Thesis Pending Stage

Students who have completed their period of registered study as required by the regulations may
enter the thesis pending period. You are allowed up to one year (full-time students) or two years
(part-time students) in which to present your thesis for examination. This period is called the Thesis
Pending period (further details can be found in the Quality Manual).

Submitting your thesis

Before you submit your thesis to the Registry, you must have completed the Notification to Submit
form. This form and further details can be found in the Quality Manual Procedures for Assessment
section. This form must be completed by you and should include your signature and that of your
supervisor(s). This form should be submitted to the Research Office at least eight weeks prior to the
submission of your theses. This form acts as a trigger for the appointment of your examiners (external
and internal). A delay in submitting this form may result in a delay in the examination process.
Guidelines for the submission and formatting of your theses can also be found at this website.

Submission Pack
You should submit your theses and CD Rom in accordance with the submission pack (please see the
Submission Pack in the Quality Manual here.
The thesis must be the result of the student's own work. The requirement does not preclude a student
obtaining limited assistance with proof-reading and with the routine collection and/or processing of
data under guidelines and instructions clearly devised by the student. When such help is obtained it
should be with the prior approval of the supervisor who must be satisfied that the spirit of the 'own
work' requirement is not breached.

Academic Offences
Academic Offences statement

Word length of thesis

The thesis should be no more than 100,000 words in the case of a PhD or 60,000 words in the case of
MPhil (in both cases inclusive of appendices, footnotes, tables and bibliography) the University may
with hold from examination a thesis that exceeds these word limits. An EdD thesis should be a
minimum of 50,000 words (exclusive of appendices etc).

Examiners' Reports and the Viva Voce Examination

External Examiners' Reports:

Prior to the viva voce examination the external and internal examiner will complete an independent
report and this is submitted to the Registry. The viva voce will include questions designed to ascertain
that the thesis embodies the candidate's own research. It will test the candidate's general
comprehension of the field of study within which the subject of the thesis falls. It will test the
candidate's acquaintance with the general literature of the subject, knowledge of the relation of the
work to the wider field of which it is a part, and the respects in which the work advances, modifies, or
otherwise affects this wider field of scholarship. Find out further information relating to the
assessment procedure.
Following the Viva Voce examination the External and Internal examiners will submit a joint report to
the Registry. The Registry is responsible for writing to student's with the result of the viva. A copy of
the independent and joint reports will be sent to the student. The supervisor can sit in on the viva
voce examination. However, this is only allowed if all parties are agreed.

Viva Voce Examinations

Referencing
When writing your thesis you will often make a direct or indirect reference to a book, article or other
publication. Every reference should be acknowledged. The referencing format favoured within the
School of Education is the Harvard System because, unlike systems involving numbering, it is not
affected by altering the text.
You may also find it useful to see the information about using Endnote for referencing on
our Libraries website. See here for information on plagiarism and Turnitin UK.
Endnote can be purchased from www.endnote.com. Alternatively there is a free version available here.

Bookbinders
The University provides a variety of printing services through the Student Union Print Shop, including
bookbinding.
You may also use any specialist bookbinder local to you, but you may find the following binders of
help:

 Final Touch 8 Alyth Court , Nottingham NG6 OFR (0115 9706062)

 Libris Book Binders, 173 Stanley Road , Forest Fields, Nottingham (0115 9782863)
 The Print Quarter, 251 Exchange Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham (0115 9452070)
Local and overseas students may contact these companies direct, and they are happy to help
individuals who are not local to Nottingham with specific binding requests - ie they may be willing to
accept work through the post and deliver this to the University on your behalf. Please check these
arrangements with the binders.

Graduation
The University offers two formal Graduation Ceremonies per year i.e. summer and winter. There is
also a 'mid-sessional' route by which students can graduate in March or October. However, please
note if you choose to graduate via this route you can not then attend either of the formal ceremonies.
Further details regarding graduation can be found here. Queries relating to graduation can be sent
to graduation@nottingham.ac.uk.