The Many Ends

Submitting your thesis can feel like a finish line has been crossed.

Passing your viva could be the end – but for most PhD candidates there is another step of submitting corrections, then having them approved.

Then there’s the final thesis submission.

And still there’s more because a PhD journey isn’t really over until a candidate has graduated. They have to have the opportunity to go across a stage and shake someone important’s hand while dressed in their academic finery!

For some candidates this still isn’t the end because they continue the work. Or perhaps they continue thinking about it. For some, there’s also an aspect of being a postgraduate researcher that they need to unpack afterwards. What did all of that mean? What have I done? And what now?

There are lots of ending points of the PhD. The finish line isn’t submission or the viva. It helps to know what the practical process is, but that’s easy to find out from regulations and asking others.

It may help even more to think ahead and consider what the end of your PhD really means to you.