An intending candidate must complete an application form for admission to PhD candidature. Application forms are available from the Research Training and Support Branch. This application must have the approval of the head of the department or director of the centre in which the candidate wishes to work, and a supervisor must be named and a field of study given. The latter need be stated in general terms only. The application is considered by the Arts faculty board, which then makes a recommendation to the PhD and Scholarships Committee. The candidate is subsequently notified by letter of the committee's decision on the application and asked to contact the Research Training and Support Branch immediately and advise the expected commencement/enrolment date. Deferments up to a period of twelve months are permitted. Candidature will normally lapse unless enrolment or deferment takes place within three weeks of the date of the acceptance letter.
When the head of department/director of centre is unsure about a candidate's qualifications, previous experience or research potential, probationary enrolment may be recommended for the first year for full-time candidates or the first and second years for part-time candidates. Candidature will be confirmed subject to receipt of a satisfactory report of the candidates progress at the end of the probationary period.
The Committee for Graduate Studies has recommended that the following procedure be adopted when confirming PhD candidature.
1 As evidence of satisfactory progress the department/centre should submit to the PhD and Scholarships Committee first, a written statement of support from the candidate's supervisor and, second, a substantial submission from the candidate which details the proposed research, reports on progress to date and provides a timetable for completion of each phase of the research program.
2 The submission document should demonstrate the investment of a full year's work. Whereas candidates' initial applications normally state the proposed fields of study in general terms, the requirements of this submission include a definition of focus, explanations of methods and clarification of the limits of the research project, together with a statement placing the work in the context of the scholarly literature. The submission may be supported by any written work which the candidate, in consultation with the supervisor, feels would reinforce the case. A bibliography of works consulted to date should be supplied. Due attention should be paid to matters of clarity, readability and presentation. The document need not be lengthy (5000-10,000 words would be sufficient in most cases), and conciseness is a favoured property. Candidates are reminded that the dual aim is to gain approval from senior departmental staff and from the Committee for Graduate Studies.
3 In some cases, candidates seeking to continue enjoying the benefits of scholarships may be well advised to consider how they have spent the public's money over the previous year and why they deserve continuing financial support. Such reflections may improve the substance and quality of the report.
Although no thesis length is prescribed, students are advised that PhD theses would not normally exceed 100,000 words. Where it is proposed that a thesis will exceed this length, a request must be submitted to the PhD and Scholarships Committee. Examiners have from time to time adversely commented on theses of excessive length.
A candidate for the PhD degree pursues a course of research under the direction of a supervisor, who reports formally to the PhD and Scholarships Committee each year on the candidate's work and progress. The supervisor will also report whenever in his or her opinion the student is not making satisfactory progress in his or her work, is otherwise not fulfilling the conditions laid down for him or her, or appears unlikely to reach the standard of the degree at which he/she aims.
The supervisory relationship is an idiosyncratic one. The degree of supervisor direction and conversely the degree of student autonomy, will depend upon the working relationship that the supervisor and student negotiate. The faculty recommends that early in the working relationship the supervisor and the student discuss their respective expectations and assumptions. Factors recommended for discussion include the meeting schedule, a time line, responsibility for the selection of the topic, degree of supervisor direction in the development of the research, degree of supervisor direction in the writing of the thesis, responsibility for the standard of the thesis, and responsibility for finishing within the minimum time period. While all of these factors need to be clarified and negotiated on an individual basis, the Arts faculty has constructed written guidelines and responsibilities for supervisors and students. Candidates should read the `Code of practice for supervision of PhD candidates'.
Monash University has accepted the following objectives for the fulfilment of the requirements of the PhD degree: the degree of Doctor of Philosophy shall be awarded for a thesis which in the opinion of the examiners is a significant contribution to the knowledge or understanding of any field of study with which a faculty in the university is directly concerned and which demonstrates the capacity of the candidate to carry out independent and original research.
In working towards such objectives, graduate students in different faculties and disciplines will have various needs and will place different demands on the intellectual and physical resources of the university. There are certain common issues and responsibilities which apply to all faculties, departments, centres, supervisors and candidates, regardless of their discipline or area of research. It is the objective of these guidelines which can be found in the PhD and EdD information handbook, given to each candidate at enrolment, to set out those fundamentals.
PhD theses submitted at Monash University will be written in English; except that in the case of the four language departments, namely German Studies and Slavic Studies, Asian Languages and Studies, Japanese Studies, Romance Languages, theses written in a language other than English may be admissible subject to observance of the following principles:
1 availability of a supervisor competent in both the field of study and the foreign language concerned;
2 availability of acceptable examiners qualified in both the discipline and the approved foreign language;
3 receipt of a formal request for permission to prepare the thesis in a (specified) language other than English in the form of a recommendation from the Arts faculty board no later than three months after the applicant's admission to candidature; and
4 recommendations will be considered only in those cases in which the topic of the proposed thesis will be an aspect of the (specified) language as such or its literature, and where the department concerned shows good cause why the topic may best be treated in the specified language.
Where conditions (1)-(4) are met the committee will then decide whether permission shall be granted.
A substantial synopopsis of the thesis of between 5000 and 10,000 words in English must be provided with the thesis.
When the thesis is complete, the supervisor is required to submit a statement certifying (i) to the best of his or her knowledge, the extent to which the work is that of the candidate; (ii) whether, in his or her opinion, the thesis is properly presented and is worthy of examination. In certifying that the thesis is thought to be properly presented and worthy of examination, the supervisor is not forecasting the result of the examination. He or she is stating that, in his or her opinion, an examiner who recommends the award of the degree would be acting reasonably. If a supervisor does not certify that the thesis is properly presented and prima facie worthy of examination, the PhD and Scholarships Committee still has power to determine that the thesis should be examined.
PhD students should also refer to the booklet PhD and EdD information handbook for further information. The booklet is available from the Research Training and Support Branch counter in the university offices building.