Signup date: 15 Mar 2022 at 9:01am
Last login: 16 Mar 2022 at 11:04am
Post count: 1
Hello,
I have passed my phd with minor corrections.
I have made the minor corrections following closely the recommendations in the joint examiner report, run the amended thesis past my supervisor who was happy with it and sent it to the examiners. I have published my results twice and collaborated successfully with industry during my PhD research. On the surface, this is a satisfactory outcome.
However, my internal examiner was rather rude during the viva. He basically accused me of "somehow faking" my work. He then went on to falsely accusing me of misrepresenting my qualifications on LinkedIn.
Before starting the PhD, I worked for over a decade in financial services, I have a professional charter and have been registered with the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK as my roles were controlled functions. For all my roles, I have undergone thorough background checks and I have certainly never misrepresented my qualifications.
My PhD is in Computer Science and my untergrad degree is in Business Studies (completed 18 years ago). Over the years, I learnt to code with MOOC's and have been applying my skills in a professional context. I had the impression my examiner found it very hard to respect my "diverse" background - it is true that my profile does not match that of the the typical PhD student if there is one.
Are examiners allowed to behave this way?
I found the experience very upsetting and enfuriating. The fact that I now depend on this internal examiner (as well as the external one) to approve my corrections makes me feel utterly powerless as I fear that the internal examiner will try to find anything to reject the corrections.
The latest I heard from the internal examiner was an email asking me if I had tracked the changes in my thesis as it looked as if it was written with Microsoft Word (it was written with latex using the same template as many other students in the department). Again, I found this rather belittling.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Should I tell someone higher up in the department? (My supervisor said he would certainly not use this person again as examiner.)
I'd appreciate any thoughts and advice.
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