Today I learned something about examining PhDs

Today, our Research Student JJ had her Viva Voce examination today. In the last 3 years, we had to postpone her examination 3 times and once change her external examiner due to a shift of focus in her written submission and a sudden change of Director of Studies. JJ submitted her thesis with the feedback (via telephone conversation) of only one of her supervisors.

The leading up to the Viva was particularly traumatic. In the weeks prior to today, the external examiner contacted the internal examiner about his serious worries about the quality of the thesis. The internal examiner explained the possible choices the candidate had:

• Postpone the examination and revise the text
• Sit on the Viva examination knowing the examiners had reservations about the quality and level of the thesis and the possible outcome would be major correction in the best of situations, an MPhil award in the worse

JJ had a mock viva in February, one and a half months before submitting for her PhD. The mock examiners identified a few areas for concern and asked her to implement detailed and guided corrections to her thesis. When consulted, the mock examinations did not feel the guided changes had been introduced satisfactorily and the submission had been made without supervision.

When I explained the situation to JJ she did not agree with the examiners on the level of her thesis and believed it was a valid an articulated original contribution to knowledge. She wanted to use the Viva to defend her thesis. Besides, she felt she did not have much choice as, due to changes in supervision and staff at Wimbledon, she spent over 7 years on her PhD, 3 of which full time, and had exceeded maximum completion time. The University of Surrey had awarded her a special extension to complete her research degree.

As only an external supervisor could be present at the Viva, the internal examiner requested the mock examiner to attend and represent an institutional position. The day of the Viva started with a 45-minute delay. However, JJ was calm and ready for the challenge. She believed in her work and welcomed he opportunity to talk about it and defend it (as Tim O’Reily and literature on viva examinations points out, one can enjoy their Viva Voce examination).

The supervisor present was very concerned about the outcome as he had been worrying about the level of the written material all along. He felt the student should identify the original contribution to knowledge in the performance work and relegate the video documentation of the performance and the written text to a commentary. The student, however, was adamant that the contribution to knowledge was in the theory. This is a very common problem in PhD examinations as the degree requires not only to produce an original contribution to knowledge but to clearly identify what and where it is.

Only the examiners, mock examiner supervisor and candidate could be present at the Viva so, when the student and supervisor came out and the examiners were discussing the outcomes, I rushed to see how it went. This particular student’s completion had been one of my priorities during the 4 years I had been at Wimbledon. I felt the institution had treated her very poorly and that she required a little bit of additional support to complete her PhD. Both the supervisor and student’s faces were illuminated. When she screened her visual work for the examiners (which had seen it only on DVD format) their body language completely changed and that encouraged the student to put up a really strong thesis defence during her Viva culminating in the award of a PhD only subject to minor corrections, against all the odds.

I felt very proud of the student and I know I will be using this as a case study in my teaching and preparing students for their Viva’s. A researcher needs to understand the criteria for examination the fact that they are going to be examined in every single thing they submit. They also need to know that they need to produce and articulate a clear original contribution to knowledge. Of the student knows that and is confident, the award is not given until the Viva finishes. JJ taught me why in Spain, Vivas are called ‘thesis defence’