THE VIVA

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The viva (from the Latin viva voce - 'living voice') represents the culmination of the research journey for the PhD student: having completed research, written and submitted their thesis, the student will appear before two examiners in a formal setting to justify the claim that their work makes an original contribution to the corpus of knowledge that constitutes the field.

The examiners will have read the thesis closely beforehand, and they will therefore be in a position to challenge and debate with the student, looking to explore the intellectual underpinnings, content and ramifications of the work in its entirety. The student must show that they are in full command of their topic and aware of how it might be further developed. The conduct of the viva is left to the professional discretion of the examiners, who will make their decision on the thesis after the viva is complete.

No two vivas are the same, and it therefore follows that the experience of students can differ dramatically both within and across disciplines.