Oh dear!  I'm right in the middle of this process.   I finished my thesis in January and now it's July. The processes at my university are so desperately slow that I still have no formal agreement of my examiners (three of them have been proposed so far) and no date for my viva.  Last time I looked, my thesis copies were still gathering dust on the administrator's desk where I left them.

My department specifies no time frame, but it seems to be about 6-10 weeks for most students. Part of the difficulty is the type of department, which is well known for the use of qualitative methods.  They don't favour quantitative methods and statistics, but it was essential to take this approach for my research or it would've been meaningless. It's a scientific study, not history. literature or philosophy.  In another university or department, this mightn't have been an issue at all, but it seems a real problem for my particular university.

I do agree it's not good for one's general health and wellbeing. My patient and supportive husband has suggested that perhaps I don't really need to get a PhD after all and I should just bale out now for the sake of my sanity.  I can't very well look for the kind of job I'd hoped to get because I'm still in limbo, so I've probably missed the boat in terms of my future career as many post doc posts will have been snapped up. At the end of this month, I'll have find the dosh for more fees and re-register for yet another year in the hope of my work being examined sometime in the next academic year.  I'll always look like a slow completer to future employers because of the increasing time between starting the research degree and any future award sometime next year, (insh'Allah).

I have searched the HEFCE website trying to find some kind of standard for this sort of process, but although earlier regs in 2002 did specify 3 months as a good practice standard, the latest don't have any time frame for completing examination of research degrees. Can't use that as leverage.  I would even be happy to transfer my degree to another university at this late stage, if only they would agree to examine my thesis within a reasonable period of time.

I feel forgotten and discarded. My research feels remote and I'm losing touch with the details of it as time goes by.  I've enjoyed the research and really feel it contributes to an area of knowledge but at this stage, I think it may be time to move on, forget the research, look for a job and somewhere to live. But it feels as though I'd like to find some way to fix this or it'll just happen to somebody else in future.

Selma

Thanks for the encouragement! My supervisors are not helpful because one is very senior within the department and doesn't seem to want to rock any boats. The other has a chair elsewhere and is only part time at my university.

It does give me some hope that you have had a date though! I hope mine won't be much longer now. I'm trying to read and bring my thesis work up to date with the publications subsequent to submission - my subject area is quite a fast moving area, with the exception of my research. I've also used quantitative methods and my department is not keen on statistics, so they seem to find it difficult or distasteful to examine it. The submitted copies of my thesis haven't even left the administrator's desk yet and it is so frustrating to see them still gathering dust there after so long!

A colleague at another University did say that HEFCE might have some standards for timing of vivas. She thought they were set at about 3 months, but I can't find any reference yet. If I could locate such a quality standard, it might save other students from such long delays in future, even if it didn't help us.

Best wishes for a brilliant viva!

Selma

I finished my thesis on 21 January. Today is 16 June and I still have no date for my viva. The delays are a constant worry because I need to move house and find a job and I can't keep my life on hold indefinitely. I'm in danger of forgetting what I wrote and of being overwhelmed with subsequent publications relevant to my research.

It happened like this: first, my supervisors told me not to worry about the Intention to Submit form when I prepared it and asked for their signatures last Autumn. Three months later, I insisted and finally got it signed, but by then the thesis was about completed. When it was completed, the supervisors read it. First one, then the other. Each took about 4 weeks. Finally I got the minor changes back and made them in less than 2 working days. Then I submitted formally, but the key administrator was on leave. Eventually, after a few more weeks, the administrator came back from leave and I saw that my documents were still on her desk. She told me that I'd submitted a quantitative thesis in a department which had gone wholesale over to new paradigm qualitative methods, so there was nobody who was numerate enough to understand what I'd done! The ones who understood statistics were too inexperienced to be approved and the experienced examiners either didn't like or couldn't understand the stats. If the process straggles into another academic year, I need to re-register and pay fees. I'm stuck in limbo.

The Uni guidance says nothing about time limits for examining my thesis, although I am aware that other universities expect to examine within 6-8 weeks. Is there anything I can do to bring this process to a conclusion? It's getting to the point where I just need to find a job and don't give a damn if they ever examine my work. Who wants a doctorate anyway..?

Selma

I'm an idiot too. I believed that my Uni had negotiated access to and external organisation to enable me to gather my raw data before they advertised my studentship. I began to worry after the first year, but they did assure me I would be able to access the data and not to worry. So I got through my transfer and then found that the arrangement was so flimsy, I had no data access at all! I've now lost 6 months working time and 2 years into my study, I'm just so stuck.

When it became obvious that the University had failed to get the access for data collection, I myself applied to a further 6 different organisations with full formal details of my proposed research and supporting documents, but I've had no luck to date. The Uni now says it's my job to negotiate access, but these are large public bodies and the application of a mere PhD student doesn't even get their attention. We're pond life in their scheme of things. They probably just binned my applications and correspondence.

Perhaps I should've been more suspicious sooner, but I was always assured that everything was in hand so I just got on with my work. Without this access, I just won't have a thesis and my funding will run out before I can turn my research around and take on a different project from scratch. I waited 12 years till I could afford to study full time, so I'm very disappointed.

I suppose my warning is that you should make sure of your data access yourself, get it in writing with dates and penalty clauses... oh, and make sure the writing is in human arterial blood and keep your grip on that artery!

Selma