Guidelines for Conducting the Dissertation Defence

Any member of the university community is entitled to attend the defence, but the Chair has the authority to exclude persons whose conduct disturbs the defence procedures. Non-members of the university community may attend but must receive the permission of the candidate, the DA, and the Chair of the defence.

Once all members of the DEC are present, the Chair will ask the candidate and all other attendees to leave the room. The Chair will then conduct an “in camera” meeting to:remind the members that the candidate is being examined on both the written dissertation and the oral defence;

• remind the members of the time frame for the defence (normally 2-3 hours duration);
• decide in which order members will ask questions--the External Examiner is always the first to question the candidate, the committee member from outside the academic unit of the candidate is usually the second to question, and the DA is usually the last;
• decide how many rounds of questions (normally, 2-3) will be used before other attendees can ask questions, and decide a rough limit on the number of questions or the time allotted to each member for each round of questions;
• agree on any other procedures that might be required for the defence.

The Chair will then invite the candidate and other attendees back into the room and inform them of the procedures that have been decided upon.

• The Chair will ask the Candidate to present an oral summary of the dissertation (20- 30 minutes) to begin the defence.
• The Chair will ask the External Examiner to commence the rounds of questioning (in the absence of the External Examiner, the Chair will ask his or her questions).
• When the members of the DEC have no further questions, the Chair will offer other attendees an opportunity to direct questions to the candidate.
• Upon the conclusion of all questions, the Chair will ask the candidate and others to leave the room. The Dean of Graduate Studies, the Dean of the candidate’s Faculty, the departmental chair, and the graduate coordinator/program director are permitted to stay and observe the “in camera” deliberations of the DEC; however, they may not participate in the discussion except by invitation and they have no vote.

The Chair will conduct an “in camera” meeting of the DEC to:

• summarize the decision categories;
• review the voting procedures;
• ask all members, beginning with the external examiner, to summarize their evaluation of the written and oral presentation, indicate their vote, and identify any major and/or minor modifications they would like the candidate to complete before the final draft is submitted;
• assist the Committee to reach consensus both on a final category, the changes that must be completed, who will approve the changes, and the date by which the changes should be completed (this information must be recorded on the Record of Dissertation Defence form);
• if the candidate meets criteria for a Medal for Academic Excellence (see criteria, below), discuss whether the candidate is to be nominated (if nominated, the reasons for the recommendation must be recorded on the Record of Dissertation Defence form;
• have members of the DEC sign the Record of Dissertation Defence form.

The Chair will then invite the candidate back into the room and:

• inform the candidate of the committee’s decision,
• offer the DEC members the opportunity to provide feedback to the candidate on both the written dissertation and the oral defence,
• review the revisions that are to be made to the dissertation, confirm the individual(s) responsible for signing off on any changes, and finalize the time frame for doing so,
• have the candidate fill out and/or sign the necessary forms (i.e., Theses Non-Exclusive License form).

Note: The defence is public and the Chair has the responsibility to ensure that high standards of conduct are exercised by those in attendance. Thus, the Chair has the right to exclude persons whose conduct disturbs the defence or to stop and reschedule the defence, if necessary.

Voting Procedures

If all but one member of the DEC agree on a decision category (see below), the decision shall be that of the majority. Where two dissenting votes are cast, discussion must continue to arrive at a decision on which there is consensus (i.e., no more than one dissenting vote). When consensus is reached, all members of the DEC should sign the Record of Dissertation Defence form. As discussed above, if a DEC member is absent but has provided a preliminary vote, this vote will be shared with the committee during the in-camera deliberations, but the vote will count in the determination of a decision only if it is that of the External Examiner.

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