Timing of confirmation of DPhil status

If you have transferred to DPhil status, you will be required to confirm that status, ideally in your 8th term and not later than your 9th term after your admission as a research student (not from the term of transfer to DPhil status).

The purpose of the confirmation procedure is to determine whether or not you will be in a position to submit for examination in due course.

Exceptions to the 9 term limit can be found in the table below.

Programme	Maximum terms to confirmation
All DPhil programmes other than the below	9 terms
DPhil Cardiovascular Science	10 terms
DPhil Cellular Structural Biology	10 terms
DPhil Chemistry in Cells	10 terms
DPhil Chromosome & Developmental Biology	10 terms
DPhil Genomic Medicine & Statistics	10 terms
DPhil Infection, Immunology & Translational Medicine	10 terms
DPhil Ion Channels and Membrane Transport in Health and Disease (OXION)	10 terms
DPhil Health Data Science (programme administered through Computer Science Department)	10 terms
5 Year DPhil Biochemistry (Skaggs-Oxford programme)	14 terms

Deferral of confirmation of status

In exceptional circumstances, the Medical Sciences Board may permit a student to defer the application for confirmation of status for a maximum of 3 terms (granted 1 term at a time). If, following discussions with your supervisors and Director of Graduate Studies, you believe you have good reason for deferring your application for confirmation of status, you can submit an application to defer the confirmation on a GSO.14b form (this form is filled in via the My Student Record section of Student Self-Service). Applications for deferral will only be granted when there are strong academic grounds for doing so.

Components of confirmation of status

GSO form. Complete and submit a GSO.14 form.
Presentation and interview. Give a presentation of their research which will be viewed by two assessors, followed by an interview with the two assessors. Your supervisors must not be present at the interview. 'Supervisors' in this context means anyone in the supervisory team.
Additional materials. Provide a full thesis contents list, milestones of any remaining work to be undertaken and dates for the submission of draft chapters to the supervisors to comment on.

Applying for confirmation of status

Completing the GSO.14 form

You, your supervisors, your college and the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) in your department must complete the relevant sections of the the GSO.14 form, in advance of the presentation and interview. You should note that by signing the GSO.14 form, the Director of Graduate Studies is granting permission for you to apply for confirmation rather than granting the confirmation itself.

As part of your GSO.14 form, you must ensure that you include the thesis contents list, milestones of any remaining work to be undertaken and dates for the submission of draft chapters to your supervisors to comment on. These details may be uploaded as the Confirmation documents.

When reviewing your GSO form, the Medical Sciences Board expects:

A contents list (ideally appended) that shows that you have given some thought to the structure of your thesis and should include sub-headings for each chapter
Milestones to completion of outstanding work should have a sentence of explanation to justify the time estimated

Please ensure that this information is clearly presented, so the assessors are easily able to consider this information.

The presentation and interview

Your GSO.14 form must include the details of two assessors; your supervisor and Director of Graduate Studies will select and appoint the two assessors and oversee the arrangements for your presentation and interview. The format of the presentation will be determined by your department. Following the presentation, you will be interviewed by the two assessors. Your supervisors must not be present at the interview. 'Supervisors' in this context means anyone in the supervisory team. The Guidelines for Confirmation of Status Assessors in the Medical Sciences is made available to assessors by the department.

After the interview

Following the presentation and interview, the assessors will report to the Medical Sciences Board on your suitability for confirmation of DPhil status. The recommendation reported by the assessors will be based on the information provided in/with the GSO.14 and in the supplementary information from you in conjunction with your presentation and interview.

The Medical Sciences Board's decision on the assessors recommendation will usually be available 2-3 weeks following submission of the GSO.14 and assessors' recommendation to the divisional Graduate School Assistants. The decision will be communicated to you by email.

If your 1st application for confirmation of status is not approved, you will be permitted to make one further application, following the procedures detailed above, normally within one term of the original application and will be granted an extension of time for one term (i.e. if you made your 1st attempt to confirm in your 9th term, you will be granted an extension until the end of your 10th term to complete your 2nd attempt to confirm).

Ideally, there should be a gap of at least three months between completing your confirmation of status and submitting your thesis. You should refer to the Research Degrees Examinations section of this site for full guidance on submitting your thesis.

Resources

Confirmation of Status Assessors' Report Form (1st attempt)

Confirmation of Status Assessors' Report Form (2nd attempt)

Guidelines for Confirmation of Status Assessors in the Medical Sciences