In year 3 you are likely to once again present your findings at the Postgraduate Student Symposium. Most students are then ready to submit their dissertation. It is imperative that you keep the Department informed of your plans with regards to this. You should email the Education Team psych-education@medschl.cam.ac.uk when you start thinking about submitting your dissertation.
The Degree Committee has kindly put all the information about how to submit your thesis and the necessary steps you need to take on this sharepoint site.
The Internal Examiner will contact you in due course about the date, time and place for the viva (which is arranged by them). You should not be emailing your internal or external examiners directly before they contact you. It is the responsibility of your Supervisor to approach and appoint the examiners.
The Department of Psychiatry recommends that students use the APA style of referencing however you should discuss this with your supervisor. For more details about APA style please visit: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx
Style of the dissertation – please visit information issued by the Student Registry on the style and format of the dissertation: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/studentregistry/exams/submission/
At the examination you will be told about any necessary corrections, if these are minor, you may be issued with a set of required corrections. Once you have done these you must get them checked by the internal examiner. If you do not receive a list of corrections from the internal examiner at or after the viva, you will need to wait until after the Degree Committee has met to consider your reports. A copy of the reports and corrections will then be sent to you by the Student Registry. http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/students/studentregistry/exams/after/index.html
You must submit your dissertation for examination within the maximum period of your study. For full-time students this is 48 months (4 years) from the initial date of registration (taking into account any periods of authorised intermission). Students who do not submit by this date will be removed from the University’s register of students. Students who are unable to meet their submission deadline must apply to extend their registration date. If you are not able to submit before your final ‘end of registration date’ (as shown on CamSIS), you must talk to your supervisor to discuss whether there are grounds for you to apply for an extension or whether you should be temporarily withdrawn form the University, until ready to submit. All such applications must be made before the end of your registration date. You must inform the Education Team in the first instance if you are unlikely to submit on time to ensure that you receive the appropriate advice and guidance.
For more details, please refer to these useful links and websites:
We have been informed that more advice on how to set up a thesis in Word would be useful as your thesis may be too big to be one document. This website provides some solutions to the problem:
- https://bitesizebio.com/21549/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-making-a-table-of-contents-inserting-captions-and-cross-referencing/
- https://bitesizebio.com/21534/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-creating-an-outline/
- https://bitesizebio.com/21732/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-creating-a-master-document/
- https://bitesizebio.com/21742/using-word-to-write-your-thesis-miscellaneous-bits-and-bobs/
Also, here are some articles on tips for writing a thesis which may be useful: https://bitesizebio.com/?s=using+word+to+write+your+thesis
Viva
Your viva will take place soon after your submission date, usually within 3 months. The Postgraduate Education Committee have created a document which contains some useful tips to help you prepare for the viva – VIVA TIPS.
How to prepare for your viva tips have also been published by the Researcher Development Office – Preparing for your Viva | Researcher Development (cam.ac.uk)
You can view previous PhD Theses from the Department via the University’s Apollo Repository