Best of luck Mark, I’m in the finishing stretch myself, I didn’t know Australian unis did vivas – I thought it would be too expensive. One of the fellows in my department did his PhD in England, and had specialists fly in from Ireland and France – the French guy arriving about a half-hour into the questioning (couldn’t see my department being able to afford to do that.) Even then the viva I heard described was really a formality, apparently the main rationale was to ensue that anyone awarded a thesis had done the work themselves – with the questioning ensuring that it was actually the work of the person questioned.

I did however notice a Go8 spokesman in the HES wanted to introduce vivas at the end of all postgrad theses, but unless there was extra funding it would be impossible, as my department wouldn’t be able to fly in the specialists in my field from overseas – although hopefully with the diverse range of topics and texts I’ve covered there will be a cornucopia of articles and presentations that can be spun out of various sections of the thesis that will show the fruits of my loins so to speak.

but I don’t have to do a viva

Hey! Fair crack of the whip! Not all Westerners are obsessed with HongKong ultra-violent garbage …. what about everyone who queued up for tear-jerkers like “Going Home” or “Not One Less” or “Red Sorghum” or for fascinating social issues ones like “Shower” or for the Jackie Chan ones that satirized and raised screen violence to an art form comparable with grand opera?

wmmbb and Graham, thanks!

Dr Cat, wow, that’s a series of big hoops to jump through for an honours degree! Thanks to you too – I’m not sure if I’ll be nervous or not yet – at least after a decade in the lecturing game, I don’t have too much stage fright to worry about – content aside.

Sad indeed. My condolences.

The good thing is that, in an age when callousness is applauded and a sense of duty despised, you and your landlady cared enough about your neighbour to do something …. when it would have been far far easier to just look the other way and say it was not your responsibility. Good on you!!

I didn’t have to do an oral defence of my PhD, but I did have an incredibly gruelling viva at the end of my honours year: 90 minutes of interrogation from a panel of five people, including a visiting professor, on the contents of my two 12,000 word Hons theses plus the 4 three-hour exams. Defending the theses wasn’t too bad, but having bits of my exam papers read out to me and then being asked ‘What did you mean by that?’ was a tad strenuous. At one point I said ‘Good God, are you absolutely sure I wrote that?’

I’m fairly sure they don’t have to do it like than any more. And I am glad.

That must be a load off your mind. I hope all goes well with the interrogation of peers.

Thanks for sharing the experience. It is the closest many of us will get, or want to get probably.