Viva

Here are some potential viva questions to use in your practice sessions. You’ll need to adapt them to fit your specific research. Make sure you vary the questions and don’t just rehearse the same answers. Ideally, get other people to ask you questions. It’s important to get used to thinking on the spot. General or opening What is your thesis about? Why did you choose this research question? What were your major findings or conclusions? Why is your research important? What did you enjoy most about your project? More specific What are the key strengths of your thesis? What are the major achievements? What would you identify as your major contribution to knowledge? What do you see as the most original element of your thesis, and why? Can you summarise your key findings in a few sentences? Structure/methodology What was your methodology and why was this appropriate? Does your overall argument make sense and how does it address your research questions? What assumptions have you made, and have they worked? Were there any surprises in the course of your research? How has your thinking developed or changed throughout this research? How did you establish the limits or scope of your study? Explain the structure of your project and your thesis. Research context How does your thesis relate to the wider field? How does your thesis relate to your discipline? What has happened in your research field since you submitted your thesis? If you have adapted an established methodology, why were those changes necessary? What are the implications of your research for the wider field? How would you continue your research? Interdisciplinary How do you position your thesis in relation to the disciplines it draws on — do you see it as primarily belonging to one field, or as genuinely sitting between them? Where the disciplines you engaged with offered conflicting methods, frameworks, or assumptions, how did you navigate or resolve those tensions? How did you handle differences in terminology or key concepts across disciplines — particularly where the same term carries different meanings in different fields? Which scholarly communities would benefit most from your research, and how would you communicate your findings to each? What disciplinary conventions did you follow in presenting your work — for instance, in citation practices, evidential standards, or thesis structure — and why? Literature review Summarise an influential concept or thinker and explain why this was so significant for your work. Explain why certain literature is missing from your review. Comment on how you selected your key literature. What decisions did you have to make? Limitations/weaknesses What would you do differently, and why? What are the potential weaknesses of your project? Could you have interpreted your results in a different way? Were there any issues around your selection and collection of data? Was there any other material you wanted to use but couldn’t or didn’t? What are the limitations of this study? How could you address them? Were there any ethical concerns with your project? How have you addressed them? What counter‐arguments are there to your main argument?

Although you can’t necessarily choose your PhD examiner, you’re allowed to suggest someone. And this is a power you should use wisely. Your university isn’t obliged to accept your recommendation, but they should at least consider it and take reasonable steps see whether that person is both appropriate and available. You typically don’t have much say in the selection of the internal examiner. This is whoever is available in your School who hasn’t had significant involvement in your PhD so far. ...

If you’ve recently submitted your thesis, there’s a good chance your viva will happen online. Vivas can be stressful anyway, but technology adds an extra layer of excitement. Although it might feel daunting, the solution is to spend time preparing. Computers can sense when something’s important and conspire to thwart us. In this post, I’ll give you step-by-step guidance on making sure your online viva goes smoothly. Preparation Check whether your institution has provided any guidance for online vivas. ...