Confirmation of Candidature

The Confirmation milestone consists of the following:

1. Oral Presentation  
The Oral Presentation is a formal seminar presentation to the School. You cannot substitute this with another seminar or conference presentation at the Confirmation milestone. The presentation should be
  • 30 minutes in duration, including 10 minutes for questions
  • clear, concise and free of jargon; appropriate for an academic audience of non-specialists
  • an overview of the project - explain the topic, the rationale of the approach and the current state of research in this area, outline key concepts and theoretical issues, detail the methodology, and outline the planned chapter structure
2. Written Document
The written document is submitted by the candidate on the Tuesday following their seminar presentation. The document should
  • be approx 5,000 words (PhD) or 3,500 words (MPhil) in length. Although some variation to this length is allowed at the discretion of the advisor. For example, Applied Linguistics candidates usually submit 8,000-12,000 words.
  • include the thesis statement, the rationale of the research and where it fits in the research of the field, a literature review, a description of key concepts and theoretical issues, details of the methodology, a provisional chapter outline (one short paragraph per chapter), a proposed timeline to thesis submission and a statement of resources and skills required to complete the project.
  • provide evidence of seminar attendance and ethics approval, including a statement of your fulfilment of ethical clearance requirements, a refined research plan, a narrowed research topic, a specific methodological framework and appropriate academic writing skills.
  • be free from any editorial errors
3.  Document Submission by Candidate
Prior to submitting it to the committee, candidates should revise their milestone document in the light of feedback given at the seminar. By the Tuesday following the seminar, the milestone document should be submitted by the candidate to all committee members (including the Postgraduate Co-ordinator, reader and advisory team) and cced to postgrad.slccs@uq.edu.au  (The simplest way to do this is to "Reply All" to the e-mail sent by the Postgraduate Administrative Officer to the committee and student outlining the timeline for the milestone.)
4. Written Feedback from Committee Members
Written feedback from every committee member should then be sent to all committee members and the student, and cced to postgrad.slccs@uq.edu.au by the Wednesday prior to the interview. (The simplest way to do this is to "Reply All" to the e-mail sent by the Postgraduate Administrative Officer to the committee and student outlining the timeline for the milestone.) The SLCCS Confirmation Report Form should be used for this purpose. The candidate should use these reports (in consultation with his/her Advisors) to prepare oral responses for the interview.    
5. The Interview
Generally, the interview takes place 3 weeks after the oral presentation. However, the interview may be booked at a later date due to staff availability or other circumstances. Please ensure the seminar and interview dates are only booked with the postgraduate administrative officer after the candidate, advisory team and reader have all agreed to the dates and times. The interview may also be delayed if significant revision is required to the milestone document in view of seminar feedback.
The interview should
  • be 30-45 minutes in length
  • involve a discussion of committee members' feedback by participants to ensure the project is on track and viable
  • include a checking of resource implications
During the interview, the candidate and advisory team will also be interviewed separately to give feedback on the functioning of the Advisory team and to identify any issues that may need to be addressed.
6. Recommendation to the Dean of the Graduate School  
The committee makes one of the following recommendations:
  • the candidature should be confirmed
  • provisional candidature should be extended so that confirmation may attempted again at a later date
  • candidature should be terminated
The recommendation is made on the basis of the milestone document, oral presentation, interview, completion of ethical clearance and completion of seminar attendance requirements of LCCS and the Faculty of Arts .

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