Examination outcome

Process following the viva (oral examination) for the PhD, BusD, EdD, MD, VetMD, MSc, MLitt, MPhil by Thesis degrees

1. Examination report submission.  Your examiners produce a joint report and make a recommendation on the outcome of your examination, which they submit with their independent pre-viva reports to your Degree Committee.

2. Degree Committee consideration.  Your Degree Committee consider the reports at their next available meeting and make a decision or a recommendation on the outcome of your examination. Degree Committee and Postgraduate Committee meeting dates can be found here.

3. Notification of the examination outcome

• For PhD, BusD, EdD, MD, VetMD, MSc, MLitt students:

The Degree Committee submit their decision/recommendation and the examiners’ reports to the Student Registry. The official result of your examination can be confirmed only by the Postgraduate Committee or by the Student Registry acting on its behalf. With the exception of award of a lower degree or outright failure outcomes, the Student Registry will email formal notification of the result and the examiners’ reports to you as soon as possible, copying in your Supervisor, Degree Committee, and College.

If the outcome of a doctoral examination is to award a lower degree or outright failure, the Degree Committee’s recommendation will be considered by the Postgraduate Committee at their next available meeting. The Postgraduate Committee will make a decision on the outcome of your examination and will email formal notification of the result and the examiners’ reports to you, copying in your Supervisor, Degree Committee, and College.

• For MPhil by thesis students:

The official result of your examination is confirmed by your Degree Committee. Your Degree Committee will email formal notification of the result and the examiners’ reports to you, copying in your Supervisor and College.

4. Next actions. The steps to follow for each examination outcome are detailed below.

Outcome: Approval

For doctoral degrees, unconditional approval will be subject to submission of hardbound and electronic copies of the thesis within a specified timeframe.

See information on degree approval and conferment. Note that doctoral students are not entitled to use the title ‘Dr’ until their degree has been conferred at a congregation (graduation ceremony) or in absentia.

Outcome: Minor or Major corrections

Making required corrections to a thesis after examination

The formal decision email will state if you are required to make corrections to your thesis. Your examiners may also have discussed expected changes with you during your viva and/or given you a list of corrections directly, but they are not obliged to do so.

You should read the examiners’ reports carefully. You are expected to make all the corrections required by your examiners. If any change has been suggested, rather than required, you should indicate the extent to which you have taken account of the suggestion in the list of corrections you made. You may find it helpful to track changes when correcting your thesis so the examiner(s) can see the changes you have made, as well as producing a clean version of the corrected thesis.

You may discuss with your supervisor the required corrections and how you plan to address them. If you require clarification on a specific correction requirement, you can either ask your supervisor for advice or ask your supervisor or department Director of Postgraduate Education to seek clarity from the examiner(s) on your behalf. You should not contact the examiner(s) directly for advice.

Permission to work away is required for full-time students who wish to complete their corrections outside of Cambridge.

Deadline for submitting a corrected thesis

The timeframe to correct your thesis starts from the date of the email formally confirming the outcome of your examination. The time allowed is the same for candidates who conducted their research on a full-time or a part-time basis.

You are expected to diligently make the corrections required and submit your corrected thesis by the deadline. If you are unable to complete the required corrections by your deadline for a valid reason you may apply for an extension through your CamSIS self-service.

If you do not submit your corrected thesis by your given deadline, and you have not been formally granted an extension or have an extension application under consideration in CamSIS, you will be withdrawn from study. You would need to apply for formal approval to be reinstated to submit a corrected thesis. Reinstatement is not guaranteed and applications for reinstatement are time-limited.

If you require a visa to return to the UK please contact the International Student Office as early as possible (international.students@admin.cam.ac.uk). You must not return to complete corrections on a general visitor visa.

Submitting the corrected thesis

• You should check your examiners’ joint report to see if your corrections should be submitted to your Internal Examiner, the External Examiner, or both examiners.
• Create a separate list of the corrections for the convenience of your examiner(s). The list should describe precisely how the earlier text has been amended - with page, paragraph and line references of the location of each change. The list should be in page order and cite the original and new page number.
• Email an electronic copy of your corrected thesis and the list of corrections made to your examiner(s). For doctoral, MSc and MLitt degrees, please copy this email to both your Degree Committee and studentrecords@offices.admin.cam.ac.uk so that Student Registry can update your record.
• You must not submit a corrected thesis to your examiners if your deadline has passed and you are withdrawn from study.

For doctoral students, a brief overview of the corrections process is shown on this corrections map.

Consideration of the corrected thesis

Your examiner(s) will check that all the required corrections have been made and that your corrected thesis satisfies the requirements for award of the degree.

Satisfactory completion of corrections

Your examiner(s) report to your Degree Committee that your corrected thesis is satisfactory. Once your examiner(s) have approved your corrections, it will not be possible to make any further corrections to your thesis - this includes typographical corrections and amendments to the thesis title or any text including preliminary sections and acknowledgements.

For doctoral, MSc, and MLitt degrees, your Degree Committee notify the Student Registry when the conditions for approval for award of the degree are met. Confirmation of approval for award of the degree will be formally notified to you by email by the Student Registry. For the MPhil by thesis your Degree Committee will officially confirm the result.

For doctoral degrees, unconditional approval will be subject to submission of hardbound and electronic copies of the thesis within a specified timeframe.

See information on submitting your final hardbound and e-thesis (doctoral students only) and degree approval and conferment. Note that doctoral students are not entitled to use the title ‘Dr’ until their degree has been conferred at a congregation (graduation ceremony) or in absentia.

Unsatisfactory completion of corrections

If your corrected thesis does not satisfy the examiner(s) you should address the outstanding requirements and submit an updated corrected thesis to your examiners by your deadline. You are not automatically granted any additional time to correct your thesis if your first attempt is unsatisfactory. You may apply for an extension to your submission deadline through your CamSIS self-service if you need more time for a valid reason. If you do not submit your updated corrected thesis by your given deadline and you have not been formally granted an extension or have an extension application under consideration in CamSIS, you will be withdrawn from study. You would need to apply for formal approval to be reinstated to submit a revised thesis. Reinstatement is not guaranteed and applications for reinstatement are time limited.

You should take care to fully address the required corrections and seek advice from your supervisor or department Director of Postgraduate Education if you require clarification on a specific correction requirement.

With effect for candidates with a thesis (or revised thesis) submission deadline on or after 1 January 2026, a maximum of three attempts at correcting the thesis will be permitted. If your examiner(s) are unable to confirm the corrected thesis is satisfactory, the examiners will recommend to the Degree Committee either: a) consideration for award of an MSc or MLitt degree (doctoral candidates only); or b) no degree is awarded. The Degree Committee, on good cause, has the discretion to grant one further correction attempt before making a final recommendation. The Postgraduate Committee consider the Degree Committee’s recommendation, make a final decision on the outcome of your examination, and will email formal notification of the outcome to you, copying in your Degree Committee and College.

Outcome: Revise and Resubmit the thesis for further examination

The formal email notifying you of the outcome of your examination will state if you are required to revise and resubmit your thesis for further examination.

You should read the examiners’ reports carefully. You may discuss with your supervisor how you plan to revise your thesis. If you require clarification on a specific requirement, you can either ask your supervisor for advice or ask your supervisor or department Director of Postgraduate Education to seek clarity from the examiner(s) on your behalf. You should not contact the examiner(s) directly for advice.

Permission to work away is required for full-time students who wish to revise their thesis outside of Cambridge.

Deadline for submitting a revised thesis

The timeframe to revise your thesis starts from the date of the email formally confirming the outcome of your examination. The time allowed is the same for candidates who conducted their research on a full-time or a part-time basis. If you are unable to complete the required revision by your deadline for a valid reason you may apply for an extension through your CamSIS self-service.

If you do not submit your revised thesis by your given deadline, and you have not been formally granted an extension or have an extension application under consideration in CamSIS, you will be withdrawn from study. You would need to apply for formal approval to be reinstated to submit a revised thesis. Reinstatement is not guaranteed and applications for reinstatement are time-limited.

If you require a visa to return to the UK to make your revisions, please contact the International Student Office as early as possible (international.students@admin.cam.ac.uk). You must not return to revise your thesis or undertake a viva on a general visitor visa.

Submitting the revised thesis

You should give your Degree Committee advance notice of your intended date of submission so they can start making plans for examination.

You should submit your revised thesis to your Degree Committee, along with all the submission paperwork, in the same way as for the original submission. See submission information for doctoral, MSc and MLitt degrees or the MPhil by thesis.

You must not submit your revised thesis directly to your examiners.

Examination of the revised thesis

Normally the same examiners will examine the revised thesis, but in some cases the Degree Committee may appoint new examiner(s). If the same examiners are appointed, they will decide whether or not a second viva should be held. If one or both of the Examiners did not previously examine the thesis on its first submission another viva must be held.

The examination outcomes available to the examiners are the same for the original examination, except the recommendation to revise and resubmit the thesis is not permitted.