Graduate Research Examination
Understand the process and requirements involved with finalising and submitting your thesis, concluding your journey as a graduate researcher.
Submission of Your Thesis
As you prepare to finalise your thesis, make sure you are familiar with the University’s policies on the graduate research examination process and thesis requirements.
All graduate research examination, apart from the thesis/exegesis submission, is managed through the PRIME Researcher Portal. The Graduate Research Examinations module within PRIME makes the administrative processes related to your examination more accessible, transparent and efficient. For more information and access to training materials visit the PRIME Graduate Research Examinations Portal webpage.
The thesis/exegesis is submitted via a secure portal, where the Graduate Research School can access and check your thesis/exegesis and other examinable material and also provide access to your examiners. Once your Authority to Submit has been approved and processed you will be given a link to access this portal.
Logging into PRIME and common pitfalls
You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME. If you are logged in to your device using your student account, single sign will try to log you in using your student details and you will get an error message.
You can use incognito or private browsing in Chrome, Safari or Microsoft Edge to access PRIME without needing to log off from your computer. See our institutional account section for more information on your student and institutional accounts and how to manage them successfully.
If you are close to finalising your thesis or exegesis, you will need to complete the following steps:
- Ensure your thesis or exegesis is correctly formatted according to the Graduate Research Examinations Schedule B – Presentation of Theses for Graduate Research Degree.
- If you are submitting any artefacts or practice-based components, please refer to the Guidelines for examinable components of practice-based research degrees [PDF 413 KB] for the applicable formatting requirements.
- Your school or department may have certain convention requirements for your discipline, including references, bibliographies and quotations. If your discipline has particular requirements, make sure to discuss them with your supervisory team.
- 6-8 weeks before you’re planning to submit your thesis or exegesis, discuss your intentions with your supervisor.
- One month prior to your planned submission date, formally notify us of your submission plans by submitting your Notice of Intention to Submit (NOI) form through the PRIME Researcher Portal. Detailed instructions on submitting your NOI are available in the Graduate Research Examinations for candidates user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. (You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME and the help site.
- If you are enrolled in a doctoral degree, this is also a good time to start preparing your 50-word citation, as you will need to submit this in a few weeks with your Authority to Submit (ATS) form:
- Your citation is a formal statement of your accomplishment as a doctoral graduate. It summarises your research, the contribution you have made to knowledge and conveys the impact and significance of your work to a lay (non-technical) audience.
- A good citation uses clear, non-specialist language, which can be understood and appreciated both by fellow scholars and everyone attending your graduation ceremony.
- Your citation will also appear in print on the Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement (AHEGS).
- It’s not easy to encapsulate the entirety of your doctoral findings into a plain language 50-word summary. It may take you a bit of time to get it right, so work with your supervisor and make sure you read the Guidelines for preparing your 50-word citation [PDF 32KB].
- We will also email your principal supervisor to request they nominate examiners using the Appointment of Examiners (AOE) form in the PRIME Researcher Portal. Your principal supervisor should discuss with you details of the potential examiners to be nominated and to provide an opportunity to ascertain whether there are any conflicts of interest or areas of concern. However, please note that there is no obligation here for supervisors to nominate any examiner you may recommend.
- Once your Examiners have been fully approved , you will be informed of their identity. If you have any concerns about your examiners, you have 10 days to write to the Chair, Board of Graduate Research to raise your concerns. From this point forward, you must have no unauthorised communication with your approved examiners.
- One week prior to your planned submission date, complete and submit your Authority to Submit (ATS) form through the PRIME Researcher Portal . Detailed instructions on submitting your ATS are available in the Graduate Research Examinations for candidates user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. (You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME and the help site.
- After your ATS form has been processed by the Gradate Research School, we will send you an email with a digital link for you to upload a PDF version of your thesis to the University Repository via the Research Thesis Submission Portal. If your examiners request a printed copy of your thesis to assist with their examination, we will let you know.
- Once your thesis is ready to submit, you can do so using the link to the Research Thesis Submission Portal which is emailed to you. You will receive an email from the University Repository confirming that the submission was successful.
- The Graduate Research School will also receive a confirmation message from the Repository letting us know that your thesis has been successfully uploaded. We will then check over your thesis to make sure it is correctly formatted, and once the examiners have accepted their formal invitation to examiner your thesis, we will update your enrolment status to 'under examination' and start your examination process.
- Please ensure that you have referred to Graduate Research Examinations Schedule B – Presentation of Theses for Graduate Research Degrees to format and present your thesis as the examination process may be delayed if the Graduate Research School requires you to make updates in accordance to this schedule.
- You will stop being charged international tuition fees or Student Services and Amenities (SSAF) fees once you are under examination.
Examination
All graduate research theses / exegeses are initially sent to two examiners. Once your principal supervisor has approved your Notice of Intent to Submit (NOI) form, they will receive an email prompting them to nominate three potential examiners using the Appointment of Examiner (AOE) form in the PRIME Researcher Portal. Supervisors can access detailed instructions on how to complete the AOE form in the Graduate Research Examinations for supervisors user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. The third examiner will be a reserve should one of the nominated examiners decline to examine the thesis or a third report be required. There may be instances where a further examiner is required through the examination process due to a number of reasons and if so, the principal supervisor will be contacted with this request.
All examiners must normally hold an equivalent degree, or possess equivalent professional experience, to the degree they are examining and be internationally recognised experts in the research area of the thesis.
For a doctoral examination, at least two of the three nominated examiners must be resident outside of Australia (unless the examination includes the requirement to attend an exhibition, performance or other event in person) and all examiners must be external to La Trobe University. For a Masters by research examination, all examiners may be Australian residents and one may be a La Trobe staff member, as long as they don’t have a conflict of interest. You can find more information on the relevant rules and procedures in the Appointment of Examiners Procedure.
Before your principal supervisor submits the AOE form, they will discuss with you details of the potential examiners to be nominated and to provide an opportunity to ascertain whether there are any conflicts of interest or areas of concern. However, please note that there is no obligation here for supervisors to nominate any examiner you may recommend. You will also not be able to see the AOE form in PRIME.
The three examiners nominated by your principal supervisor will be reviewed by your school’s Director of Graduate Research (DGR) for approval and to determine which examiner will be the reserve. In some instances, the AOE may require approval by the Chair of the Board of Graduate Research. Once the examiners have been fully approved, the GRS will contact both you and your supervisors of the approved examiners. You will have 10 working days from this notification to raise any concerns regarding the approved examiners for review by the Chair of the Board of Graduate Research. If there are no concerns raised, the GRS will contact the two initial examiners to formally invite them to examiner your thesis and will notify the reserve examiner that they may be needed.
The examination process begins once you upload your thesis to the University Repository and the examiners have been approved and accepts the invitation to examine. Once you have submitted your thesis, we provide both examiners with a link to access your thesis electronically. If an examiner requests a hard copy of the thesis, we will ask you to provide a printed version which we will then post to the examiner.
The entire examination process takes approximately four to six months, but can sometimes take longer, due to other commitments of the examiner or if your examination is occurring during a holiday period. You, your supervisors or anyone else from the school cannot have any direct contact with an examiner about the thesis or examination during this period. Any contact is to come from the GRS.
We regularly review the status of every examination and maintain contact with appointed examiners throughout the process by way of reminders. We will send you a confirmation email once your thesis has been despatched to both the examiners and will provide you with updates throughout the process.
Please be aware that this process is confidential. We can only provide you and your supervisor with general information on the status of your examination. You can track the progress of your forms and see you overall examination status by accessing your Graduate Research Examination (GRE) record in the PRIME Researcher Portal . Further instructions on accessing your GRE record are available on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. (You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME and the help site. Visit our institutional account section for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account.)
Each examiner will review your thesis and provide an independent report. Both examiners are required to assess the thesis with respect to the topic as defined by you, and within the research paradigm and/or your methodological approach.
Examiners are required to provide a full justification of their recommendation in a report. Each examiner recommends one of the following classifications:
- the thesis should be classified as passed and the candidate awarded the degree without amendment (other than the correction of typographical errors only) or further examination
- the thesis should be classified as passed and the candidate awarded the degree subject to amendments where the examiner recommends either:
- minor amendments (including the correction of any typographical and grammatical errors, formatting errors, the minor re-writing of sentences and/or paragraphs for clarity, and referencing errors) with up to four weeks to effect the recommendation; or
- major amendments (including minor amendments and substantial changes to the structure and/or content of chapters, tables or figures) with up to twelve weeks to effect the recommendation to the satisfaction of the principal supervisor and the Director of Graduate Research (DGR) or Dean of School
- the thesis should be classified as deferred and the candidate re-enrolled for up to twelve months (full-time equivalent) to revise and resubmit the thesis for examination per the Graduate Research Examinations Procedure – Revise and Resubmit.
- the candidate should not be awarded the degree (fail).
After both the examiners have submitted their reports to your school’s DGR, your DGR will make a recommendation to the Board of Graduate Research (BGR) based on both reports:
- Where both examiners have made the same recommendation of either (a), (b), (c), or (d) the DGR will normally adopt that recommendation.
- Where both examiners have selected one of (a) or (b) above, but have selected different options, the DGR will normally recommend one of (a) or (b) and where amendments are required will stipulate the time permitted to make the amendments
- Where one of the examiners has selected one of (a) or (b), and the other has selected one of (c), or (d) above, the approved reserve examiner will be asked to examine the thesis. If there is a majority decision, the DGR will normally recommend a final outcome that reflects that majority decision. If there are still divergent results of either (a)/(b), (c) and (d), the DGR may recommend an Examination Panel be formed to provide a joint recommendation.
When the BGR has arrived at a decision about the outcome of your examination, we will notify you and your supervisors of the outcome and send you the examiners’ reports. If you received a pass outcome, you move on to the completion requirements stage of your degree.
Where your thesis is classified as deferred, you will be given the opportunity to re-enrol for up to 12 months (full-time equivalent) to revise your thesis and resubmit it for re-examination. You will need to enrol for this period and will continue to receive support from your supervisors during this period and will need to continue to comply with all usual conditions of candidature including a schedule of progress meetings to be held during the re-enrolment period.
Your Examination Panel will prepare a Revision Plan based on the independent examiners’ reports to assist you in revising your thesis. The Revision Plan is then forwarded to the Chair BGR for approval. Once the revision plan has been approved, we will forward it on to you and ask you to confirm in writing your acceptance of the plan and agreement to re-enrol to revise and resubmit your thesis.
When you are ready to re-submit your revised thesis, you follow the same steps as the first time to prepare and submit your thesis. Your revised thesis will be submitted for re-examination to the examiners who will independently review the examinable material, and then reconvene the Examination Panel to make a joint recommendation to the Chair of the Board of Graduate Research of either pass, pass with amendments, or fail. If the original examiners are not able to examine, new examiner/s will need to be nominated and approved.
You may appeal your outcome if there is evidence of a breach of regulation, policy or procedure that has had a meaningful impact on the outcome of your examination. If you are seeking to appeal your outcome, you must advise the GRS of your intention to appeal within 10 working days of being notified of the outcome of your examination.
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your appeal, you may also access the University Student Complaints service or contact the University Ombudsman in such circumstances.
After Examination, and Graduation
Once you have received a pass outcome, there are some final steps you need to take to complete your degree.
Before the Board of Graduate Research can recommend the award of your degree to Academic Board, you will need to provide a final version of your thesis for archiving and publication in the University Repository. Before you can upload the final version of your thesis to the Repository you will need to make any required amendments to the satisfaction of your principal supervisor and Director of Graduate Research (DGR) or nominee of the Dean. You will also need to complete an Access to Thesis Consent (ATC) form.
Where amendments are required, you will need to provide an amendment report addressing the examiners’ comments and outlining the subsequent changes made to the thesis so that your supervisor and DGR can assess whether the changes have satisfactorily addressed the examiners’ requirements. It may be helpful to provide this report in table format so that your supervisor and DGR can clearly see how you have addressed each requirement.
Once you’ve completed your amendment report, you can submit it for approval by creating an Amendment Report (AR) form from your Graduate Research Examination (GRE) Record in the PRIME Researcher Portal. You should also attach a copy of the amended thesis here or email it to your supervisor so that they can review how you have incorporated the amendments. You can find detailed instructions on how to create and submit the AR form in the Graduate Research Examinations for candidates user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. (You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME and the help site. Visit our institutional account section for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account.)
Once your supervisor and DGR or Dean of School have endorsed the AR form, it will be forwarded to the Chair of the Board of Graduate Research (Chair BGR) for approval.
The final step before you will be able to upload the final version of your thesis is to complete an Access to Thesis Consent (ATC) form using the PRIME Researcher Portal. The ATC form provides your agreement for the University to publish your thesis and if there are restrictions on sharing any copyright material in your thesis (in which case you will need to provide a second, redacted version). You can also use the ATC form to apply to the Board of Graduate Research for an embargo if there is a reason to restrict public access to your thesis for a set period. You can find detailed instructions on how to create and submit your ATC form in the Graduate Research Examinations for candidates user guide on the PRIME Help and Support Unite Site. (You will need to use your institutional or staff login to access PRIME and the help site. Visit our institutional account section for instructions on how to activate and use your institutional account.)
Once your AR (if required) and the ATC have been approved and the Board of Graduate Research has confirmed you can be recommended to Academic Board for award of the degree, we will send you a link to upload the final copy of your thesis as a PDF document to the Repository (OPAL). When you upload your final copy, we will check over it to make sure it meets all the formatting requirements as outline in the Graduate Research Examinations Schedule B-Presentation of Theses for Graduate Research Degrees [PDF 282 KB], and then will forward the degree award recommendation to Academic Board.
You will need to ensure that you have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) and do not have any outstanding debt to the University at this point.
Once Academic Board has approved the award of your degree, you have officially passed your degree, congratulations! Your degree will also be conferred at the time of Academic Board approval.
We will send you an official completion letter confirming that you have satisfied the requirements for your degree within 10-15 business days of the Academic Board approval. You will be issued with a digital testamur normally within a month of the Academic Board approval.
Graduation ceremonies are held throughout the year at all campuses so that you can come together with other La Trobe graduands and your friends and family to celebrate your achievement. It takes an incredible amount of hard work, time and dedication to complete a research degree, and we are incredibly proud of what you have achieved.
To stay informed of updates check on graduation information and please ensure we have your best email address and mobile number so we can easily contact you. Current candidates can update their details in StudentOnLine, while completed candidates who no longer have access to their student account can request their details be updated by submitting a question to ASK a Question.
The Nancy Millis Medal, conferred by the Board of Graduate Research, is awarded to doctoral candidates who are deemed to have authored outstanding theses.
The Research Masters Award was established in 2025. Conferred by the Board of Graduate Research, it is awarded to candidates who are deemed to have authored outstanding Master’s by research theses.