A PhD dissertation may be submitted as soon as it is ready for examination, at any point in the first or second semester.

• Submission during December is possible, but not recommended.

• Results are approved via a quarterly governance process, allowing those who have met all the requirements for the degree to apply for work, promotion, or a postdoctoral fellowship, usually within three months of the oral.
   

Graduation timeline

NB: As from 2026, SU hosts only a single, annual graduation series, held in March/April.

Inclusion in a specific calendar year's annual graduation series can unfortunately not be guaranteed, as this depends on how the examination process unfolds. This holds regardless of when a dissertation may be submitted. Final recommended submission dates are provided to help secure your inclusion in a particular governance cycle for the approval of results. This process is a prerequisite for the issuing of a Letter of Completion, and for Graduation.

Should the timelines leading to a particular graduation series be missed, the student must re-register to comply with higher education regulations, as graduation will be delayed by a further year. Where a student exceeds the maximum programme duration of five years, however, continued registration will require special permission from Senate.

A dissertation is welcome at any point before the maximum duration is reached. Our team is committed to the professional and efficient facilitation of your examination.

• Six months prior to submission, the PhD candidate submits an intention-to-submit form to the Tygerberg Doctoral Office at [email protected], signed by a supervisor and an HoD other than the supervisor.
  • Form: Intention to Submit
     
• Academic environments nominate examiners by six months prior to submission, to allow time for the appointment / governance process.
  Steps: The supervisor/s may suggest examiners to the HoD. Once the HoD has agreed, the supervisor should informally approach each examiner to request their availability and to obtain their full CV. The HoD will be able to advise who chairs the relevant Postgraduate Programme Committee (PPC). The PPC recommends the nomination by submitting a report and nomination form to the FMHS Committee for Postgraduate Research. The nomination form should include a cell number and be accompanied by external examiners' CVs. No dissertation may be submitted to examiners if they have not been recommended by the Committee for Postgraduate Research (CPR). Please take note that the SU Senate may refuse to approve examiners and results at the same meeting, making timeous nomination essential.​
  • A PhD examiner should hold a doctoral degree. More information about eligibility for PhD examination is available in this document.
  • As far as possible, one internal SU examiner and two external examiners should be nominated for each doctoral candidate.
  • Form: Nomination of PhD Examiners form
     
• Directly prior to submission, allow sufficient time for formatting the final manuscript (click here for formatting guidelines) and thereafter producing a Turnitin report (scroll down for more)
   
• Produce a Turnitin report using the Postgraduate Office Turnitin Sandbox
  • Avoid uploading your articles or dissertation to the Turnitin repository
  • You may exclude matches smaller than three words or 1%
  • Should your own published articles be included in an online repository,
    you may exclude these from the report
  • Aim for a Turnitin similarity score of no higher than 15%

(1) Format of an FMHS dissertation

(2) Do use the standard format SU dissertation cover page
Joint degrees should have a separate SU title page followed by the partner institution’s title page, according to their format, or vice-versa, depending on which is the home university

(3) The title on the dissertation must match the final, Senate-approved title exactly

(4) Do include your student number prominently on the initial pages

(5) As far as possible, use Calibri or Cambria font throughout a dissertation

(6) Declarations
(a) Inclusion of the Plagiarism Declaration is compulsory across SU
(b) A compulsory declaration on the use of artificial intelligence or large language models will soon be finalised, but this interim statement may be used/adapted as suitable in the meantime - supervisor/s to provide guidance in this regard

(7) Prior to submission of a full, final draft, take personal responsibility for proofreading the entire dissertation using the built-in MS Word spelling and grammar check, set to UK or South African English, or that of a different word processing package

(8) Every doctoral dissertation must be copy and language edited to a high standard of professional finishing, before submission for examination - should you need professional help, you are welcome to employ any of the service providers on this list, all recommended by academic staff in the FMHS (type 123456 to open the document)

(9) Please see the SU Postgraduate Office Guidance on formatting of a thesis or dissertation or download the older PG Office guidance on dissertation formatting requirements, both intended to assist with practical implementation of the relevant SU Calendar requirements

(10) A doctoral dissertation is usually no shorter than 70,000 words, and no longer than 90,000 words, inclusive of cover pages and references (and exclusive of annexures)

(11) You may follow the language use conventions in the SU Style Guide

(12) Following the oral examination and final revisions, should you then want to print and bind your final dissertation, particulars are available from Ms Colette Wilson ([email protected]) of African Sun Media, K-floor, Clinical Building, Tygerberg Campus; tel 021 938 9547. Printing is entirely optional; as the examination and SunScholar upload are conducted using the electronic document.

Submit for examination by sending a single mail to [email protected], copying your supervisor/s, and attaching (rather than linking) the following three documents, all in PDF format, 

(1) Latest version of the Dissertation release form signed by the supervisor/s and the HoD

(2) Final, approved dissertation in PDF, incorporating the compulsory SU Plagiarism Declaration and where preferred / suitable, a declaration on the use of AI or LLMs.

(3) Separately, the Turnitin report on the very final version of dissertation (compressed​ as necessary)​, indicating a similarity score of no more than 15%.

In case of a joint degree, where SU is not handling the examination, do inform the Tygerberg Doctoral Office at [email protected] that the dissertation is being distributed for examination.
 

• Upon submission: The period directly after submission is ideal for preparing and submitting an article for publication in an indexed journal; or where relevant, to kickstart the licensing or patenting process via Innovus. 

• After submission, if all parties respond positively, and no substantial revisions are required, the examination process can take about ten weeks. Once all examiners have submitted (positive) reports, an oral examination is scheduled. On completion of the oral, the supervisor/s should submit a final report on the dissertation and examination process. Once all these documents have been received, the result is ready for consideration by Senate. If the supervisor report is submitted by eight weeks after the final cut-off date, the formal governance process can take approximately three months.
  *This requirement applies equally in the case of a joint degree.

• Oral examination: The written examination is completed before the oral examination is arranged. The revised dissertation is usually available ahead of the oral. At the oral, the candidate must be able to satisfy all concerns of the examiners. More information on the oral arrangements is available here. Directly following the oral examination, the supervisor submits to [email protected] a final report, on this template. 

• SunScholar upload and Abstract: After the oral, the final, approved dissertation is uploaded to SunScholar, as a formal prerequisite for graduation. The relevant student and staff numbers will be required and the appropriate embargo will need to be confirmed in the case of material still to be published or patented. Thesis Management is handled on SunStudent, as per the information at this link. For further assistance, please email Ms Paulette Talliard at [email protected]. The SU library is the custodian of SunScholar and provides more information at this link. The final abstract should be included in all three languages of the university prior to upload.
  Joint degrees: The requirements apply equally in the case of a joint degree, though the joint agreement may specify the translation of the abstract into an additional language. 

• Dissertation title: The title on a doctoral dissertation must in all cases correspond to the Senate-approved title. Should a title change be required, this must be motivated via a departmental PPC report. Should any change in focus, scope, or depth be implied, the student may be required to conduct a new proposal review process, followed by a revised ethics application. 

• A formal letter of completion is automatically issued by the registrar's division upon Senate approval of the result. Should you require a letter of completion at an earlier stage, this can be requested, but only after the result has been approved by the Committee for Postgraduate Research, which meets quarterly. After approval of the result by the CPR, a letter of completion may be requested from Ms Megan Jantjies ([email protected]) of the registrar's division.