Course Handbook - Faculty of History

You should bear in mind when planning discussion of your drafts with your supervisor that
from the end of June your supervisor is likely to be away from Cambridge for some or even
much of the vacation.
You may be asked to attend a viva voce examination on your dissertation. This will not be
decided until after the MPhil examiners have met and would not therefore take place before
October.
It is particularly important that overseas students wishing to return home by a specific
date inform the MPhil Office if they wish to submit the dissertation early. However,
students may not submit more than a month early. Only in exceptional circumstances
and after application to the MPhil Sub-Committee by 2 May 2011 will students be
permitted to submit earlier. Students should also be aware that those who hand in their
dissertations too early may jeopardise their chances of producing a dissertation to the
required standard.
7.3 Applying for an extension
To apply for an extension of the submission date for the dissertation, there is a formal
procedure laid down by the Board of Graduate Studies which must be followed. This may
only be granted where there are grave and convincing reasons for a delay in submission.
These reasons will normally be either medical or personal. The form with which to apply for
such an extension is available to download from your CamSIS website.
All applications for deferral of submission must contain:
• Board of Graduate Studies deferral of submission application form
AND the following supporting documentation:
• If Medical reasons – copies of medical certificates/letter(s) from Doctor or other
medical official (eg physiotherapist, counsellor, etc)
• If Personal reasons – letter from the College Graduate Tutor, MPhil Course
Director/Chair/Secretary
• If visa extension – appropriate evidence, a communication from the University’s
PBI/Visa office
• If other reason – appropriate evidence to be supplied before the application can be
considered.
If in any doubt about this procedure, please contact Miss T Blackman in the MPhil Office for
advice.
Regulation 12 (Statutes and Ordinances, p 413) states:
12. If the Tutor of a candidate for the MPhil Degree (one-year course), for the MPhil
Degree (two-year course), or for any Diploma or Certificate for which candidates
are required to be Graduate Students, supplies the Board of Graduate Studies
with satisfactory evidence that the candidate has been hindered by illness or other
grave cause in preparing for or taking the examination or any part of the
examination for the degree or other qualification concerned, the Board shall have
power, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the relevant regulations.
either (a) to approve the candidate for the degree or other qualification without
further examination, provided that no candidate shall be so approved unless the
Degree Committee concerned judge him or her to have performed with
credit in a substantial part of the examination,
23