Macquarie University, Australia

The case study chapter from Australia reports on interviews with seasoned examiners from Macquarie University, a public, metropolitan university in Sydney. It highlights several distinctive characteristics in PhD examination regulations and processes that apply in almost all Australian universities, in particular the stringent rules relating to the nomination of examiners (which aim to avoid conflicts of interest between examiners and the candidate or his/her supervisors) and the fact that there tends to be no oral examination component in PhD assessment. Drawing on their extensive experience both as examiners and as supervisors, informants share candidly what frustrates them and brings them joy in PhD examination, touching on matters such as what makes a PhD different from a Master's thesis, how they respond to borderline theses and those with non-standard English, the role of the supervisor post thesis submission, and how Australia's PhD standards compare with those from candidates in other countries.