Hello everybody,

I just submitted my Ph.D. thesis but my supervisors did not let me know yet the names of my internal and external examiners.

Is it common in UK? and what can I do, have to complain? I did wrong to submit my work before to know the examiners?

Please any advice are highly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

This is totally normal. I knew my internal, but not my external upon submission. Why would you want to complain?

Check your university policy for doctoral degree examination. At my (Australian) institution, I had three examiners chosen by my thesis committee. I still don't know their names, even though my PhD has been conferred. I could have found out their names during the examination period, but I chose not to, because it didn't really matter anyway. Now I've finished I might enquire, just out of casual interest.

It can be difficult to find examiners that fit your subject. I didn't have my internal examiner before submission.

Which begs the question, who was supervising you?!

Thank you indeed for the reply.

I concern about it as the thesis should be also based on the examiners (e.g. references, different views, etc.). Obviously, if you do not them you cannot fit your work.

So I should wait.. However, I spoke with other colleagues also from other universities and nobody had the same situation.

Thank you.

I think it totally depends on which examiner you get. My examiner wasn't really related to my work so there was no way I could have included his papers anyway.

But I wouldn't worry about this anyway - worst case they will just tell you to add a few of their papers as a correction.

I have never heard of the idea that you have to know your examiners to write your thesis. The thesis is not meant to be a work of sycophancy, it should stand by itself.

And in any case, wouldn't you expect to know OF your examiners, if only because their work must interstect with the thesis somewhere.

Well exactly - if their work's relevant, then clearly it would be an even more obvious omission. If it's not, then it would look quite odd.

I like this rule: "Supervisors are required to consult with their students...the names of suggested examiners". I wish my supervisors had followed it!

And this: "For instance, there is now research to suggest that experienced (rather than inexperienced) examiners will be more likely to see the thesis within the context of the research education experience, i.e. the equivalent of 3-4 years work, not a 'Nobel Prize'." My external should have made note of that!

I've already been told... that any 'experts' I am hypercritical of just won't be asked!!!

Examiners do need to be chosen carefully, that's for sure. Some people are just difficult. My external examiner was the main UK guy in my field, but my citations of his work were favourable.

Thank you everybody for the reply.

Thinking that my potential examiner could be not an expert in my field, I am not really comfortable with that, since he/she needs to assess a work that does not know very well.

Yes, examiners should be carefully selected, and the Ph.D. candidate should be involved in the decision, but unfortunately it is not always the case.

Thank you MeaninginLife for the link, very useful.