Preliminaries

1. The transfer process described herein both codifies existing practice, and institutes a number of changes to existing practice aimed at making the process more rigorous, and its execution more consistent.
2. The transfer process applies to all postgraduate research students intending to complete a PhD, including those directly enrolled on the PhD register.¹
   1. Registry form PGR3 (`Application to Transfer to the PhD Register') will only be submitted after successful completion of the transfer process.
   2. Research students registering for the award of the degree of PhD (PGR2, `Annual Progress Report') will generally be required to have successfully completed the transfer process by the end of their second year of registration (or third, for part-time students).
   3. For students enrolled in graduate schools, further progression requirements may also apply.
3. The purpose of the transfer process is:
   • to ensure quality of doctoral research by requiring research students to achieve a satisfactory level of maturity in presenting, evaluating and defining their research before allowing admission to the PhD register, and
   • to encourage quality by providing a forum in which research students obtain feedback on their work from the broader research community roughly midway through their doctoral studies.
4. The transfer process is managed by a transfer convenor who is appointed by the head of school, usually from the membership of the school research committee. The transfer convenor is responsible for scheduling transfers, assigning examiners, and ensuring that the process outlined herein is operated effectively.
5. Candidates must demonstrate their suitability to transfer to the PhD register through the submission of a written transfer report and the defence of their report at a transfer talk.
6. To complete the process successfully, a candidate must demonstrate:
   1. that they have developed a suitably-detailed research plan,
   2. that that research plan, if executed successfully, is likely to produce research that would satisfy the university's requirements for the award of the degree of PhD, and
   3. that they have the ability to execute the proposed research plan.
7. The outcome of the transfer process will be determined by a panel of examiners.

Panel of Examiners

1. The panel of examiners will be appointed by the transfer convenor in advance of the transfer talk. The panel will include the following members.

   Report examiner.

   One examiner will be appointed to read the candidate's transfer report, and report to the panel as a whole regarding the quality of the work described and any concerns raised by the report.

   The report examiner must be experienced in the candidate's area of research. He or she will typically be an academic from the school, but may if necessary be an academic from another school within the university.

   Oral examiners.

   At least three additional oral examiners will be appointed. Their role is to evaluate the candidate's work as presented and defended at the transfer talk.

   Oral examiners will be appointed based upon their research experience, and to reflect the range of research on-going within the school. The oral examiners will be members of academic staff from the school.

   Additional expert examiner.

   In the case that none of the oral examiners has experience in the candidate's area of research, the transfer convenor will appoint an additional expert examiner with the necessary background.

   The additional expert examiner will usually be a member of staff from the school (including postdoctoral researchers), but may if necessary be an academic from another school within the university.
2. The panel of examiners - in particular the oral examiners - will be appointed in a way that ensures the consistency of the transfer process as applied to all candidates over time.
3. The transfer convenor will usually seek the advice of the supervisor or supervisors when selecting the report examiner, determining whether an additional expert examiner will be required, and selecting that additional expert examiner (if required).

Transfer Report

1. In the transfer report the candidate should:
   1. identify their central hypothesis or hypotheses,
   2. provide a concise critical review of existing related research, including if appropriate that of other researchers in DCU,
   3. place their specific research topic within the context of this existing work,
   4. describe their work and results to date, and clearly identify the current and expected contribution of their doctoral research, and
   5. propose a research plan that has the potential to lead to a dissertation at the doctoral level.
2. The transfer report must be scientific in style. It must be no more than twenty pages in length (including references) and use the type of single-column formatting that is typical of technical reports. In particular, the formatting should not render the report so dense as to make it difficult to read.
3. A candidate must submit their transfer report to the transfer convenor (one hard copy, and an electronic copy).
4. The transfer report will be made available to staff and examiners prior to the transfer talk, and on the school intranet upon successful completion.

Transfer Talk

1. The purpose of the transfer talk is to afford the candidate the opportunity to defend their hypothesis or hypotheses, their work and results to date, and their research plan as presented in their transfer report.
2. The transfer talk will be scheduled and announced by the transfer convenor. At least one week's notice will be given to all interested parties of the candidate, title, abstract, date, time and place of a forthcoming transfer talk.
3. Transfer talks will be chaired by either the transfer convenor or their nominee.
4. If requested by the candidate, the report examiner will provide informal, oral feedback to the candidate in advance of the transfer talk. This will allow the candidate to address the examiner's concerns during the talk itself.
5. The audience for the transfer talk must include the panel of examiners, but will typically also include the candidate's supervisor or supervisors, and any other staff or postgraduate research students who choose to attend.
6. The candidate must deliver a transfer talk of approximately thirty minutes, and expect a five- or ten-minute public question-and-answer session. Subsequently, all but the candidate, supervisor, chair and examiners will leave, and the candidate will be questioned in detail by the examiners. The entire defence will usually last approximately one hour.

Outcome of the Transfer Process

1. Following the transfer talk, the outcome of the process will be determined by the panel of examiners through private deliberation. The supervisor will usually be present for the examiners' deliberations, but should volunteer or may be asked to leave if the examiners feel that that would be helpful.
2. The examiners must decide upon one of the following three outcomes.

   Pass.

   The candidate will be recommended for transfer to the PhD register.

   Resubmit.

   The candidate will not be recommended for transfer to the PhD register. However, the panel believes that, with additional work or refocusing of the work presented, the candidate may upon resubmission be recommended for transfer.

   Fail.

   The candidate will not be recommended for transfer to the PhD register, and will not be allowed to resubmit to the transfer process.
3. The examiners will appoint one of their number to minute the decision of the panel, any reasons justifying or explaining that decision, and any appropriate guidance to the candidate going forward. In addition, in the case of resubmission, the minutes must also explain clearly what the candidate must demonstrate in order to be successful upon subsequent resubmission.
   These written minutes must be approved by the report examiner, retained for record by the transfer convenor, and made available to the candidate.

Resubmission

1. The panel must decide whether the candidate:
   • must resubmit a revised transfer report, and/or
   • must re-present a revised transfer talk (either in public as previously or in private).
   For any particular candidate, the actual process of resubmission and examination will depend upon the subset of these requirements demanded by the panel. The requirements and process decided upon by the panel must be made clear to the candidate.
2. The panel evaluating any resubmission must satisfy the constituency of a panel of examiners as outlined previously, and must normally include at least three members of the original panel.
3. For resubmissions, the panel must decide on an outcome of either pass or fail. In particular, candidates may be invited to resubmit at most once.

Appeals

1. Candidates who fail the transfer process will be entitled to appeal the outcome to the school research committee. Appeals should be submitted in writing to the school's research convenor, and include any necessary substantiating documentation.
2. Valid grounds for appeal are:
   1. that the candidate's performance was adversely affected by illness or other factors which he or she was unable or for valid reasons unwilling to divulge before the transfer talk,
   2. that the transfer talk or deliberations were not conducted in accordance with the current process as prescribed by this document, or
   3. that there was a substantial error of judgement on the part of the examiners with the result that the outcome was totally at variance with previous performance.
3. As with any process governing student progression, candidates who remain dissatisfied may appeal to the university appeals board.

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