Graduate Studies
PhD | Dissertation preparation | The viva
The viva
The examiners will contact you to arrange a viva. The viva can be fairly short or may last for several hours. During the viva, examiners will discuss your work in detail. In addition, you will be expected to defend your thesis, to clarify anything which might be unclear to the examiners, and to explore other points which you may not have had space to develop.
Following the viva, the examiners may indicate an outcome of the examination process, and may release corrections to you. However, you must be aware that the formal process for awarding a PhD is as follows:
- examiners agree on a joint recommendation on the outcome of the examination process and pass this to the Degree Committee
- the Degree Committee considers that recommendation and passes its decision to the Board of Graduate Studies (in the majority of cases this is straightforward, and the Degree Committee ratifies the examiners' recommendation)
- the Board of Graduate Studies considers the Degree Committee's recommendation and makes a final decision
- once the examination process is complete and the outcome is beyond dispute, you will be informed of the decision and copies of the examiners' reports will be sent to you
As the Degree Committee and the Board of Graduate Studies only meet once a month or so, and do not meet at all during the vacations, you should be prepared for some delay between the viva and receiving the final decision. If a viva is held late in the Easter term or during the summer, you need to be aware that if examiners' recommendations following the viva are not received in time for consideration by the Degree Committee at its July meeting, they will be held over for consideration in October.
