor to determine this and to obtain the forms from FGSR.  Such additional forms are almost never required for a thesis in the Department of English.

Preparation for Defense:

First, FGSR will review the submitted thesis and determine if it is acceptable for the external examiner.  This typically only takes a couple of days, and then FGSR will notify the Graduate Co-ordinator and the Supervisor that the thesis may be sent to the External Examiner.  Typically the examiner will be satisfied with an electronic copy sent by email, but they should also be offered a hard copy. 

Second, the External Examiner will review the thesis and determine if it is acceptable for defense.  FGSR will contact the examiner with the forms for reporting on the thesis, and the examiner will return the forms directly to FGSR. 

If the thesis is judged acceptable, the External Examiner notifies FGSR, and FGSR notifies the Graduate Co-ordinator and your supervisor to arrange a defense date.

The Department arranges a Chair for the defense, who must be a faculty member external to the Department of English, and co-ordinates a date for the defense. Your academic unit will also complete the Notice of Oral Defense of Thesis form (205 KB)  which states the date, time, and place of your defense as well as the title of your thesis. The Notice of Oral Defense form must be submitted to FGSR, to the Associate Dean of Arts (Research and Graduate Studies), to the Head of English, and to the supervisor and the student.  A copy should be posted in Department. 

FGSR will then forward instructions to the Chair of the defense.

Master’s Defense Procedures

• For a Master’s defense to be held, the following must attend in person: 
  • Chair
  • Candidate* (In extenuating circumstances, the Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) may approve a remote oral examination for the candidate.  A recommendation from the academic unit for a remote defense is to be sought in advance. Guidelines for remote oral examinations are available).
  • Supervisor or one co-supervisor
  • At least one member (other than a co-supervisor) of the committee who has signed off on the acceptability of the thesis for defense.
  • External Examiner** (* **External Examiners may participate remotely via tele and/or video conferencing).

• The supervisor and the student must be present in person for the defense to take place.  At least two members of the committee (including the supervisor) must be present, but the remaining members may attend remotely or submit questions to the Defense Chair in advance. 

• Individuals not on the examining committee are welcome, including members of the candidate’s family, but the Chair may limit the number.  In extraordinary circumstances the candidate may petition the Chair for a closed defense or to restrict particular individuals from attending.

• The Chair introduces the candidate and all members of the Examining Committee, including the external examiner, and outlines the examination procedures. 

• The candidate will provide a brief overview of the research for approximately 15 minutes, concerning the highlights of the research, as well as findings and conclusions. No questions are allowed at this time.  The candidate may wish to use audio-visual aids for this presentation, and if so a digital copy of the presentation must be provided in advance to the external examiner or any member of the committee attending the defense remotely.

• The supervisor will be asked if the candidate has omitted any major points in the overview.

• The External Examiner, who is expected to undertake the longest single period of questioning, will begin the examination. This portion of the examination usually takes from 30 to 60 minutes. The External Examiner is expected to deal with major matters of importance to the thesis, leaving non-substantive matters such as concerns about style, typographical errors, spelling, etc. for the discussions after the defense.

• The other members of the examining committee then question the candidate, again focusing on the academic substance of the thesis. Often this first round of questioning goes well over an hour before the supervisor speaks.  The supervisor is the last examiner and often will not speak at all, especially if other members of the examining committee have taken up a great deal of time.  The Chair will ensure that a faculty seminar does not develop, although some discussion will be allowed to clarify points. Again, the examiners are to concern themselves with the content of the thesis, leaving concerns about style, etc., until later. After the first round of questioning is complete, the Chair will invite further questions.

• When the questioning is completed, the candidate and all individuals who are not members of the examining committee will leave the room. The candidate will wait nearby to be called to return to the room to be informed about the deliberations of the committee. The examining committee will discuss the thesis and its defense. The acceptability of the thesis and the defense are two different issues. The chair polls the committee, beginning with the external examiner, and asks:
  
  Whether the Thesis:
  - Passes without revision
  - Passes with revision
  - Must be rewritten by (date)
  
  Whether the Defense was:
  - Acceptable
  - Not Acceptable and must be repeated
  - Fails
• The External Examiner has the major vote in this decision; however, there must be agreement from the other members (not necessarily a majority) of the committee for any decision. The Chair pronounces the final decision after the discussion by the committee.

Note: If a title of any thesis is to be altered from the original thesis submitted for defense, then FGSR is to be notified. The Defense documents need to be corrected prior to sign-off. Library approval will be denied if titles are not identical to the Defense documents

The defense documents to be signed include the Certification of Thesis Work and the Permission to Use the Postgraduate Thesis. 

Post-Defense Procedures

Following the defense, the student may have access to the External Examiner's evaluation of the thesis in order to assist with any revisions required. 

After a successful defense, a student has until the end of the next semester to submit the final corrected copy electronically as a PDF to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research by e-mailing Grad.Defense@uregina.ca

If confirmation of format is not received within a week of submission, please contact the thesis and convocation officer by phone at 306-585-5378 or by e-mail at Grad.Defense@uregina.ca