PhD Oral Exam Request

Students and their supervisors must find a date and time for the PhD oral exam that is agreeable to all members of the examination committee. A minimum of 3 hours must be set aside for the exam, to include both the public seminar and the closed examination. The PhD Oral Exam Request Form must be submitted at least 8 weeks prior to the agreed-upon date of the examination.

In addition to your supervisor and 1-2 supervisory committee members, you and your supervisor will need to find the following members of the exam committee, and you will need to identify them on the form:

• Arm's-Length Molecular Genetics Faculty: This examiner should be within the student’s primary research field, chosen and invited by the student and Supervisor, but must not have been involved with the student’s research project.
• Faculty from another U of T department: This examiner cannot have been closely involved in the supervision of the thesis.
• External Examiner:  This is a faculty member from another university who is at least an Associate or Full Professor. The external examiner must have an arms-length relationship with both the candidate and the supervisor. The student is not permitted to have any contact with the examiner prior to the exam. An external examiner cannot be used more frequently than once every two years for committees with substantive overlap of members with whom the external has served within the past two years (i.e. more than three voting members.)