Confirmation of status

By the end of your 9th term, you must have completed your Confirmation of Status as a DPhil student. You are required to apply for this in good time by completing the GSO.14.MSD form. You will be sent reminders by the Graduate Studies Administrator to complete this form, and to arrange a presentation and an interview prior to submitting the form. It is not possible for you to submit for examination until your DPhil status has been confirmed.

ASSESSORS

As with transfer, assessors should be approached by the supervisor and approved by the DGS. Assessors should normally be internal to Oxford, but can be external to the department. Neither should have had direct supervisory involvement with the student. The choice of assessors is usually also agreed with the student.

‘GSO.14.MSD’ FORM

The application form for Confirmation of Status (GSO.14.MSD) can be found on the Graduate Forms page. The form must be completed and signed by the student, the supervisor, the College and the DGS prior to the presentation and interview. 

The student should provide the proposed timetable and dates for their thesis submission on the GSO.14.MSD form. The GSO.14.MSD also includes a section related to skills training the student has undertaken so far which must be completed. A full thesis contents list should be attached, detailing the list of any key remaining experiments and also giving the dates of when draft chapters will be passed to the supervisor(s).

Once the completed GSO.14.MSD form has been returned to the Graduate Studies Administrator, a 'Confirmation of DPhil status' assessment form will be sent to the assessors, as well as guidelines for Confirmation of Status Assessors in the Medical Sciences Division.

PRESENTATION & INTERVIEW

Students are required to give a presentation of their research to their assessors, which will be followed by an interview. Supervisors must not be present at the interview.

‘CONFIRMATION OF D.PHIL. STATUS’ ASSESSMENT FORM

After the presentation and interview, a ‘Confirmation of D.Phil. status’ form must be completed by the assessors and returned to the Graduate Studies Administrator, who will then submit all paperwork to the Graduate Studies Office.

Further information of the Confirmation of Status can be found on Canvas.

DEFERRAL

If you will not be in a position to complete confirmation of status by the given deadline, you should apply for a deferral. To do this you must complete a GSO.14b via Student Self-Service, which you can access here. If you do not complete confirmation or apply for a deferral, your status will lapse, and you will have to apply to be reinstated.