Examination

The Part II thesis is examined by thesis and orally usually in 9th or 10th week of Trinity Term. The information for 2025/2026 is available from the links below.

PDF Information to Part II students 2025-6

Examinations Conventions 25-26

There are guidelines on what the Examiners are looking for in a Part II thesis. These guidelines were written by Professor George Smith, Chairman of Part II Examiners 1999-2000.

Guidelines for Preparation of Part II Thesis

Extract from the Examination Regulations for the Honour School of Materials Science Part II:

'Every candidate for Part II is required to submit a report on the investigations which they have carried out under the direction of their supervisor. The report on the investigations shall also include an abstract, a literature survey, a description of the engineering context of the investigation, and a special chapter to cover reflective accounts of project management, ethical and sustainability considerations, and health, safety and risk assessment. The report should be accompanied by a signed statement by the candidate that it is his or her own work. Candidates will be required to submit the coursework in the format and length specified in the Course Handbook and to the University approved online assessment platform not later than 4pm on the Monday of the seventh week of Trinity Full Term.  The report must be accompanied by a declaration indicating that it is the candidate’s own work and that the work is within the allowed word and page limits. Candidates seeking permission to exceed the word and/or page limits should apply to the Chair of Examiners at an early stage. Appendices are not included within the limits of the word or page counts of the thesis and, entirely at the discretion of the Examiners for each report, may or may not be read.'

  • Word limit: 12,000 words for the main body of the thesis, plus 3,000 words for the final chapter covering reflective accounts of project management (max 1,500 words), health, safety and risk assessment processes (max 500 words), and the ethical and sustainability considerations relevant to your project and its outcomes (max 1,000 words). These word counts exclude references, title page, acknowledgements, table of contents and the three Project Management Forms. All other text is included in the word count, including the abstract, tables and the figure captions.
  • Page limit: 100 pages. Page count excludes references, title page, acknowledgements, table of contents and appendices. Every other part of the report is included in the page limit. All pages of the thesis should be numbered sequentially.
  • If you feel that you have an exceptional case for exceeding the word and/or page limit, and you wish to seek permission to do so, both you and your supervisor should contact the Part II Project Organiser who will put your case to the Chair Examiners. Such a case should be made at the earliest possible stage. The Examiners will enforce the word limit strongly, and any thesis submitted over the word limit may be subject to penalties.
  • Appendices: the purpose of the above word and page limits is to prevent the excessive inclusion of material that is unnecessary for development of the key argument(s) of the thesis. Material which is additional to the main body of the thesis, e.g. further detailed data, may be included in appendices. However, whilst Examiners are required to consider the main body of the thesis, whether they read appendices is entirely at their discretion.
  • The thesis must include:
    • a one-page abstract;
    • a literature survey;
    • a brief account of the Engineering Context/Relevance of your project (a requirement of Accreditation);
    • a final chapter containing an account of the project management aspects of the investigation, health, safety and risk assessment processes, and the ethical and sustainability considerations relevant to your project and its outcomes; 
  • The thesis must be uploaded to the University approved online assessment platform (currently Inspera) not later than 4pm on the Monday of the seventh week of Trinity Full Term. You will be required to sign an electronic declaration on Inspera at the point of submission confirming that it is your own work and that it adheres to the previously described word and page limits. 
  • The thesis must be word-processed suitable for printing on A4 paper. The text should fit within a page area of 247 mm x 160 mm (i.e. top and bottom margins totalling 50 mm, and left and right margins totalling 50 mm) with a left hand margin of at least 30 mm (for ease of reading after printing and binding). The text should be double line-spaced. The typeface should be of at least 11pt size.  [Note that the requirements relating to the printed material need to be observed as a hard-copy will be printed subsequent to submission and retained in the library of the Department of Materials.] 
  • The viva voce examination is normally held in 9th or 10th week of Trinity Term. Please keep these weeks clear in your diary.

Marking

Your thesis will be read independently by two internal Examiners, or one Examiner and one Assessor, who will each allocate a provisional mark before the viva.

Those two marks are declared to all the Examiners just before the vivas begin.

Each thesis will be read by one of the two External Examiners.

After the viva the Part II Examiners discuss the marks from the two internal examiners/assessors and agree collectively a mark.

It must be stressed that in order to preserve the independence of the Examiners, you are not allowed to make contact directly about matters relating to the content of the exams or the marking of coursework. Any communication must be via the Senior Tutor of your college, who will, if he or she deems the matter of importance, contact the Proctors. The Proctors in turn communicate with the Chair of Examiners. If you have any queries about the Examinations or anything related to the Examinations, for example, illness, personal issues, please don’t hesitate to seek further advice from your College tutor, or one of the Department’s academic support staff.

 

Part II Prizes

Part II Talks

There is a prize of £450 and a medal from The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers for the best talk.

Best Project

The Armourers and Brasiers’ Company award a medal and a prize of £250 for the best MS Part II project.

The award is based on the recommendation of the Part II examiners, after the examination of the Part II thesis is completed.

The Armourers like to award the prize and medal at a formal presentation by one of their senior people, on a public occasion.