The reason for this is your nominated examiners need to go through a process of approval via the Subject Area Board (SAB) and the Research Degrees Examination Board (RDEB) Chair and this can take time.
If one, or in rare cases, both of your examiners do not meet the King’s requirements, then either one of these parties might suggest an Independent Chair or a new examiner nomination. In either of these cases your supervisor will need to re-think and re-submit the RD1 Form, in the case of a new examiner, or nominate an Independent Chair who will need approval and to accept the role.
Who must sign my RD1 Form?
- Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences
- King’s Business School
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine
- Dickson Poon School of Law
- Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences
- Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery and Palliative Care
The list of counter-signatories is available on our webpages. This is the responsibility of the supervisor or faculty staff to obtain – please be advised that we are unable to contact the counter-signatory on your behalf.
We know occasionally that problems can arise between you and your supervisor – the RD1 can be a useful opportunity to discuss expectations of the oral defence of your thesis.
- The Research Degree Office are unable to manage or deal with intra-faculty or supervisor problems.
- The Research Degree Office is unable to accept an RD1 Form without a supervisor's signature.
- We cannot process an RD1 Form without the requisite counter-signatory.
Submitting your RD1 form
In order for the form to be sent to the Subject Area Board (SAB) it is mandatory that the RD1 is fully completed with signatures from your supervisor, and in certain faculties, a counter-signatory. Once your form is complete and signed, please send it to our Research degree team.
How can I get a copy of the RD1 form?
You can download the RD1 form from the Research degree webpages. If you are struggling to download the form due to accessibility issues, then please contact our Research team directly at and we will send you an electronic Word copy as an email attachment.
What happens after I've submitted my RD1 form?
The Research Degrees Examination team will process your form and contact you via email once this has been completed.
The process is as follows:
- We will check your RD1 form thoroughly and ensure it has been fully completed. If there are any obvious issues, such as a lack of experience in examining UK-based PhDs or the location of the examiner, we will contact your supervisor and flag them. We will then send the RD1 Form to the SAB, copying in your supervisor, for approval.
- While we are waiting to hear from the SAB we send an initial “request for information” to your examiners. This means we can be ahead of schedule and notify the examiners of the need to ensure time is available in their schedule to undertake your Oral Examination and write up the Examiner Reports. If one, or both, of the examiners are not approved, then we will not confirm these appointments nor send them a copy of your thesis. Very rarely at this stage, more likely if there has been no prior contact between your supervisor and the examiner, an examiner may refuse the nomination themselves. When this happens we will immediately inform your supervisor.
- Once the SAB have confirmed their approval of the nominated examiners we will send the RD1 Form to the RDEB Chair for final approval.
- Once we have all approvals we will send your examiners a “Confirmation of Appointment to Examine” email. This will be copied in to you and your supervisor for your records.
Important to know: We receive a very high volume of emails and do not have the resources to personally respond to an RD1 entry email unless it has been requested. The generic email response shows we have received it and will be working on your request.