Topic outline
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A number of resources have been developed to support the oral defence at UniSA including the Guidelines for the Defence of the Thesis. These guidelines provide details on the purpose, format and conduct of the oral defence at UniSA.
Further information can be obtained from principal supervisors, case managers or the Research Examinations Team who can be contacted at research.examinations@unisa.edu.au. UniSA's research degree regulations are another important source of information and guidance on the thesis examination process.
There are a number of other sources of general advice about the oral defence and this section contains some of the most popular.
This book is by Rowena Murray of the University of the West of Scotland who has been offering advice and support to research candidates through her publications for quite a few years now. As with all of Rowena's books, it offers good advice in a form which makes it easy to apply. It is available here via the UniSA Library catalogue.
Written jointly by the first academics to do research into the oral defence, Tinkler and Jackson's research-based book on the examination process covers a lot more than the viva and is written more 'densely' than Murray's, but is comprehensive and gives advice to examiners as well as to research candidates. Its well worth checking out and can be found in the University Library via this link.
The Viva Survivor podcast offers interviews with a range of successful PhD candidates covering, inter alia, their experiences of the UK viva. The interviews are conducted by Dr Nathan Ryder who has also written a couple of ebooks (Fail Your Viva and The Viva: Who? What? How?), both of which are available at low cost on Amazon. Nathan also offers other resources for sale.
Finally, this blog posting provides some good advice for candidates preparing for the oral defence. It concludes by reminding candidates that the 'most important piece of advice to bear in mind is: Your examiners want you to pass!'
It also points to another very useful blog by Susan Sellers giving a list of possible questions that might arise during the defence.
