Most of what governs a CQUniversity thesis sits in one place: the Research Higher Degree Theses Policy and Procedure. It is worth downloading properly rather than skimming, because it is unusually specific about some things and deliberately silent about others, and knowing which is which saves a lot of anxious guessing.
This guide covers what it says, what the companion Examination Policy and Procedure adds, and where you will need to ask your supervisory panel instead.
Who this applies to
The theses policy covers Masters by Research, Masters by Research (Offshore), the Doctor of Education, the Doctor of Philosophy, PhD (Offshore), PhD (by Portfolio) and the Doctor of Professional Studies. It explicitly does not cover undergraduate honours theses, which follow course-specific rules instead.
Thesis length
CQUniversity frames length as guidance rather than a hard boundary. The principle stated first is that the thesis should demonstrate technical skill, appropriate methodology and a contribution to knowledge consistent with the degree, and should not be unnecessarily long.
| Degree | Indicative maximum |
|---|---|
| Masters by Research | Should not exceed 50,000 words |
| Doctor of Philosophy | Should not exceed 80,000 words |
| Professional practice doctorate (EdD, DProfStud) | Should not exceed 60,000 words |
| PhD by Portfolio | No stated figure; agreed at the Thesis Proposal milestone |
| Exegetical component, Masters by Research | No more than 30,000 words |
| Exegetical component, doctoral degree | No more than 50,000 words |
The policy does not say what counts toward these figures. There is no statement about whether references, appendices, tables or footnotes are included or excluded. Agree the counting convention with your supervisory panel early and write it down, rather than assuming your discipline's habit applies.
Choosing a thesis format
CQUniversity recognises five formats:
- A traditional monograph.
- A thesis with publication, where one or more chapters are published, peer-reviewed outputs or non-traditional research outputs.
- A thesis by publication, where all substantive chapters are publications, plus an introduction and a conclusion.
- A PhD by Portfolio, a special case where you enrol in a separate degree and most publications were generated outside candidature.
- A creative work with exegesis, covering visual arts, media arts, literary, drama, musical and performing arts work.
The University deliberately does not prescribe a minimum or maximum number of publications, or what type they should be. That is a decision for you and your panel, weighed against the AQF requirements for your degree. Make it before you start writing, not after.
Presentation
| Element | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Paper | A4 international standard |
| Margins | Mirrored, 3.18 cm inside and 2.54 cm outside |
| Printing | One or both sides |
| Line spacing | 1.5 with Harvard style, double with APA |
| Typeface | Times New Roman 12, Arial 11, Calibri 12, or similar in size and appearance |
| Title page | No page number |
| Front matter | Lower-case Roman numerals starting at i |
| Main text and end matter | Arabic numerals starting at 1, in the footer |
| Language | English, with minor passages in other languages only for direct citation or verbatim participant comments |
The title page
The title page of every volume gives, in this order:
- The full title of the thesis
- Your full name
- The qualification for which the thesis is submitted
- Central Queensland University — the policy is explicit that it must be listed this way, not as CQUniversity Australia or any other abbreviation
- The month and year of the thesis conferral date, as advised by the School of Graduate Research
The School in which you did the work and the names of your supervisory panel are optional additions.
Two details trip people up here. The name has to be written out in full, and the date is the conferral date advised to you, not the date you happened to finish writing.
Order of the thesis
- Title page
- Abstract, no more than two A4 pages, giving a synopsis, the nature and scope of the research, and the contribution to knowledge
- Personal acknowledgements
- RHD Thesis Declaration
- Table of contents
- Table of tables and figures and other captioned content
- A list of publications and presentations arising from or relevant to the thesis
- Main text
- References
- Appendices, labelled Appendix A, Appendix B and so on
The RHD Thesis Declaration
This is not something you draft yourself. Template wording is available on Research Moodle, and candidates are not permitted to adjust the wording. You may omit sections that do not apply to you, but you may not rewrite them.
The declaration covers authorship and originality, a copyright statement, acknowledgement of financial support including Australian Government support, acknowledgement of industry engagement or access to external facilities, and acknowledgement of any professional editing and proofreading services used.
What CQUniversity deliberately does not tell you
Section 4.27 of the theses policy is unusually candid. The University does not provide guidance on specifics such as how page numbering should be handled within publication-based theses, where reference lists should sit, or how table and figure captions should be numbered. Those are decisions for you and your supervisory panel, subject to three principles:
- Examiners must never be left in doubt about the status of any submitted material, whether it is published, accepted or still under submission.
- The thesis must not infringe copyright in any way.
- The thesis must form a cogent research narrative throughout.
The same applies to referencing style. The policy requires an accepted referencing system appropriate to your discipline, and says the Library holds publications on thesis preparation, but it does not name a style. Ask your panel, then apply your choice consistently.
Including published work
If you are including your own publications, the policy is detailed. Work can be included where it is substantively yours, usually shown by primary authorship; where it was published, accepted or submitted during candidature; where the content clearly relates to and contributes to the thesis argument; and where it is presented so the thesis still reads as one cohesive narrative.
Work published outside candidature can be included, but it must carry a statement that it has not been presented for a previous qualification, and it must be listed under a heading identifying it as previously published work relating to the thesis, but not forming part of the examinable material. Previously published material is not expected to form the majority of the thesis, and including it does not shorten your minimum study period.
Three headings matter, and they mean different things:
- Publications by the Candidate Relevant to the Thesis — examinable published work, with full bibliographic citations.
- Additional Publications by the Candidate Relevant to the Thesis but not Forming Part of it — work published during candidature that is ancillary to the core argument.
- Previously published work relating to the thesis, but not forming part of the examinable material — work from outside candidature.
For every jointly authored publication in the examinable material, you supply a separate declaration describing your contribution and the direct contribution of each other author, and telling examiners clearly what is fully published, under review or submitted. Template wording is on Research Moodle. If a co-author is also an RHD candidate anywhere, you must state that the publication will appear in both theses and attribute each candidate's contribution to conception, design and writing.
Copyright is not optional
Where copyright has been assigned to a publisher, you should seek permission to reproduce the work in your thesis, even though you wrote it. CQUniversity provides a template permission letter on Research Moodle for any case where the publisher's policy does not explicitly cover thesis reuse. Where you have edited or adapted published material, you must show clearly where it differs from the published version. The policy is blunt that copyright takes precedence over the visual consistency of your thesis, so if house-style formatting has to survive into your document, let it.
A thesis by publication still needs original framing
Where the main text is entirely published work, the minimum treatment rule applies. At minimum, the thesis must contain:
- An introduction to the aims and design of your project, incorporating an independent and original review of existing work that is entirely your own writing.
- A framing chapter explaining how the work fits the scholarly literature and the discipline through key theoretical, methodological and empirical questions.
- Chapters, represented by publications, forming a logical and cogent sequence that supports the main findings.
- An independent and original general discussion, entirely your own work, integrating the most significant findings and setting out prospects for future research.
Expanding on methodology or statistical treatment in appendices or added chapter text is encouraged. A published paper is written to a journal's word limit, and that limit usually strips out exactly the methodological detail an examiner wants.
Ethics and research integrity
Projects involving people, or their data or tissue, must be approved by CQUniversity's Human Research Ethics Committee and managed in line with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. CQUHREC meets monthly and publishes meeting dates and agenda closing dates on the research ethics page. Applications and enquiries go to [email protected].
The theses policy also lists what counts as research misconduct, and it is worth reading before you finish: fabricating data, falsifying data or changing records, plagiarism including self-plagiarism, misleading or false attribution of authorship, and failing to meet the University's ethical compliance requirements. Self-plagiarism is on that list for a reason. If you are reusing your own earlier work, reference it.
Proofreading
CQUniversity's arrangement is more structured than most. The School of Graduate Research maintains a list of approved professional proofreaders. Funding may be available from your approved candidature budget, but only for providers on that list, and only where you have submitted a quotation for approval before engaging anyone. Use someone off-list or skip the approval step and the cost is yours.
The University follows the Institute of Professional Editors best practice guidelines recommended by the Australian Council of Graduate Research, and requires you to read those guidelines and obtain your principal supervisor's approval before engaging a proofreader. Those guidelines draw a firm line between language editing and substantive rewriting. Knowing where that line sits protects you as much as it protects the University.
If what you need is help with structure and argument earlier in the process rather than a final language pass, that is a separate question from proofreading. Our thesis writing support is aimed at that stage.
Submission
The sequence is:
- Lodge the Advice of Intention to Submit a Thesis or Portfolio RHD form four weeks before your proposed submission date. This starts examiner nomination.
- Your supervisor advises the School of Graduate Research of any confidentiality, intellectual property or contractual requirements.
- Submit one electronic copy of the thesis to the School of Graduate Research in a secure format such as PDF. Sending it to your supervisor or anyone else does not count as submission.
- Include a full Turnitin report, matching the submitted document. Without it, the thesis is not released to examiners.
- Include a completed Submission of Thesis or Portfolio RHD form, separately rather than appended to the thesis.
If your principal supervisor does not support submission, you must contact the Dean of the School of Graduate Research for advice before submitting. You can still submit, but have that conversation first.
Enquiries about data deposit and the final thesis go to [email protected].
Examination
Every RHD thesis goes to a minimum of two external examiners plus at least one reserve. All examiners must be external to the University, and current or previous supervisors cannot be appointed. Your supervisor may ask you to name people who would be unsuitable because of conflicts, but participating in the nomination itself can result in an examiner being stood down. Once examiners are approved, neither you nor your panel may contact them until the examination concludes. If contact is made, that examiner's report is disqualified and another examiner is appointed.
The School of Graduate Research indicates that the process from submitted thesis to release of the moderated report takes approximately 12 weeks, though examiner responsiveness and the need to bring in a reserve can extend it.
The five outcomes
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| No amendments | Suitable for immediate conferral apart from minor textual or referencing corrections |
| Minor revision | Nominated passages, textual errors and referencing corrections, largely doable independently |
| Major revision with internal review | New data collection, new or revised analysis, substantive rewriting of chapters, or a large volume of presentation errors |
| Major revision and external re-examination | Substantive revisions requiring re-examination by technical experts |
| Fail | Not suitable for conferral even after extensive revisions |
Either major revision outcome requires you to re-enrol for a minimum of six calendar months, and you are responsible for any tuition costs in that period. That is a real financial consequence, and it is the strongest practical argument for not submitting before your supervisors think you are ready.
On re-examination, only three outcomes are available: no amendments, minor revision, or fail. Re-examiners see only the revised thesis. They do not see your table of revisions, your covering letter, or the original examination reports, and they assess the work against AQF descriptors as if fresh.
Where a doctoral thesis does not meet the standard for the degree but the research has merit, the Chair of Examiners may recommend that a Master of Research be awarded instead, subject to your acceptance.
Revisions and the oral defence
You prepare the revised thesis together with a point-by-point table of responses to examiner comments, get your principal supervisor's endorsement, and submit both. Indicate what you changed and give a rationale where you did not adopt a recommendation.
One warning from the policy worth quoting in spirit: having already published a section of the thesis in a peer-reviewed venue is not, on its own, an adequate defence for declining a suggested change.
An oral defence is not mandatory at CQUniversity. It can be requested by the Chair of Examination, by you, or by the Dean of the School of Graduate Research, either as a presentation of your findings or as an interview confirming revisions are complete. It does not attract a separate assessment report, and it can be held in person or by video.
Appeals go in writing to the Dean of the School of Graduate Research within 28 days of the decision.
After examination
Before the final deposit you must save a master copy of completed research datasets to the University's research drive, finalise your Research Data Management Plan, and submit a dataset record to Research Elements with appropriate Creative Commons licensing. One electronic copy of the final thesis goes to Research Elements for permanent deposit in ACQUIRE, the institutional repository. Your testamur cannot be issued until the School of Graduate Research confirms that copy has been lodged.
Theses are expected to be freely available. You can apply for restricted access where you intend to publish and open access would prejudice that, where free availability could have legal repercussions, where the thesis contains patentable or confidential material, or where it contains third-party copyright material. Restriction is normally approved for up to one year in the first instance.
There is no University requirement for hard-copy bound theses. If you choose to produce one, the colours are prescribed: black with gold lettering for PhD theses, burgundy with gold for the Doctor of Education, royal blue with gold for masters theses, and the candidate's choice for the Doctor of Professional Studies. You pay for binding.
Pre-submission checklist
- Length is consistent with my degree, and I have agreed with my panel what counts toward it.
- A4, mirrored margins of 3.18 cm inside and 2.54 cm outside.
- Line spacing matches my referencing style: 1.5 for Harvard, double for APA.
- Typeface is Times New Roman 12, Arial 11, Calibri 12 or similar.
- Title page names Central Queensland University in full and carries the conferral date advised by the School of Graduate Research.
- Abstract fits within two A4 pages.
- RHD Thesis Declaration uses the unmodified Research Moodle template wording.
- Page numbering: no number on the title page, Roman numerals for front matter, Arabic from the main text.
- Publication lists sit under the correct headings for their status.
- A co-authorship declaration exists for every jointly authored publication in the examinable material.
- Copyright permission obtained for any publisher-owned material reproduced.
- Ethics approval obtained and recorded.
- Proofreading, if used, went through an approved provider with prior supervisor approval, and is acknowledged.
- Advice of Intention to Submit lodged four weeks before submission.
- Full Turnitin report generated and ready to submit alongside the thesis.
- Submission of Thesis or Portfolio RHD form completed as a separate document.
The short version
CQUniversity is precise about the things that are easy to get wrong mechanically: margins, the exact name on the title page, declaration wording you cannot alter, the Turnitin report that gates release to examiners, and the four-week notice that starts the clock. It is deliberately open about the things that vary by discipline: referencing style, caption numbering, reference list placement, and how many publications belong in a thesis with publication.
Treat the mechanical list as non-negotiable and settle the discipline-specific list with your supervisory panel in your first year. The Course Rules sit behind both and are the document to check when something in your candidature does not match what a colleague tells you.
