Hi

I had a viva four days ago. the viva itself was good. I believe I defended well my approach and study. Despite spending many years of work and making many contributions according to my supervisors and publishing papers in good conferences, I have been given almost major corrections - they are calling modest corrections though in the report.

The issue is the corrections are totally irrelevant to my PhD research area. I understand correction is always a possible outcome but going for changes that are not relevant to my area is very unjust. My research was about an interdisciplinary area and the examiner suggested all the changes to his area of interest. I can clearly justify why the suggested changes are about issues do not require any consideration in the thesis and my supervisors have mentioned it verbally.

I have no idea what options do I have. Is it an academic judgment against which I can not appeal? Appeals too take many months. Can I contact examiners and clarify the limits of the study? But I do not want to go and make further experiments in the the area suggested by examiner.

I would instead prefer to finally give up dreaming to have a PhD degree. I do not know if my supervisors would stand by me. Any suggestions to deal with this situation would be very appreciated.

Syed

Hi Syed, I'm sorry to hear the viva didn't go as you hoped.

I understand you're disappointed and irritated now, it would probably be good to give yourself a couple of days to get some distance before deciding what to do next.

May I ask: you seemed surprised about the corrections they asked. Didn't you discuss the revision points with the commission during/at the end of the viva? Revisions are usually points that are discussed during the viva, and more or less 'agreed on'. You can sense from the discussion in what direction the corrections will go, and if you don't agree you should try to explain why before the viva ends...

In any case, you should not take this disappointment as a reason to drop your PhD dream!! You're there, you've made it!! Now you have some revisions to do...that's all. You're almost at the end and you've done the largest part of the work, successfully!!!

Please don't let this discourage you. Revisions often seem larger than they are. Take a few days off, then go back and read the commission's remarks carefully and open-mindedly. Clarify what exactly the commission wants - and make a list of what you need to write/change/add to fulfill their request.

Stick to the strictly necessary, nothing more. Make a plan (A talk with your supervisor may help). You might be surprised of how quickly and smoothly the corrections can be dealt with!!

It doesn't matter if you find some of the points irrelevant. Discuss the point and its importance, then you can always argue why this is out of the scope of your research (I did that!). A thesis is meant to show how wide-ranging your reflections are. At times what seems like a huge correction can be dealt with with a short, well-thought paragraph and a few references...

Good luck with this very last bit of work you need to do...you'll be celebrating your PhD in no time!

The outcome of the viva is an academic judgment that you cannot appeal. The only grounds for appeal are procedural.
You have to address all the major corrections. However, just like the comments of a reviewer you can disagree with the examiner. I had this situation, my external examiner said I should change something because he had the opposite view. I explained why I held my position, addressing the points he made, and this was not a problem.
Any contact with the examiner to clarify about the remit of corrections should be via an intermediary.

Thank you very much for the comments.

@wanderingbit: Yes I did answer his objections clearly with examples etc and I was happy with the way I answered. The examiner did leave that point and moved on without giving any hints that he will put them in corrections. He made his mind and came up with list of extensions before viva started..and it seem he didn't change his mind about any of those extensions. I thought the matter was over.. and wasn't expecting such out of the way extensions and experiments. I have got actually more of additions than actual corrections. I am having meeting with supervisors and I hope they can suggest something. But apparently they know the examiner is wrong but they are insisting me to accept the extensions. I was Expert on the Topic till an hour before viva and nobody is listening to me right now.

@DocInsanity What i understand is that you mean that I can avoid some changes/extensions by justifying and communicating to the examiner that why I think they were not needed? If that would do, I would be very happy. I will talk about this with supervisors. Thank you.

Do the corrections.

If you've spent many years of study to get to a point where you now have modest corrections, just do them, either through addressing them critically or adding sections in as requested.

You can absolutely disagree with corrections as well, which is what I did for a couple on a similar basis, that they didn't fit the PhD. The point is to get you to consider them and reflect back. Corrections test your ability to review and take on critical feedback and there will be points that you might not agree with, so you can maintain your position. PhD corrections prepare you for the world of peer-review.

The PhD is not going to be your best work, so I would strongly advise against fighting against corrections that will ultimately, have to be addressed and done, and will extend the period of study even longer than what you've already put in. In the long run, these corrections won't have a significant impact on your continued work.

Remember your PhD is a period of study, and the outcome, while important, will not be that important 3 years down the road. It's meant to train you into academia, but it is not, in itself, a work of genius. The purpose of examination is to determine whether or not you are ready to enter Academia. While you become a subject expert, this is not the only goal of a PhD.

I think I've said this elsewhere on this forum, but many and I mean many academics look back on their PhD thesis 5 years or longer and will laugh about it, or consider it a piece of crap in comparison to what they are doing now. I am in no way suggesting that you shouldn't be proud of your hard work, you should be! What I am saying is that fighting corrections on something like a PhD will not benefit you in any way.

When you go to publish which is the important part, you do not have to include the corrections.