Why PhD theses get returned by examiners

What can a PhD examiner recommend at an Indian university?

Each examiner fills in the university’s report form and places the thesis in one category. The national regulations set the minimum; each university’s ordinance names the categories and says what follows from each. The table compares the UGC PhD Regulations, 2022 with the Anna University Regulations for Doctor of Philosophy R2025 (notified by circular dated 27 January 2025) and the Bharathiar University PhD Regulations 2024–25.

Two differences are worth noticing. Anna University calls revise-and-resubmit “defer the recommendation”, and the revised thesis goes back to the same examiner, who can then only recommend the award or reject the thesis (clause 18.3.1). There is no second round of revisions. Bharathiar uses the words “Commended” and “Not Commended”, and a report that is not commended by one examiner sends the thesis to a third examiner of the same kind, Indian or foreign.

Your university may use different words again. Find the report form in your ordinance or ask the research section for a blank copy. Knowing the exact categories before submission tells you what each outcome would mean for your timeline.

What do the UGC PhD Regulations, 2022 say about thesis evaluation?

The national rules sit in clause 11 of the UGC PhD Regulations, 2022 (notified on 7 November 2022). For a returned thesis, three parts matter:

• Clause 11(5): the external examiners. Your supervisor evaluates the thesis along with a minimum of two outside experts from other institutions, one of them from abroad where the university can arrange it. How the panel is proposed and appointed is explained in our submission and evaluation guide.
• Clause 11(6): the condition for the viva. The defence goes ahead only when both outside examiners support acceptance, once the corrections they asked for are made. One rejection is not final: the university must send the thesis to a further examiner from its approved panel, and a second negative verdict ends the attempt, with the scholar held ineligible for the degree.
• Clause 11(7): the time limit. Six months from submission to the declared viva result, for the whole process.

Notice what is missing. Clause 11 has no revise-and-resubmit category, no resubmission fee and no deadline for a revised thesis. It lets universities write ordinances to put the clause into effect, and each ordinance fills the gap its own way. That is why the next two sections quote university rules rather than UGC ones.

Why do examiners send PhD theses back?

Examiners are usually senior researchers reading a 200-page document with no one to ask. They return a thesis when they can’t find, in the text, the answer to a question they would have asked you in person. Most of the reasons fall into the rows below.

The last three rows are usually caught before an examiner sees the thesis. Anna University’s regulations, for example, require the thesis to be scrutinised for layout and presentation before it goes out (clause 17.4), the thesis to include the papers published in the journals listed on the Centre for Research website (clause 17.5), and the synopsis to be backed by at least one such paper (clause 16.2). The UGC similarity levels, and how universities apply them, are in our plagiarism limits guide; publication rules at other universities are in our guide to the PhD publication requirement.

The first three rows are the ones that matter most, and the pre-submission seminar is the best place to test them. A committee member who asks “what is new here?” and gets a vague answer is telling you what an external examiner will write.

How does resubmission work, and how long do you get?

The rules below are from the two ordinances we read. Other universities set their own, so treat these as examples and check your own ordinance for the fee, the time limit and the number of attempts.

Anna University (R2025)

• A scholar whose examiner defers the recommendation may revise and resubmit the thesis, with the resubmission fee, within six months. If the revised thesis is not submitted in that time, it is not accepted and the registration is cancelled (clause 18.3.1).
• The revised thesis goes to the same examiner, whose final recommendation can only be the award of the degree or rejection (clause 18.3.1).
• If one examiner recommends the award and the other rejection, a third examiner is nominated, and two of the three decide (clause 18.3.2). If both reject, the thesis is rejected and the registration is cancelled (clause 18.3.3).

Bharathiar University (2024–25)

• The time limit to resubmit a revised thesis is twelve full months (clause 20(t)).
• A candidate is not ordinarily allowed to resubmit the thesis, or take the viva, on more than two occasions (clause 20(u)).
• Any corrections or revisions the examiners insist on must be completed ahead of the public viva, backed by a supervisor’s certificate and a list of the pages changed (clause 20(n)).
• If both examiners do not commend the thesis, it goes to the Ethics and Grievance Redressal Committee for instructions (clause 20(l)).

Neither ordinance states the amount of the resubmission fee in the regulations themselves; it is set by the university’s fee notification. Ask the research section for the current figure. Resubmission for plagiarism is a separate route with its own time limits, covered in the plagiarism guide linked above.

How should you respond to an examiner’s report?

Many universities share the reports with the scholar, sometimes without the examiner’s name. If yours does, the response is the most important document you will write after the thesis itself, because at Anna University and many others it goes back to the same person who wrote the report.

1. 1

   Read the report twice, a day apart

   First for the recommendation, then for the detail. Most reports are more constructive on the second reading.

2. 2

   List every point

   Number each comment, including small ones buried in long paragraphs, in a table with a column for what you will do.

3. 3

   Agree the plan with your supervisor

   Decide which points need new analysis, which need rewriting, and which you will answer with an explanation instead of a change.

4. 4

   Revise the thesis

   Make each change and record the page and section where it now appears.

5. 5

   Write the response note

   A point-by-point reply: the comment, what you did, and where to find it. Where you disagree, say why, politely, with evidence.

6. 6

   Resubmit within the time limit

   With the fee, the forms and any certificate your ordinance asks for, well before the deadline.

What a good response note looks like

• It answers every point. An examiner who finds one comment ignored reads the rest of the response with suspicion.
• It shows the change. “Revised as suggested” is weak. “Section 4.3 now reports the normality test for each group (Table 4.6, p. 112)” is strong.
• It disagrees carefully. You may decline a suggestion if you have a reason. Give the reason and the evidence, and thank the examiner for raising it.
• It stays short. A table with three columns (comment, response, location) is easier to check than several pages of prose.

The method is the same one used to answer journal reviewers, and our guide to responding to reviewer comments has worked examples. Whatever you change, you will be asked about it at the viva, so prepare with our list of common PhD viva questions in mind.

Do not contact the examiner directly, even if you know who it is. Anna University’s research conduct rules list contacting an examiner about thesis evaluation as misconduct, and under clause 7.7 of its R2025 regulations any contact with the examiners about the evaluation report, by the scholar or the supervisor, costs the supervisor their supervisorship for five years.