In order to meet the requirements for a doctorate degree, a candidate must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the exam committee that they have undertaken original research that may be published in whole or in part.

Through the written thesis and oral defense, individuals must show that they can:

 • Evaluate the state of research in their field.
   Create insightful questions to delve into the unknown.
   Select and, if required, create methods that are well-suited to addressing these issues.

• Convince others that these are important questions to ask, and that these methods will provide useful results within a reasonable time frame.
  Be open to unexpected or unplanned results while using such methods in a thorough and practical way to get solid, trustworthy solutions to the problems at hand.

• Be willing to take criticism of their work in stride, defending it vigorously while making necessary adjustments to the interpretation or analysis.

• Share their results with the broader research community in a timely, open, and accessible way, giving credit where credit is due.

• A dissertation (or its equivalent) and, in most circumstances, a comprehensive oral examination are required for the PhD, EngD, MPhil, and MA/MSc (by research) degrees.

 
• The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Doctor of Engineering (EngD) are Doctoral degrees (level 8 of the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in Degree-Awarding Bodies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (FHEQ) and third cycle (Doctoral) qualifications within the Qualifications Framework for the European Higher Education Area (QF-EHEA)).

Master's degrees (level 7 of the FHEQ and second cycle credentials within the QF-EHEA) include the MPhil and MA/MSc (by research). 

• A thesis will be defined as a piece of work that a competent, qualified, and hard-working PGR, with the right resources and guidance, can accomplish within the standard time frame for the degree in question.

For the best PhD thesis prize, all PhD recipients from the last two years (as reported by the academic office) are eligible to apply, and this includes IITB-Monash program participants. The Best PhD Thesis Award is given out in the following way.

1) The office sends out an assessment of the final defense; however, over 40% of students don't get this report, making it impossible to evaluate them only on the basis of this document.
To help with this, we are asking ALL students to provide a copy of their publishing records using the attached form on the day of their defense. Most importantly, we learn the total H index and impact factor of all the student's publications in which they have been listed as the first author.
If a student's form is lacking while we're doing our first cut of the applicants, we get in touch with their adviser and have them fill out the necessary information on the student's publications by a certain date.
Fourthly, a student's overall "H index" (first-author publications only) determines where they fall in the rankings. The top students are evaluated based on a number of factors, including but not limited to: cumulative impact factor, number of patents, number of conference presentations, number of book chapters, and number of thesis assessment reports (if available).