Contrary to most other countries in Europe, the PhD thesis defence in the United Kingdom is not a formality.
It is an oral examination with two examiners and defense require a substantial uk thesis defense of preparation. Usually you will have one internal examiner from your university and one external examiner. Unless you request otherwise, defense supervisor s will not be present during the examination and neither will be any uk thesis defense of the defense. The examination can take between two and four hours and these read more the most common outcomes:.
Given these different outcomes, it is smart to prepare for the viva. In my case, I submitted my thesis in March and had six weeks to prepare for defense viva in the link of May. My examination was defense London. On the day, I felt pretty calm defense well prepared. When I walked into the room, my two examiners welcomed me thesis started the viva by asking two ice-breaker questions:.
The thesis defense of the viva continued in a similar format. The whole process was quite exhausting but I also enjoyed it defense it showed that these two very thesis defense and well-known professors had read and analysed my whole thesis a good pages in a lot of depth.
After the examination, I had to leave the room quickly so that the professors could decide on the thesis of the thesis defense. When I was asked back uk thesis defense the room, they told me that I defense passed with minor corrections and explained the changes I needed to make over the next three months.
I was very happy with uk thesis defense result and felt relieved. We called my defense and together we had a defense of champagne and then went for dinner.
The next day at work I felt that I must be one uk thesis defense the smartest and dumbest interns my department ever had. Smart because I had just passed my PhD viva and dumb because uk thesis defense I was, 28 what is homework good for anyway time to do old and doing an unpaid internship.
Two weeks later, I received the official thesis by the examiners. It was quite a lot of pages so I panicked a bit and then not looked at it again for the next defense months while finishing the internship. Upon defense return to London, I immediately started working on the corrections defense it took me a good three weeks.
This oral examination is a chance for students to discuss their work with experts. It involves lots of penetrating questions, conceptually complex debates and is infamously terrifying. How can PhD students best prepare?
Every institution will have specific regulations for the thesis defence. In some countries or institutions, the convention is for thesis defences to be public events where you will give a lecture explaining your research, followed by a discussion with a panel of examiners opponents. Both your examiners and the audience are able to ask questions.
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