Higher Doctorate Candidature
Welcome to your Higher Doctorate.
The Higher Doctorate is the highest qualification awarded by Flinders University. This is your opportunity to present for examination, your substantial body of published work that demonstrates a significant advance in knowledge in your field, produced since the conferral of your doctoral qualification.
The information on this page is provided to support you towards preparing and submitting your thesis for examination, and the final steps after examination.
Preparing your contextual statement and body of work
Your Higher Doctorate is an online degree which will take 3-6 months full-time to complete. Under the guidance of your Principal Supervisor, you will write a contextual statement and prepare your body of work in the format required for thesis submission. Please refer to your Enrolment Verification for specific details of your candidature.
Please refer to Section 2 of the Higher Doctorate Submission Rules for details of the thesis, which will require you to prepare front matter, a contextual statement and the body of work.
The contextual statement is the over-arching statement that commences the higher doctorate thesis. It is crucial to the success of the doctorate. It maintains many functions.
Firstly, it must connect the publications being assessed by examiners, showing their relationship, and the arc of knowledge they convey: the contextual statement presents the ‘story’ of your research.
Secondly, it must confirm the candidate’s authorship and role in the construction of this research, with attention to methodology, ontology and epistemology.
Thirdly and most importantly, the contextual statement confirms the contribution to knowledge, the discipline or the field of research.
Therefore, the contextual statement must demonstrate influence, impact, engagement and esteem in the international scholarly community, and for other stakeholders. Answering the following question may help a candidate frame their statement: What do we know now that we did not know before the publication of your research? To make this case, metrics can be deployed or more qualitative confirmations about impact, engagement and esteem as part of the prose of the contextual statement. More importantly, the candidate must show the scholarly debate emerging from their research and / or the change in international practice in a profession or field.
Noting the requirements of the contextual statement – and its pivotal role in the success of the higher doctorate – the length varies from between 10,000 words to 40,000 words in English. It must show the relationship between the scholarly outputs and then demonstrate how they are linked to create influence, impact, engagement and / or esteem. These variables cannot be assumed. The case must be made in the contextual statement.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the format of the thesis meets the requirements of the Higher Doctorate Submission Rules.
You have already confirmed your high-quality research publications that you will submit as your Higher Doctorate body of work. During your candidature you will need to ensure:
- You prepare copies of these publications (if electronic copies of your published works are not available then four hard copies must be provided to the Office of Graduate Research)
- If you include publications that are co-authored in your Higher Doctorate body of work:
- include a clear statement in prose in the contextual statement describing the percentage contribution of each author to the paper, from conceptualisation to realisation and documentation. This is in accordance with the Authorship of Research Outputs Procedures
- complete a Co-Authorship Approval Form[KJ1] from each of the other authors providing permission for the use of their work. This will be provided to examiners
It is your responsibility to ensure that the format of the thesis meets the requirements of the Higher Doctorate Submission Rules.
Prepare to Submit your Higher Doctorate
Soon after your enrolment commences, the HDR Examinations Team will contact your supervisor to request they nominate examiners. Refer to the Higher Doctorate Procedures for information about nomination of examiners and the examination.
There are a few tasks to complete for your Higher Doctorate thesis submission. Please review the information below.
Please submit an Intention to Submit form three (3) months before you are ready to submit your higher doctorate thesis.
Email the completed form to the HDR Examinations team at HDR.Exams@flinders.edu.au.
Section 6 of the Higher Doctorate Procedures outlines the requirements for examination at Flinders. This will help you understand the process and what to expect.
Refer to Section 2 of the Higher Doctorate Submission Rules for details of the Higher Doctorate thesis requirements:
- Thesis:
- Contextual Statement
- The body of work to be reviewed by the examiners (if electronic copies of your published works are not available then four hard copies must be provided to the Office of Graduate Research)
- Signed Submission of Higher Doctorate Form that includes a 150-word summary for graduation purposes
- Signed Co-authorship Approval forms
To submit your work please email hdr.exams@flinders.edu.au
Nomination of Examiners
For Supervisors
This process is confidential and candidates should not know their examiners or participate in the nomination process. Candidates can advise supervisors who they do not want to act as examiners on the Intention to Submit form. If you have not received this from the candidate, please contact hdr.exams@flinders.edu.au.
Before completing this form please refer to the Higher Doctorate procedures section 6.2 which outlines the selection criteria for Higher Doctorate examiners.
Higher Doctorate Examiners eligibility:
- Must be full professors with an international reputation
- Two of the three examiners must be from outside Australia
- They must have at least 10 publications in the last 5 years, including peer reviewed works
- They must be external from Flinders University and free from actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest with the supervisor, candidate or the other examiners.
- They must not be from the same institutions
Your Higher Doctorate thesis: final steps
Congratulations on your achievements in your higher doctorate. You are only a few steps away from finalising your completion.
You are not required to print a final version of your thesis, however you are required to upload a digital version to the Flinders library before you can receive your official graduation documents.
After the final version of your higher doctorate thesis has been approved by the University Higher Degrees by Research Committee, you will be emailed at your Flinders email address, with instructions to upload your thesis to the University's digital repository. Uploading your final thesis is a requirement of all HDR students.
There will be two steps to uploading your contextual statement and list of publications:
- Consideration of copyright material in your contextual statement and list of publications.
- Preparing your contextual statement and list of publications files. Note: you have the option of submitting two versions of your contextual statement. If you do not have copyright permissions for applicable sections of your contextual statement and list of publications, you will need to upload a master copy of your contextual statement and list of publications and a version of your contextual statement and list of publications for public access.
As per Section 8 of the Higher Doctorate Procedures, the contextual statement and list of publications accepted for the award of a degree will be uploaded to the University's digital repository shall be available for open access.
The advantages of Open Access to your contextual statement include:
- The research has a global audience, and candidates gain worldwide exposure and recognition
- More immediate access to research findings is available
- Access is independent of time, place and computer system/platform
- Contextual statements are protected from physical damage or loss
There are no costs involved in making your contextual statements available to a global audience.
For further information about graduation and conferral procedures, visit Graduation.
After completion of your degree and graduation you will have access to your Flinders University email for 12 months.
Due to restrictions placed on the university by external content providers, library access concludes after the last day of your enrolment.
Post-graduation Library access is available to Flinders University alumni for a modest fee and includes borrowing rights and access to a selection of listed databases.
We are extremely proud of your achievements as a Flinders graduate and would love to hear how your career progresses.
Flinders University Alumni, is a great way to keep in touch post-graduation and provides the opportunity to stay connected with the with Flinders University community.
Higher Doctorate Examination forms
The following forms are relevant to the examination process for higher doctorate candidates:
This form is for candidates to use when their own publications in their thesis have co-authors.
For each co-authored publication please use the following Additional Co-authorship form for each additional publication. The additional form/s can be added to your approval form to create one document by creating a PDF portfolio.
Create PDF Portfolios
- Open Adobe Acrobat and choose File > Create > PDF Portfolio.
- Drag files into the Create PDF Portfolio box. Alternatively, choose Add files from the Add files menu. Continue to add the files you want to combine.
- Click Create to add the files to the PDF Portfolio.
- Save
Students are encouraged to use the following template as the title page of their thesis.
An intention to submit form gives your supervisor an indication of the date you intend to submit. The form also lists examiners you do NOT want your supervisor to recommend.
Complete the form below to submit your Higher Doctorate thesis for examination. Please ensure it includes a 150-word summary for graduation purposes.
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