I will tell you what is making me mad today - people who steal. Some little sod has stolen a pot of parsley off our front verandah! It was one of those ones you buy at the supermarket and can replant it at home to grow it, or just use it for cooking as it is. It was tiny. It was parsley. It was worthless. But some little poo-head walked up our driveway, climbed the stairs past our front door, and walked past the loungeroom windows to snitch it. How rude! I am mad. What a welcome to a new city.

Hi Coastman. Miss you.

Ooooh, sue, you are good at this sleuthing caper - you can be my deputy if you like!

It gets hot where I live - aircon is to us what heating is to you...sort of...except we have heating too.

Yes! Detective Piglet had suspicions about HS too, but after my failed attempt at exposing BurgerKing earlier in this thread, I did not want to speak up.

Reveal yourself, HangSeng! Are you H? DanB?

pea - I know exactly what you mean about waiting for tradesmen. My partner has a "real" job and works long hours in the city, so any time we had tradesmen come (service the aircon, fix the phoneline etc.) it was a foregone conclusion that I would be the one who would go home to meet them. I wonder how couples cope when they both work and neither can just nick home any time of the day - do they take a whole day off work to wait for a tradesman?

Good luck, DJW!

hillyg - I think it is only natural human emotion to always think our own system is better - I am relieved I do not have to endure a viva and I feel fortunate that I have a department with a lot of progress assessment and opportunities to bring up supervisory issues.

By international examiners I mean they have to be outside Australia, but obviously they are also internationally recognised in their fields. I can tell my supervisor if I would prefer my thesis does not go to X if say I know them and don't think they could be unbiased or if the findings of my research contradict their work, but ultimately it is up to the supervisor.

...Submit thesis - 2 examiners (chosen by supervisor), both international and identity is unknown to student. They grade it as A (accept as is - very rare!), B (accept with stated changes - usually grammar and spelling, minor re-structuring etc - common), C (re-write some bits addressing these criteria and then accepted after review by supervisor/dept - common), D (rewrite major bits, addressing these criteria and examiner sees thesis again to decide if it is accepted - rare), E (don't want to think about this one, something like get a Masters instead of PhD - rare).

No requirement for attendance at conferences or publications, but obviously we do those things as much as money and results permit! I went to one international conference and will get 4 journal articles from my PhD....but no viva!

At 6 month point submit lit review/research proposal which is assessed by one external (to university) and one internal examiner. No grades given, just accepted/not accepted. At 6 months (and then once a year for rest of PhD to total of 3 seminars) give seminar to anyone on campus who wants to attend (20 minutes, 10 minutes questions) which is assessed internally by 3 examiners - but third/final seminar is the 40 mins I spoke of earlier.

At 12 months have major review - write report of what you have achieved, what still needs to be done, any problems with supervision/access to equipment etc. and have meeting with all supervisors, dept postgrad coordinator, head of dept and examiners of your lit review/proposal. Not assessed, again just accepted/not accepted to continue for next 2 years of PhD.

At 24 months, another review similar to 12 months.

At end of PhD (in theory 3 yrs, but mine was 4 yrs), give final seminar - assessed same way as others (internal only)....

I have a confession to make. I have been putting off admitting to this for some time for fear of being booed off...I don't have to endure a viva!

No viva, no panel defence, no oral examination, nothing. Well, not quite nothing - have to give a final seminar to our department (40 minutes with 10 minutes questions), but the purpose is not to assess the student, more to share our research findings with our colleagues.

As I understand, they used to have vivas but found they achieved nothing but stressed the students out, so they scrapped them. I may be wrong, but I think this is the way it is all over Australia. I will have to make some enquiries about that though, so don't quote me.

Good luck, kronkodile. At least you have plenty of time to prepare for it now.

Sorry, HS, please don't apologise. I was not offended, I was just letting you know who H is. Didn't mean to sound snippy at all.

Hello again 404 and Tricky! You are right, it is not the same on here as it was when I first started visiting, but it is inevitable that things will change over time. I have to admit I miss DanB, sylvester, non-PC Stu, and H (who is a girl and a scientist who used to post on here regularly, HangSeng).

Good luck with your first year, Tricky, hope you have settled in already.
My holiday was great thanks 404 - went to my hometown for my brothers wedding.
Hope to read you both around here in future.

Grrrr..BurgerKing...Grrrr

Coastman