External examiners
Understand what’s involved in being a thesis examiner for a University of Sydney Higher Degree by Research (HDR) student
External examiners are instrumental in assessing the outcome of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) thesis submissions and providing vital feedback.
By sharing your considerable expertise, you enable the University of Sydney’s HDR candidates to test their research skills against rigorous standards and receive invaluable insights.
When you accept a nomination to be an examiner, you step into a pivotal role that shapes the research professionals of tomorrow.
We have developed some Guidelines for Examiners (pdf, 102KB) to help you understand the University’s thesis examination process from end to end.
These guidelines outline important requirements and will help you to form a recommendation regarding the outcome of the examination.
Before accepting a nomination, prospective examiners are expected to review the Thesis and Examination of Higher Degrees by Research Policy (Clause 15, 7-9) and the Conflict of Interest Guidelines (pdf, 109KB), to assess any potential conflict of interest which may affect their ability to fairly examine a candidate’s thesis submission.
If examiners are aware of a conflict of interest that may preclude them from examining the thesis, they should call the Higher Degree by Research Administration Centre (HDRAC) on +61 2 7255 1565 to declare this as early as possible.
Examiners must access the thesis submission and submit their report via the University’s Research Education Candidature System (RECS). First time users of this system will receive a notification to their nominated email address to set up a login and password. This will be sent after the examiner's appointment is approved.
Once logged into RECS, examiners can access a step-by-step guide to navigating RECS and the examination tasks. You can find this on the left-hand menu, by going to Guides > Thesis Examinations (September 2022) > Examiners – Examination Quick Reference Guide.
Once a thesis is ready to view in RECS, examiners will receive an email notification.
Following the conclusion of their role in the examination, examiners will be able to claim an honorarium as payment for their work. The honorarium form will be available to examiners on the RECS system and an email is sent to examiners when it is ready for them to complete.
Honorarium payments for thesis examinations at the University of Sydney are not subject to taxation and are paid at the rate of the Universities Australia honorarium payment.
Doctoral theses in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences can include more material than a dissertation. For example, students can submit a thesis containing either a piece of creative writing (e.g., a novel, short stories, poetry, a graphic novel, etc.), or a memoir.
An examiner's thesis assessment should include both an assessment of the dissertation section and of the other piece of writing. These assessments should be incorporated into the report.
For submissions from Sydney College of the Arts students, examiners assess both a written component as well as an exhibition, which is assessed at an oral examination. Examiners are initially sent the written component only and are expected to return a preliminary report on the written component in advance of the exhibition.
The convenor of the oral examination will contact examiners to schedule the time for the exhibition and the oral examination.
After seeing the exhibition, if an examiner changes their assessment of the submission, they are able to discuss this with the other examiner and the convenor when deliberating the outcome of the oral examination.
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music has several degrees where students supply more than a written thesis.
All components of the submission for these degrees should be an original contribution to the field concerned.
Creative work at the Conservatorium is broadly defined and could manifest as a recital, lecture recital, performance recording, portfolio of scores, or a range of other artefacts not listed here. As the nature of creative work varies from candidature to candidature, examiners should be led in their assessments by how the nature and scope of the creative work is outlined in the dissertation and/or critical notes (if a candidate has chosen to include critical notes as part of their submission).
It is expected that students will include suitable recordings of their major creative work as part of their submission.
Candidates presenting a composition portfolio are expected to include recordings of their compositions.
Examiners are expected to provide their final recommendation and comments on the thesis examination form, including assessment of both the creative work and written components of the submission.