1. General University Requirements
Candidates enrolled in PhD degree programs at the ANU are required to satisfy an attendance requirement. The minimum attendance requirement at the University is 18 months for full-time and 24 months for part-time candidates at the ANU; unless a candidate has approved external status (see 2. below), in which case the minimum attendance requirement is four weeks. Subject to any other requirements prescribed by the Prescribed Authority for any candidate, a period spent full-time or part-time in pursuit of the program at the University will qualify as a period of attendance provided the candidate:
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is resident in the Australian Capital Territory or within practicable travelling distance of the University by surface transport to permit daily attendance;
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regularly attends appropriate seminars or workshops in the University;
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is in frequent contact with supervisors; and
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is available for contact with other members of the University as required.
The University believes the completion of a PhD degree program is more than submission of a thesis, however good. Rather, it is an indication of having participated in a process of higher education which has many important elements.
The primary purpose of undertaking a PhD course at the University is the completion of excellent research, education and training, and carrying out of a research project leading to the production of a thesis which meets the highest standards of the world's universities. The University provides exceptional opportunities for achieving this purpose, as may other approved locations.
Furthermore, a PhD program at the University contains other educational elements. These include the intellectual exchange in the supervisor-student relationship; in seminars; in contact with other students and with other academics; and in participation in the day-to-day intellectual and social life of the University. It is this wider view of the PhD program which leads the University to make attendance requirements for PhD candidates.
2. Guidelines For Externally Based Students
The University recognises that there are externally based students where other arrangements are acceptable. The Graduate Degrees Committee may vary the attendance requirements (see 33(1) Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Rules) where the academic objectives of the program can be met with other attendance requirements and where it is appropriate for the ANU and not another institution to be the degree-awarding institution.
For example externally based candidates may be:
PhD candidates working elsewhere in institutions which are linked with the University, such as Cooperative Research Centres or other research institutions where a co-supervisor or adviser is available. The close relationship such candidates have with University academic staff because of their involvement in a Centre, and the facilities and intellectual climate available through the institution provide an appropriate location for pursuit of a PhD program;
staff in other universities who have research interests in common with academic staff of the University. These situations could entail long standing contacts and even joint publications. In such cases, the established careers of those academics and the nature of their working relationships with ANU staff may be grounds for the Committee to approve external status;
PhD candidates working elsewhere where the research can be undertaken and supervised in a manner satisfactory to the Committee on the recommendation of the Delegated Authority.
The candidate, irrespective of where he/she is usually resident, must normally spend a minimum period equivalent to at least four weeks in each year of enrolment at the University, or such period as is required by the chair of the supervisory panel and the Prescribed Authority. The dates of periods of residency must be indicated by the chair of the supervisory panel in the candidate's annual report.
During the program, the candidate must present to an appropriate department or program at the University an equivalent number of seminars as candidates based at the University.
The Chair, on behalf of the Graduate Degrees/Programs Committee, will approve applications that in his/her opinion conform to the requirements set out above, including approval of the minimum period of attendance, and report any approved variation of the minimum period to the committee. At his/her discretion, the Chair may refer an application to the full Committee for consideration.
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