Getting ready for your Viva or Defence
A one and half-hour Webinar
28th January 2025
Presented by: Professor Dan Remenyi
Many doctoral degrees are finally examined by a viva voce/defence which are academic terms for an oral examination. This is a very stressful and difficult time for many doctoral degree candidates as this examination unusually takes place across a desk with two or more examiners on an eyeball-to-eyeball basis and there is so much at stake. Whatever the subject of your dissertation/thesis there are always certain things the examiners are looking for and there are certain questions every doctoral degree candidate will be asked. And of course, there are better and not so good approaches to handling the way these questions are answered.
This webinar fully explains how these examinations work and what the examiners are looking for. The participants will be made familiar with to how to handle the situations which can arise during the exam and how to cope with them. This should make the viva voce/defence a much more positive experience for all doctoral degree candidates.
Webinar Outline
- Clarifying the objectives of the University, the examiners, and the degree candidate
- The detailed format of the viva voce/defence
- The candidate’s attitude to the examiners
- The question of competence and confidence
- The opening statement
- The different types of questions
- The “need for notice” question
- Handling difficult questions
- Summarising what has have achieved
- Possible outcomes of the examination
- Obtaining feedback
- Resubmitting the dissertation/thesis
- Final completion
- Graduation.
This webinar delivers practical useful information which can be put to immediate use. It is relevant to doctoral candidates from most Faculties, Departments and Schools.
The webinar will be held on Tuesday 28 January 2025, and it will run to GMT time using Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent to registered participants the day before the event. The Zoom room will open at 1:45 pm (GMT) and the event will begin at 2:00 pm and will finish at 3:30 pm. The attendance fee is £40 (VAT is payable only by attendees from the UK). To reserve a place on the webinar, please see: https://shop.academic-conferences.org/?ec_store=webinars and for further information contact: sue@academic-conferences.org