Pre-submission presentation

What the committee is checking at this stage

Whether you should get the PhD is decided later, by the external examiners. Here your RAC or Doctoral Committee is mostly looking at three points.

The first point is whether the work is complete. Every objective should have its results ready, and showing only a plan for the last objective will not satisfy them. Next they check if the thesis is consistent. The objectives in your synopsis, the chapters and the findings should match with each other. Last, is the thesis ready for outside examiners? Once it leaves the department, the committee’s name goes with it.

Suppose one slide says “data collection for objective 4 is in progress”. Then you are in trouble, and some committees will stop the presentation there itself and tell you to come again later. Sometimes an objective was dropped or changed in between. Tell this openly, and keep ready the minutes where the committee approved that change.

How universities in our five cities run it

The UGC rule itself is very short. Each university adds its own timing and paperwork, and that decides your calendar. We have put what we found in the regulations, as of October 2026, in the table below.

VTU asks for the synopsis in English, in VTU format, with a plagiarism report from the research centre. When the colloquium is not satisfactory, you have to repeat it within three months, and if the third attempt also fails, the registration is cancelled. For the full VTU steps you can read our VTU thesis guide. JNTUH also gives three attempts, with a minimum three months gap between them, and the committee may advise you to change the title. At Osmania the Pre-Submission Seminar is the last of three seminars, and you have to enclose its certificate with the thesis. See our Osmania guide and JNTUH guide.

In Bangalore University the colloquium happens in the PG department, in front of faculty and supervisors. You present your method and what your data collection and analysis produced. The chairperson sends the proceedings to the Registrar (Evaluation) on the same day or the next working day. The paperwork around it is covered in our Bangalore University guide.

A slide plan for 20 to 30 minutes

First ask your guide how much time you will get. In many places it is 20 to 30 minutes for the talk and then questions. For that much time, 15 to 20 slides is enough. When scholars make too many slides, they end up rushing through the results in last five minutes, and results is what the committee came to see.

1. Title slide. Put the title exactly as it will come on the thesis. One of the committee member will check it against your synopsis.
2. The problem and the gap. Keep this to one or two slides, and name the studies that are closest to your work.
3. Objectives. Copy them word for word from the approved synopsis.
4. Method. Two or three slides covering design, sample, tools and analysis.
5. Results. For each objective give one or two slides. Show the main table or figure and write one line on what it means.
6. Chapter plan. A single slide listing the chapter titles with page counts.
7. Publications. The papers that came out of the thesis work, with the journal name, year and indexing.
8. Contribution and limits. What new thing the thesis adds, and what is outside its scope.

Many scholars are skipping the chapter plan slide. Please include it. It tells the committee the thesis is already written as a document, and is not only a set of results.

Bring the full draft along with the slides

Several universities expect the draft thesis to be ready by this stage. Osmania conducts its Pre-Submission Seminar with the draft thesis available. In Anna University, the CFR asks scholars to bring the completed first draft to the synopsis meeting of the Doctoral Committee. KTU also wants the synopsis and the first draft, in hard copy and soft copy, at its synopsis meeting.

Where the rules are silent, still carry printed copy of the draft. Many times a member will ask about one figure and want to see the page where it comes, so keep the copy on the table. Also, if the formatting is already near to your university’s rules at this point, you will save many weeks later. Our thesis formatting help can set the draft in the university layout before the session itself

The questions committees ask at this stage

The questions in a pre-submission session are more practical than in the viva. Expect questions like these.

• Is every objective of the synopsis met? In which chapter is objective 3?
• The sample size in the synopsis was different. Why did it change?
• Which chapters are based on your published papers, and have you declared it?
• What is your similarity score, and which software was used?
• Have you added the recent researches from the last two or three years?
• After what you actually found, is the title still correct?

Be ready with a proper answer for the similarity question, because some universities need the report before the session itself. For example, VTU wants a plagiarism report from the research centre along with the synopsis. Do your check early, so there is enough time to correct the text before you present.

Practise your answers aloud with our viva practice tool. If you want a full mock session with us over video, look at our viva preparation service.

Handling the changes they ask for

Mostly the session ends with a list of suggested changes. Note down each point during the session. While you are answering questions you cannot write properly, so request one junior scholar from your lab to sit and write the points for you.

Within a day or two, make a typed list of these points. Next to every point write what you plan to do about it. Show it to your guide and get his or her signature. Bharathiar expects the feedback from the pre-Ph.D. presentation to be included in the draft, and the steps after that are explained in our Bharathiar guide.

You need not argue every point in the room. Some member may suggest a thing that changes your research design itself. For that one, just tell them politely that you will talk to your supervisor and revert. Then really discuss it and write down the decision. In the viva, examiners sometimes ask what the committee suggested and what action you took, as explained in our viva preparation guide.

Plan the timing backwards from your deadline

In many universities the time starts running from this session. At VTU you have to submit the thesis within three months after approval, and every further extension needs a ₹2,000 penal fee. IISc gives six weeks after the colloquium for the PhD thesis. MANUU gives 90 days from the pre-submission seminar. In Osmania, the seminar must be held within the six months before you submit.

That is why you should book the session only when the draft is almost final. Then count back from your end date. Say your maximum registration period finishes in eight months. If the colloquium has to be repeated three months later, there may be no time left. Our PhD timeline planner shows these dates next to each other.