Confirmation Review

The first  Confirmation Review viva must be take place within 12 months of your initial registration and, where a second attempt is required, this must be completed within 18 months or initial registration (pro rata for part-time students). To achieve these deadlines, you should submit your confirmation review report at 9 months, to allow time for a viva to be arranged and conducted and work to be assessed. If you have had an approved leave of absence, this will be taken into account in calculating the deadlines. 

Guidance for writing the Confirmation Review report

The report should be at least 7000 words long and around 40 -50 pages (excluding appendices, references, Gantt chart and contents lists). The report should demonstrate a clearly formulated research question and should be concise but of sufficient length and depth that you can demonstrate the principal criteria for passing the Confirmation Review. 

The report should use Calibri or TUOS Blake font (or another font which occupies the same amount of space), at 12pt, and using 1.5 spacing.

Also to be included are:

• an appendix listing all work carried out

• an appendix with a detailed work plan and objectives for the remainder of the project

• a detailed Gantt chart indicating your plans for completion of a PhD within the next two years

• an optional appendix listing any other reports or publications you have written

In addition, you should update your TNA form, and complete your Data Management Plan.

A guide to formatting your Confirmation Review report is available below. 

Submitting your report

You will have been advised of your report deadline by the PGR Support Officer, if you are unsure, email the PGR Support Officer to check.  In general, for full-time PhD students, this is set at 9 months plus 2 weeks. For part-time students, this is 18 months plus 2 weeks, and for some students on EngD/CDT programmes, this is 21 months plus 2 weeks.

At submission you should:

• upload one electronic copy of your report to Turnitin via the 'Turnitin Similarity Check for MEC PGR Confirmation Review' page on Blackboard (MOLE) (see instructions below)

• upload a copy of your report, your updated, signed TNA, and your Data Management Plan to PROMPT (make sure you are connected to the University VPN)

Format of Confirmation Review Viva

You will be appointed two examiners for your Confirmation Review, and your first supervisor will normally also attend. You will be emailed with the details of your viva date by the PGR Support Officer once you have submitted your report. 

When the viva starts, you will give a 15 minute presentation, followed by an examination (a discussion between yourself and your examiners) of 30 minutes. You'll be informed straight away of the outcome, and given feedback on any areas of strength or weakness. Possible outcomes are:

• Pass – confirmation to continue towards submission of a thesis for doctoral status

• Resubmission with/without viva – deferral of a result pending a second attempt (either resubmission of report or report plus second presentation/viva, as advised by examiners) to take place no later than 18 months following the start of the student’s study

• Fail – student is transferred to an MPhil programme (normally only available following a second attempt)

Any student who fails their Confirmation Review and is transferred to the MPhil programme will have their time limit reduced in line with the MPhil time limit. For international students studying on a Tier 4 visa this change will also need to be reported to the UKVI (in line with normal procedures). Students who are transferred to MPhil will also need to inform their sponsor.