No3. The PhD Viva and Some Common Problems with PhD Dissertations

I've just finished examining another PhD - it's a real privilege and an important moment that requires a lot of preparation and care. I realise that the candidate has devoted around 4+ years of their lives to this project and writing the thesis. The pressure on the candidate can be intense.

As an external examiner my role is firstly to attempt to put the candidate at ease - and to carefully remind them that this is not a 'personal attack' - but a great chance to test, question, and scrutinise their work.

I'm not there to try to 'pick' or attempt to undermine the work, but rather to ensure it stands certain tests and to ensure it reaches a certain level of quality.

I'm looking to ensure that the candidate can be trusted to run a research investigation independently and that they are capable of conducting rigorous research as well as capable of writing up their findings.

I'm particularly interested in their methodology and methods, and whether the data, results, and analysis is consistent, can be repeated. Second, I want to see that the analysis and conclusions can be reasonably extrapolated from their methods and data/results/evidence.

The work should also be, in part, publishable. This is not always easy to assess, because in theory almost anything is publishable (such as this post!) - but in this case we're looking at whether it might be publishable in a quality peer reviewed journal (subject to revisions, further review and so on).

Whilst the primary focus is the written thesis, in the viva I'm looking to see that the student can discuss their work, reflect on it, and engage in a critical discussion. This is mainly to convince me that they are indeed the author of the work, and that they could present it to peers.

Finally, I'm looking at the contribution to knowledge and how the work advances our field. Quite often the PhD is too ambitious - and there could easily be several theses within the one dissertation.

The main issues that I see when examining PhD theses are:

? Abstract lacking details on the key findings and being too contextual/descriptive.

?They're often too long. Cut out the unnecessary aspects and get to the point.

?Set out the method in a clear, almost obvious fashion. Tell the reader what you did, and how you interpreted/framed the results.

?Conclusions should explicitly discuss the findings of the thesis based on the evidence/data. This is not the time for new material, references, or extrapolations. Keep it focused on what you've found out and contributed to the field.

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