378/1004 amended THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG GUIDELINES FOR SETTING UP AND CONDUCTING ORAL EXAMINATIONS FOR MPHIL

AND PHD CANDIDATES (A) Setting a Notional Date for an Oral Examination 1. Once the thesis is submitted, the relevant Department or Faculty Office should, at the same time when the thesis is sent out to the examiners, ask the examiners for their availability after the report due date with a will to schedule a notional date for the oral, with an understanding that the notional date would be confirmed or an actual date for the examination would be determined nearer the time. When the date is confirmed, the DRPC Chairman would prepare a timetable to which the examination process should adhere and the Department or the Faculty Office should report to the DRPC Chairman if there are delays in any stage.

2.

(B) The Conduct of Oral Examinations 1. The Policy Board of Postgraduate Education wishes to ensure that all oral examinations are conducted under a reasonably uniform set of procedures and in a controlled and orderly manner, avoiding unnecessary distress to the candidate. The Oral Examination should allow a. the candidate to defend his or her thesis and clarify any matters raised by the examiners; the examiners to probe the candidates knowledge in the field; the examiners to assure themselves that the work presented is the candidates own and to clarify matters of any collaboration; and the examiners to come to a definite conclusion about the outcome of the thesis examination.

2.

b. c. d.

3.

The Oral Examination shall be conducted by the Thesis Examining Committee/Oral Examination Panel. The Chairman, who is a non-voting member, represents the Faculty to preside over the Oral Examination. The role of the Chairman, who must be present for the whole of the examination, is to ensure that a. b. the Oral Examination is conducted in a fair manner; questions are put fairly and that the candidate is given adequate opportunity to answer; examiners are given sufficient opportunity to ask questions and to evaluate the candidates performance; 1

c.

d.

if the External Examiner is not present at the Oral Examination, all substantive questions raised in the External Examiners report are put to the candidate by the Additional Examiner; it is the candidate alone, and not the Supervisor or any other member of the Committee, who defends the thesis; the candidate should leave the room after the questioning and before the start of the discussion by the members of the Committee/Panel; in reporting their conclusions on the result of the Oral Examination the examiners confine themselves to evidence arising from the Oral Examination; the examiners' recommendations are clearly indicated on the report form with the amendment or deletion of such parts of the form as may be necessary to avoid ambiguity; and the completed report form, duly signed by the examiners, is returned to the Faculty Secretary for transmission to the Dean of the Faculty concerned immediately after the Oral Examination.

e. f.

g.

h.

i.

4.

Persons other than the candidate, the Chairman and members of the Thesis Examining Committee/Oral Examination Panel may be present at the Oral Examination subject, in each case, to the approval of a. b. the Faculty Higher Degrees Committee; the Chairman of the Thesis Examining Committee/Oral Examination Panel; and the candidate.

c.

The Chairman of the Thesis Examining Committee/Oral Examination Panel is empowered to determine (in keeping with the spirit of these 'Guidelines') whether such person(s) should merely observe or may also address questions to the candidate and/or to the examiners. In no case shall such persons contribute to the examiners' final assessment of the result of the oral examination or their recommendation to the Faculty. 5. The roles of the examiners (and of the Additional Examiner(s), if any) at the Oral Examination are: a. to satisfy themselves that the candidate has in fact done the work reported in the thesis and has sufficient understanding and grasp of the subject matter to be able to defend the thesis; to determine whether the candidate understands the significance of his or her work in the broad context of his or her subject; to resolve any points raised by the examiners of the thesis; 2

b.

c.

d.

to assist the Chairman to record on the report form those aspects of the thesis and/or of the field of study (and research) on which the candidate has been examined (excluding repetition of the specific points raised by the examiners of the thesis which are recorded in their respective reports); to decide, on the basis of the evidence arising from the Oral Examination, whether the candidate should be required to attend a further oral or written examination on the thesis and/or on the field of study; and to arrive at a final assessment of the quality of the thesis and the performance of the candidate, and in consultation with the Chairman, to jointly arrive at a recommendation on the examination result, which will be recorded in a written report.

e.

f.

6.

For examinations of MPhil students registered in or after September 1999 and PhD students registered in or after September 2001, the primary supervisor, serving in a non-voting capacity, may participate in the discussions and ask questions of the candidate. He/She may be invited by the Chairman to retire during the voting. The primary supervisor of an MPhil student registered before September 1999 or a PhD student registered before September 2001 can be a voting member. The supervisor should take note of the desired revisions which should be clearly recorded in the report form for the guidance of the candidate in making subsequent corrections and amendments to the thesis. If the Thesis Examining Committee/Oral Examination Panel cannot reach a consensus on the examination result, the Chairman shall make a recommendation to the Committee/Panel on whether an additional independent examiner should be appointed. The Report Forms on oral examinations for the degrees of MPhil and PhD are intended to facilitate the submission of a concise report which meets the requirements of the Degree Regulations and the Procedures which have been approved by the Senate. It is probable that the wording of the pre-printed sections of the Report will be unsuitable in some cases, and that amendment or deletion of some part(s) may be required in order to avoid possible ambiguities. While it is the Chairman's responsibility to ensure that this is done, it is also incumbent upon the examiners to ensure that their recommendations are clearly expressed.

7.

8.

(C) Conducting Oral Examinations by Tele-conferencing or Video-conferencing 1. In principle all thesis examiners should participate in as much of the oral examination process as possible. To this end, oral examinations which are normally held in Hong Kong should rely on tele-conferencing or video-conferencing if needed to ensure that all relevant parties (internal examiners, external examiner(s) and student) participate in the examination. Accordingly the Board of Graduate Studies (BoGS) advises that 3

oral examinations should be held by tele-conferencing or video-conferencing under the following circumstances: a. In all cases where not all the examiners agree that the thesis is of sufficient standard for conferment of the degree, it is mandatory for the external examiner to participate in the oral examination. This practice will be applied to all oral examinations for which external examiner appointments are made on or after January 1, 2005. If the external examiner is overseas and cannot come to Hong Kong to attend the oral examination, the external examiner should participate in the oral examination by tele-conferencing or videoconferencing. Only in exceptional circumstances should an additional examiner be appointed to attend the oral examination. At the initial stage of implementing this new practice, prior approval must be obtained from the Chairman of the BoGS for an additional examiner to be appointed. This is intended to be a transitional arrangement, however, and after review in about two years' time, approval can be granted by the Faculty. In order not to delay the examination process, an oral examination should be conducted by means of tele-conferencing or video-conferencing if one or more examiner(s) will not be present in Hong Kong on the date of the oral examination. If a student is abroad and cannot return to Hong Kong to attend the oral examination within a reasonable period of time, the Faculty should conduct the oral examination by video-conferencing. Tele-conferencing is normally not allowed. In very rare cases where video-conferencing is impossible, the BoGS will entertain requests to permit a student to participate by teleconferencing. Such requests must be submitted in advance of the oral examination and include evidence that procedures have been put in place to 1) prove the identity of the student at the time of the examination and 2) ensure that the student and only the student answers the questions in the examination. Under no circumstances may the student be assisted by any other person during the examination.

b.

c.

2.

The use of tele-conferencing and video-conferencing is summarized as follows: Members not in HK Student External examiner Internal examiner Conduct oral exam by Conduct oral exam by tele-conferencing video-conferencing Not normally allowed Allowed Either tele-conferencing or video-conferencing is required Either tele-conferencing or video-conferencing is required

3.

A student who is abroad and has to participate in the oral examination by videoconferencing should follow the following guidelines: a. When the video-conference takes place, the student must be accompanied by a witness who is a member of the university academic staff throughout the examination process. The witness shall be recommended by the Faculty and approved by the BoGS and must be somebody who can be trusted. The presence of the witness at the oral examination must be verified. 4

b.

c.

A report has to be submitted by the witness on how the oral examination has been conducted and the report should be submitted to the Chairman of the Thesis Examining Committee (or the Oral Examination Panel if the candidate is governed by the old examination procedure) via the Faculty Secretary within ten days of the oral examination. The Faculty or the Department concerned should be responsible for the expenses used for video-conferencing facilities at the HK end and the honorarium to the witness, if he/she is not a member of HKU staff; while the student concerned should be responsible for the expenses for videoconferencing facilities at his/her end. If an honorarium has to be paid, the rate should be determined in consultation with the Finance and Enterprises Office (the suggested rate is US$100).

d.

4.

An internal or external examiner who participates in the oral examination by teleconferencing or video-conferencing should follow the following guidelines: a. The identity of the examiner at the oral examination via tele-conference or video-conference must be verified. The examiner should be requested, through mail or fax, to sign the Thesis Examining Committee report (or the Joint Report on an Oral Examination if the candidate is governed by the old examination procedure). The Faculty or the Department concerned should be responsible for the expenses used for tele-conferencing or video-conferencing facilities at both sides.

b.

c.

5.

Video-conferencing facilities are available on loan from the Computer Centre and the Faculty of Medicine. A tele-conferencing machine is also available on loan from the Graduate School. Details about the facilities can be found at http://www.hku.hk/gradsch/reg/tele-video-conf.htm

7 October 2004 August 2010