Final Oral Defence Guidelines for graduate programs and research students

Failure to comply with the following pre-defence deadlines may result in delay of the final oral defence date:

The student/candidate is to provide a copy of the defence-ready document to each committee member AND to the graduate studies office for format checking within the following deadline:

• at least two weeks prior to the intended oral defense date - for Master’s thesis or major research paper. Refer to the Master's Timeline tracker for guidance.
• at least four weeks prior to the intended oral defense date - for a Doctoral dissertation. Refer to the PhD Dissertation timeline for guidance.
• follow the instructions to submit to graduate studies for pre-defence format checking.

The final oral defence is scheduled by the Department. Each Department sets their internal requirements regarding determining when the student is ready to proceed with the final oral defence. The student follows the Departmental guidance regarding scheduling the defence. 

The Department provides the student with the instructions to submit to graduate studies for pre-defence format checking and ensures the student has submitted both to their committee and to graduate studies before the defence date can be finalized and publicly announced.

Per the graduate calendar, the final oral defence must be held at least 3 weeks prior to the Spring/Fall Convocation at which the candidate expects to receive the degree.

At least eight days in advance of the defence date public notice of the defence must be posted in the academic unit (e.g. on the departmental website) and a copy of the notice received in the Faculty of Graduate Studies from the Department (via email to thesis@uwindsor.ca). Before posting the defence, the Department is to ensure the following:

• the Department is to ensure that the student has submitted the defence-ready copy to their Committee and to graduate studies for format checking within the deadline (as outlined above under "The student submits defence-ready document").
• the Department is to ensure that a student who is defending after the Phase I defence deadline is registered for the term in which they are defending. Review details about Phase I and registration requirements. 

The Chair of a PhD Defence will be procured from within the Faculty of Graduate Studies; the Chair will be a senior member of the Graduate Faculty from outside the program. The Chair will be named on the Notice of Defence. The Chair is non-voting.

The Chair of a Master's Thesis defence will be a member of graduate faculty who has not served on the candidate's Master's committee, and who is appointed by the Department Head at the time the defence is publicly announced. Review list of current Graduate Faculty members by program. The chair is non-voting.

The Doctoral Committee will be supplemented by an independent External Examiner at the final oral defence. Review the PhD External Examiner guidelines.

The candidate will present the dissertation, thesis, or major paper at a public defence. Review the Defence Procedures Guidelines: Doctoral / Master's.

The attendance requirements at final oral defences are outlined in the Faculty of Graduate Studies “Guidelines on attendance at major paper, thesis, and dissertation defences".

The “public defence” may take place in an in-person, hybrid or fully remote/virtual environment.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies will allow a fully virtual final oral defence of both master’s and doctoral degrees.  The candidate, chair, all examiners and observers may video conference using modalities such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

Additionally, all signatures, files, and post-examination instructions will be administered electronically.  

The guidelines for a fully virtual final oral defence are as follows and must be adhered to by the graduate program:

1.     Notify FGS (adminfgs@uwindsor.ca) when a defence will be hybrid or fully virtual and provide the videoconference modality that will be used.

2.     Provide FGS and the Chair of the defence with the email addresses of all participating committee members, including the candidate.

3.     Ensure all participating committee members and the candidate understand the hybrid or virtual nature of the defence.  The candidate must confirm in writing that they have access to and will be using a private and controlled space during the oral defence.

4.     To comply with the public nature of the defence, ensure all observers are invited (e.g., faculty, graduate students in program) to the defence and provided the appropriate link.

Recommendations for Virtual Participation:

1. If a hybrid or fully virtual defence, it is important to have a virtual meeting setup and a virtual host.
2. The key responsibilities of the virtual host are as follows:

• Ensure no unauthorized observers or participants join the call (use a waiting room or passcode)
• Move the candidate and qualified observers to the waiting room for any in-camera discussions between the Chair and examining committee
• Readmit candidate and qualified observers after the in-camera discussion

Additional Guidelines for Chairs:

1. All participants, including the candidate are asked to join the meeting at least 5 minutes in advance to ensure everyone has access and there are not technological issues – observers should be joined through a waiting room and should not be admitted until after the in-camera discussion.
2. Review with the candidate and committee the process.
3. At the beginning when the committee moves in-camera, have an initial discussion of any high-level concerns, determine the order of questioning – During this time the candidate will need to be moved to the waiting room with the observers or be asked to disconnect from the call – After the in-camera portion the student can be called back in, or returned from waiting room – At this time observers can be admitted from waiting room.
4. Advise that no one should put comments in the chat (see if that can be disabled).
5. For the voting process, the student and observers should disconnect from the meeting.
6. The Chair will email ballots to the voting committee members, who will complete and return to the Chair by email. Prior to emailing them the Chair will explain the various outcomes to the committee.
7. Once the votes returned, the Chair will share the results with the committee and come to a consensus on the outcome.
8. The Chair shall collect any changes that need to be made to the thesis/dissertation.
9. The candidate will be invited to return to the meeting.
10. The Chair will share the outcome with the student.
11. The Chair will email the form to adminfgs@uwindsor.ca.

Master's defences:

The minimum basis for acceptance of a Master's thesis is positive unanimity by the examining committee less one vote. Unless an examining committee is unanimously negative, a candidate may resubmit the thesis once, after a minimum period of three months and before a maximum period of twelve months. The second decision shall be final.  

Doctoral defences:

The minimum basis for acceptance of a PhD dissertation shall be positive unanimity less one vote providing the dissenting vote is not by an external examiner who is present at the defence, and the chair of the defence determines that the examination by the external examiner has been fair to the candidate. Unless an examining committee is unanimously negative, a candidate may resubmit the dissertation once, after a minimum period of three months and before a maximum period of twelve months. The second decision shall be final. 

If the Master's or Doctoral committee is not giving unanimous approval of the final document, the defence chair shall inform the Dean of Graduate Studies.

After the defence, the student must:

1. obtain approval signature from each committee member on the Post-Defence Committee Approval Form, 

and

2. complete the post-defence "Deposit" of their final document with graduate studies.

If students are targeting a specific deadline i.e. for graduation or Phase I completion, it is the student's responsibility to obtain committee approval AND deposit their final document within the deadline for this purpose. Refer also to the Important Dates webpage for Phase I relevant deadlines. 

Embargo / withholding request

A digital copy of the deposited document will be added as open access to the University of Windsor Scholarship@UWindsor digital insitutional repository as well as to ProQuest (theses and dissertations only). If the document needs to be withheld temporarily from the public for a variety of valid reasons (e.g. pending publication), at the time of depositing with graduate studies the candidate and their research supervisor(s) may request a period of withholding from circulation, as outlined in the Deposit instructions under section titled "Request for withholding/embargo".

The Department (graduate program office) is to complete a "Report Form" from the final oral defence specifying the final grade assigned by the committee - follow the instructions for Departments for completing and submitting the defence grade Report Form.

At the beginning of each term, the Faculty of Graduate Studies sets a grace period called "Phase I", to allow eligible research students to complete their final oral defence and deposit without having to register and pay tuition fees for that term, provided the rest of the degree requirements have already been completed in previous terms and that they meet the Phase I eligibility criteria.

Phase I relevant deadlines are posted on the Important Dates webpage.

Students who complete the final oral defence or the deposit after the posted Phase I deadlines for this purpose must register in the current term in the dissertation/thesis/major paper/internship course.