I don't know if this applies to universities, but at Lycée level at least, a "jury" can be a meeting of examiners after all the exams, to decide whether borderline cases should be moved up a grade or not, based on the candidate's school results and reports (tell any lycée students you know that their "dossier" really can make a difference!!). I know this from a teacher friend, but he isn't around just now to add any explanations...
"Soutenance" would be the oral exam concerning the student's paper, but whether your "jury" are the panel you do this with or a further stage in the process, you'll have to check.

Common UK university parlance.

I had to confront one of these at Oxford Polytechnic for my Law Dissertation in 1984.

Here's some indication that it is indeed used very commonly in the university context, in the UK at least. The French system is much more heavily into orals all round. In the UK, whilst some faculties use them anyway, some hardly use them at all and others use them for one of a number of reasons, among which are :

- borderline pass/fail
- borderline between two grades (generally used to see if they can bump you up a grade, if you pull out all the stops on the big day)
- suspected plagerism...

"Test panel" smacks of consumer testing of new products.

"Examining board" is right. Be careful not to use "examination board" as that is generally one of the terms used to describe the administrative body which sets the exam. Although, just to contradcit myself, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.


1 - http://www.music.sc.edu/AP/Grad/masterofm.html

University of South Carolina, School of Music.

Some of those in for a Master of Music have to perform before a jury to get through. This is referred to as a « jury examination ».


2 - http://athens.arch.ox.ac.uk/schoolarch/masters.html

University of Oxford - Taught Master’s Degree programmes – Archaeology.

Some candidates have to go through a « viva voce » examination, aka a « viva », an oral examination.


3 - http://les1.man.ac.uk/fssl/pg_guides/research/examinat.htm

University of Manchester. Basic examination rules for PhD / MPhil candidates.
« Oral Examination (or viva) : All candidates for the degree of PhD will be required to attend an oral examination or viva. M.Phil candidates are not usually required to attend such an examination. The supervisor should liaise with the internal examiner on the timing of the examination and candidates should consult with them concerning this.
Through the viva the examiners satisfy themselves that the thesis is the candidate's own work and clarify any ambiguities in the thesis. The viva also allows the candidate to relate his/her work to a broader field of study and demonstrate a knowledge and appreciation of adjoining fields which is up to the standard expected for the award of the degree. »