The final oral examination (viva)
Life-changing events often need to be marked by a rite of pas-
sage, and so it is with the doctorate where it is traditional for
the final examination to be an oral one. In Britain and the
Commonwealth this occasion is often called a ‘viva’ (from the
Latin phrase ‘viva voce’, meaning literally ‘with the living
voice’). Many research students find that the prospect of a viva
or an oral session with two or three examiners or their whole
dissertation committee looms large in their thinking well
before the time when it will actually take place. When you are
writing the final draft you will inevitably think ahead about
how this or that passage will play with the examiners or the dis-
sertation committee, or how you would defend this decision or
answer a question about that gap or deficiency. In some ways
this anticipation is helpful. It can push you to tighten things
up, chop out hostages to fortune or corrosive passages that have
survived too long, and go the extra mile to clear up muddles or
eliminate small weaknesses. But it is also very easy to overdo
things at this stage, slipping into the overly defensive ‘thesis
paranoia’ that can make your work unpublishably long and
dense.
The importance and unpredictability of the oral examination
varies a good deal across university systems. In the United
States the final oral examination is never just a formality, but it
is a semi-public occasion which most frequently occurs only
when your dissertation committee have been coaxed by your
main adviser into pretty well signing off on your doctorate in a
prior private session. Thus you are always able to plan and pre-
pare carefully for the exam, and unless your dissertation com-
mittee is racked by feuding you should go to the oral session
with a high measure of certainty that you will pass. You will
additionally know well by then the personalities and foibles of
the members of your committee.
In European examining committees there is often an impres-
sive, ritualized and lengthy ‘public defence’ of the thesis, where
the doctoral candidate explains their research findings and
approach in a public session, open to all comers. This may
sound terrifying, but it is pretty similar to the US approach.
Supervisors sit on the examining committee, along with other
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