The culmination of your hard work is when you get the opportunity to present the novel findings of your research in the form of a thesis and then defend them at a viva.

They highlight all that you have learned and how you have developed intellectually during the course of your study. Your thesis is probably going to be the biggest body of writing you have ever written by this point, and, along with your viva, will be an exciting but challenging experience you will probably never forget!

And you need to plan for this moment:

  • To be able to submit your thesis, you need to complete your examination entry on MyImperial no later than 44 months after the initial date of your registration and at least four months before you submit your thesis. This allows the College to appoint your nominated examiners as well as confirming you have completed all your markers and milestones.
  • Together with your supervisor, you should talk about suitable examiners, both internal and external
  • Details of what is required are available on the College website, but you will also receive further guidance from your department and your supervisor.

 Imperial College London has an Open Access policy in relation to its students’ theses. This means that when you finish your thesis, it will be made publicly available through the Imperial’s open access repository, Spiral. Since the thesis will be openly accessible it is important that copyright laws are not infringed through use of material copyrighted by journals.

In some cases, it may be necessary to delay the release of a thesis to the public - this is referred to as an embargo. This can apply when the thesis involves specific intellectual property (IP). Intellectual property is the term used to describe creative outputs from scientific, engineering, literary and artistic endeavours that can be legally protected - such as the results arising from research.

If you want advice on preparing your thesis, your supervisor will be able to suggest support and resources for you; below you can find some key resources and workshops that you may find helpful.

The Library have abundant information in their Preparing your Thesis for Submission webpages offering help and support on every step of the process.

The Library also have further details on:

The Graduate School offers:

Registry also offer guidance in relation to your thesis submission both prior to your viva and your final thesis submission after your viva.