Two of my potential PhD referees are married to each other – is that a problem? Note: By Referees, I mean individuals who can support and validate my application for a PhD; for example, former lecturers or supervisors who have worked with me in the past and would be able to say whether I am suited for a research role.

I have been taught by a former associate professor of my university in one module for my undergrad degree, and his spouse taught two of my master's degree modules and co-supervised my master's degree dissertation. I am thinking of naming the both of them in their separate capacities as academic referees for my PhD application.

They are were not involved in teaching me at a joint capacity at any point in time and neither of them had to review the other's work with me.

However, I'm worried that an external reviewer of my application might think that they would influence each other outside of work, and that if one of them thinks favorably of me, so will the other. I don't think that is the case, as they are people of integrity with a strong moral code, but someone whose job is to review my application with trained skepticism might not see it that way.

I could adopt an 'if they don't ask, don't tell' policy, but that wouldn't be very honest, and even if it did work initially, having it resurface at some point in the future might land me in a lot of trouble if this behavior is considered questionable at best.

Can I ask them to be my referees, and will an external reviewer treat them as a single referee? Obviously the best outcome for me would be if:


They are treat as separate referees, as I think they should be.
I am not obliged to disclose their relationship anyways.
I don't expect this to be an issue.

I have been at departments where two spouses were faculty members. I have also received and evaluated applications where there were references for the same candidate from academics who I know are close collaborators and friends. In each case, the natural assumption was that they have their own careers, working style, students, collaborators, and -- of course -- opinions.

In this case, it is clear your exposure to them is in different contexts, and presumably their letters will make that clear. It is perhaps more likely than average that they will talk with each other about their letters as well (given they have more opportunity to do so!), but that happens all the time anyway.