PhD Final Oral Exam

Function

The PhD Final Oral Exam (FOE; also referred to as the “Senate Exam”) is the last academic milestone for doctoral students toward program completion. General guidelines for the PhD FOE are available elsewhere (https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/current-students/program-completion/doctoral-examinations-schedule/); this article outlines specific procedures for conducting the PhD FOE at BME.

Exam process

Exam Chairperson announces instructions to all participants
Thesis seminar: student summarizes research and conclusions
Break: the student and any public audience members must exit the exam venue
Initial exam committee deliberates to determine questioning sequence
Student is invited back to the exam room to begin the exam
Closed-door exam: the Chairperson invites each member of the examination committee to question the candidate in turns of approximately equal intervals (multiple rounds of questioning will occur until the full committee is satisfied)
Break: student must exit the exam room
Final exam committee deliberation: When there are no further questions, the Chair asks the candidate to retire, and the examination committee then deliberates and proceeds to vote
Exam committee members must vote to decide whether the thesis and its defense are acceptable and record their decisions on ballots.
Student is invited back to the exam room to be notified of the exam outcome from the Chairperson
Chairperson returns the ballots and exam summary to BME

Composition

Except for the External Appraiser, each member of the PhD FOE committee must hold graduate faculty membership at the University of Toronto. The exam committee should consist of four to six voting members. Quorum is four voting members, and SGS recommends including at least five voting members to ensure the exam proceeds as scheduled. The Committee must include: 1) at least one member, but not more than three members, of the Candidate’s supervising committee; 2) at least two examiners who have not been closely involved in the supervision of the thesis (those eligible include: the External Appraiser, members of the faculty appointed to the Candidate’s graduate unit, and members of the faculty appointed to other graduate units of the University); 3) a non-voting Chair appointed by SGS. The Internal-External Examiner may be a faculty member of the candidate's graduate unit, and/or a faculty member of other departments, centres, or institutes of the university.

The PhD student may also be part of a Joint Educational Placement between U of T and a collaborating Canadian or international university; thus, the exam committee may include up to two non-voting members (i.e., qualified observers). If applicable, these members must also be listed on the nomination form and approved by the SGS Vice-Dean, Students. The following table is a summary of the exam composition information.

Quorum	Can vote	Qualifying exam committee	Role requirements
1	No	FOE Chair	SGS full graduate faculty membership (appointed by SGS)
1	Yes	Research Supervisor	BME faculty appointment and SGS full graduate faculty membership
0–2	Yes	Co-supervisor and/or regular supervisory committee members	SGS graduate faculty membership
1	Yes	Internal-External Examiner	SGS graduate faculty membership
1	Yes	External Appraiser	See External Appraiser eligibility requirements (nominated through BME and appointed by SGS)
N/A	No	Qualified Observers	Must be approved by SGS

External Appraiser eligibility requirements

An external appraiser should not be used more frequently than once every two years by a single supervisor.
The external appraiser must be at arm's length from both the candidate and the supervisor(s). Normally, this excludes the doctoral supervisor/supervisee of the candidate or the supervisor, and collaborators on a research project, scholarly work, or publication with either of them in the past six years.
The external appraiser must be a recognized expert on the subject of the thesis and must be external to the university as well as to its affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes. This individual must be an associate or full professor at his or her home institution, and must have successfully trained at least two doctoral students.

TIP: Consult your supervisor to select an eligible Appraiser.

External Appraiser honorarium (and expense reimbursement)

BME will pay an honorarium of $100 CAD to the External Appraiser for the written appraisal. Additionally, BME will reimburse the Appraiser up to $500 CAD for travel. Beyond the aforementioned amounts, the primary supervisor is responsible for all other expenses incurred by the external examiner as a result of their participation in the final oral exam. After the examination, the external examiner and/or 3 supervisor must return all required forms to the administrative office (operations.bme@utoronto.ca) with original receipts to receive expense reimbursement.

Thesis seminar formats

In many ways, this final milestone represents an opportunity for doctoral students to celebrate and showcase the culmination of years of rigorous scientific work and discovery in a single event. Students are encouraged to share this experience with their colleagues/collaborators, friends, and/or family members through an open/public seminar prior to their closed-door exam. However, it is also possible that the student thesis may contain patentable work that is not suitable for public disclosure.

Thus, the student and their supervisory committee should first discuss whether to conduct an open or closed seminar presentation, and then inform the BME Graduate Office of this decision before scheduling the exam to ensure that members of the community are informed and that staff members can coordinate exam logistics properly. In case of dispute, the primary research supervisor is the final authority of this decision. For clarification, the procedural differences between the open and closed seminar formats are explained below.

Open/public seminar format

Step	Procedure	Duration
1	Student, examiners, and public audience members enter the public seminar
2	Student presentation	40 min max.
3	Audience questions	10 min max.
4	Audience retires; candidate proceeds to exam room

Closed/examiners only seminar format

Step	Procedure	Duration
1	Student and examiners enter the exam room
2	Student presentation	20 min max.

Scheduling Procedures

BME students should use the following information to plan and book the PhD FOE accordingly. BME requires at least 3 months of advance notice to schedule the PhD FOE. This timeline starts with submission of the PhD External Appraiser Approval Request Form. The reason for this timeline requirement is to account for communication delays, national and international holidays, travel arrangements, and the coordination of multiple exams in parallel at the institute.

TIP: Due to office and SGS closure on holidays:

Do not book your exam after the second week of December.
Do not book your exam before the third week of January.

There are no Chairpersons available for these dates.

Scheduling workflow timeline

DO BEFORE	Pre-exam Procedures
4 months prior	Supervisor and student work collaboratively to secure an eligible External Appraiser.
3 months prior	Student submits the PhD External Appraiser Approval Request Form to the Graduate Office to nominate an Appraiser for appointment. PhD External Appraiser Approval Request Form
2.5 months prior	Graduate Office informs the student and supervisor when the External Appraiser appointment has been accepted by SGS.
2.5 months prior	Student provides a complete copy of the thesis to the Graduate Office through the BME Help Centre.
2 months prior	Graduate Office requests exam location and Chairperson from SGS (unlike the departmental defense, the PhD FOE location and Chairperson are assigned by SGS).
	Graduate Office sends the student thesis to all exam committee members and requests a written appraisal from the External Appraiser.
	Graduate Office records the exam committee composition on ROSI through a nomination form to be reviewed and approved by the SGS Vice Dean, Students.
2 weeks prior	Student to receive written appraisal from the External Appraiser.
1 week prior	Graduate Office sends the thesis abstract, thesis appraisal, and exam program to all attendees.
2 days prior	Graduate Office reminds everyone about the exam date, time, and location.

DO AFTER	Post-exam Procedures
Immediately	The Chairperson returns the exam files to the Doctoral Examinations Office if the exam was held at SGS. The Chairperson should return the exam files to the BME Graduate Office. However, if this is not possible, then the Chairperson has up to one week to return the exam files as soon as practicable.

Outcomes

Positive outcome

If the thesis and its defense are accepted, then the Chairperson of the exam informs the candidate. The candidate may have to revise the thesis according to instructions from the exam committee within the timeframe specified below. The supervisor will inform the candidate, in writing, of the necessary corrections and will work with the candidate to ensure completion. After the thesis is corrected to the satisfaction of the supervisor, the supervisor must certify, in writing (e.g., by email), to the Doctoral Program Completion Office (email sgs.doctoral@utoronto.ca) that the corrections have been made and that the thesis is in the final form for upload to the U of T thesis repository (ProQuest).

Negative outcome (the candidate may have one last attempt to pass the PhD FOE)

If the thesis and/or defense is/are not accepted, then the Chairperson and the supervisor should jointly advise the candidate of next steps. A reconvened examination is to be held within one year of the original exam date. A written report must be prepared for the candidate, setting out the reasons for adjournment and the exam committee's requirements for a reconvened examination. The drafting of this report shall be the responsibility of a member of the supervisory committee who is also a member of the exam committee (normally, this is done by the supervisor). As soon as possible, the supervisory committee must provide the candidate and the Doctoral Program Completion Office (email sgs.doctoral@utoronto.ca) with a written statement that indicates the reasons for the adjournment and the exam committee's requirements for the reconvened PhD FOE. The candidate shall be advised in writing by SGS of the approximate date of the reconvened exam.

Reconvened exam (after a negative outcome)

No new examiners shall be added except for necessary replacements. It is the obligation of the original examiners to attend this examination. Any member of the original committee who did not attend the examination and who did not have good cause for absence should be stricken from the committee. The normal procedures for conduct of the examination and voting are to be followed. However, no further adjournment will be allowed and, if unsuccessful, the candidate will be ineligible for further doctoral candidacy at U of T. The exam committee must provide the candidate with a written statement to clearly and directly explain why the examiners found the candidate’s performance unsatisfactory in the written and/or oral components of the examination, as may be relevant.

For clarification, the exam outcomes and procedures are reiterated in the summary below.

Outcome	Procedures	Vote result
Accepted as is	Upload the thesis to the U of T thesis repository immediately Supervisor confirms that the thesis is ready for submission to ProQuest	If every examiner, or every examiner bar one, considers the thesis acceptable in its present form, then the thesis is approved in its present form.
Accepted, minor corrections	Must be completed within one month Supervisor confirms that the thesis is ready for submission to ProQuest	If every examiner, or every examiner bar one, considers the thesis acceptable in its present form or with minor corrections, then the thesis is approved with minor corrections. Otherwise, the thesis is approved with minor modifications.
Accepted, minor modifications	Must be completed within three months Supervisor confirms that the thesis is ready for submission to ProQuest
Not accepted	See negative outcome section	If there is more than one negative vote (or abstention), the meeting is adjourned and constitutes a failure.

Contacts and additional resources

ProQuest Thesis Submission: https://www.etdadmin.com/main/home?siteId=623
SGS General Regulations: https://sgs.calendar.utoronto.ca/general-regulations#8.3
BME forms: https://utoronto.sharepoint.com/sites/fase-ibbme-students/SitePages/Forms-and-Guides.aspx
SGS Guideline for Doctoral Final Oral Examination: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/current-students/program-completion/doctoral-examinations-schedule/