Doctor of Philosophy

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Oral defense

In some countries, a Ph.D. candidate is required to present an oral defense of his thesis, known in the UK as a viva (short for viva voce, Latin for "by live voice") before a committee. In France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, before a degree can be granted, the dissertation has to be defended in what is, using a medieval term, called a disputation: an expert in the field, often from another university, is appointed who will present the dissertation, subject it to a critical examination and discuss it with the author. In the context of the disputation, the critical examiner is termed the opponent, and the author of the dissertation the respondent. The dissertation has to be generally available in its final or at least in a preliminary published form a few weeks before the disputation, which is open to the public; after the opponent is finished, anyone present is allowed to ask critical questions (anyone who does is called an "opponent ex auditorio"—an opponent from the auditorium). The final grade is decided after the disputation in a meeting between the opponent and a grading committee of three or (sometimes) four people. In the United States a final defense before one's committee is typical, although it is rare that at this stage the thesis would not be accepted. This is also true in the Netherlands, where the oral defense ("promotie") typically happens after the thesis has been approved by examiners. The oral defense is ended after a preset amount of time by the University appointed 'pedel' who is in charge of the protocol and will end the dissertation with the words "Hora est!" (latin forit is time or the hour has come).

Related Topics:
UK - France - Norway - Sweden - Denmark - Finland - Disputation - Netherlands

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The doctoral candidate's progress is usually overseen by a thesis advisor, or supervisor, who chairs a thesis committee which supervises the doctoral candidate. In the US, doctoral programs typically require a series of required and optional courses at the beginning of the program, but education in the latter portion of the program tends to consist of informal discussions with the thesis advisor and individual research by the student. Many universities separate the program into two portions (doctoral student and doctoral candidate) with a required doctoral examination before allowing a student to be formally admitted to a doctoral program. Alternatively, a student may be admitted to the program, but is still required to complete a comprehensive examination on his or her field before progressing to the dissertation state. See the discussion of ABD, below.

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The funding of students varies from field to field, and many graduate students in the sciences and engineering work as teaching assistants or research assistants while they are doctoral students.

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