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Tag: the end of the phd

Nathan

Closing Stages

Daily Post

When you’re close to being done with your PhD it’s a really good idea to pause and check you’ve not missed anything. This applies to all of the closing stages: writing up, submission, viva prep, the viva and the post-viva period.

As you finish writing up make sure you leave time to talk to your supervisors and reflect on their final feedback. With a little thought and planning you can submit your best possible thesis. Take time to check the regulations so you know you’ve not missed anything important.

Submission should be a happy exercise in following forms and guidelines! It might be an anti-climax in some ways though; one day you’re working hard to finish writing a book and the next day you’ve hit return on a webpage submission. You can still take time to make sure it’s done well.

Viva prep is best when it is personal and planned. Look for advice but do it your way. When you submit your thesis invest a little time to sketch out a plan for doing it well. Aim to remove stress from the process.

You’ve read the regulations but also remember to talk to PhD graduates about their viva experiences. Get a sense of what to expect. If you’re worried find an action to take that will lower the worry.

At your viva pause and think before you respond to any question or comment. Take it slow and remember how you’ve got to this point and all the work you’ve done.

Finally, when the viva is done and you know what corrections you need to do take time to make a plan. Check the regulations again. Ask for guidance on anything unclear. Figure out how and when you will get the work done. It helps to know in advance how much time is typically given for completing corrections and what the process is for submitting your final thesis.

There are lots of stages to the end of the PhD journey. As you get close to them take your time to do them well. Often this means checking details or making a plan – and typically the sooner you do these the more ready you will be for tackling the final closing stages.

 

PS: Looking for more help with getting ready for your viva? Then check out my live 3-hour Viva Survivor webinar on Wednesday 25th March 2026 – I’ll talk about a lot of things to help with your viva! You’ll get four-week access to a recording of the session and plenty of follow-up materials too. There’s more information at the link but please get in touch if you have any questions or want to know more. Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Onwards

Daily Post

Some questions to consider as you approach your viva and your life after the PhD:

  • What are you taking away from your PhD experiences?
  • What are you leaving behind?
  • How have you changed?
  • How are you the same?
  • What’s the biggest difference you’ve made through your work?

And perhaps the most important question: what does all of this mean for your next big challenge?

Nathan

It’s Not The End

Daily Post

It’s really, really helpful to have the proper perspective for your viva.

The viva is a challenge. It’s not the biggest challenge, the nastiest challenge or the hardest challenge of your PhD.

Your viva is not the end of the world – it’s not even the end of your PhD journey.

You’ve come a long way to get to this point. You’ve overcome many challenges and many of them are bigger challenges! The viva is one more challenge.

It’s not trivial. It’s only one more challenge for someone who is experienced at dealing with challenges.

You’ve come a long way. Remember how you got this far as you approach the end of your PhD journey.

Nathan

Beyond The Viva

Daily Post

We need to do this by… We have to make time to… Oh don’t forget we have to…

I’m willing to bet that these kinds of sentences aren’t just being said in my house! As the last days of the year line up it can sometimes feel like time is running out.

 

There’s a similar feeling with the viva I think.

Time has to be made to get X, Y and Z done. There’s the time of the viva itself, a small number of hours on one day but which can feel much bigger and important.

Then the viva is done. Over. Finished. Passed. Success.

And then there’s what comes next.

 

The days and weeks immediately after your viva are the almost end of your PhD journey. They might be bittersweet. They might not be what you were expecting or what you imagined.

Whatever happens there’s more afterwards. A new challenge like a new year, the same as the last one but unique and special.

Take a little time to brace yourself as you get ready for your viva. You’ll be done before you know it and then you’ll have new challenges to embrace.

Nathan

Steps To Finishing

Daily Post

There have been many times in the last six months I’ve thought “I’ve finished!” when I’ve been working on an issue of Viva Survivors Select. I’ll be sure I’m done and then remember, oh wait:

  • …I have to create jpegs of all the pages for promoting it.
  • …I have to create a new page in my Payhip store for it.
  • …I have to remember to promote it!
  • …oh, and I’m not even close to any of those because I just remembered that I didn’t do a final proofread…
  • …and I still need a nice public domain image for the bottom of page 13…

 

I’m getting better at mapping out all the stages so I don’t get ahead of myself. While doing so I’m reminded that this is not so different from the closing stages of a PhD journey. There’s a lot of steps you need to check off so that you can finish your PhD.

  • Write your thesis.
  • Definitely finish your thesis!
  • Submit your thesis – having checked the regulations as well.
  • Prepare for your viva.
  • Have your viva.
  • Do your corrections.
  • Have your corrections checked.
  • Submit your final version of your thesis – having checked the regulations for this again as well.
  • Wait for graduation.
  • And probably go to graduation too!

The viva is set up as the end of the PhD, but there are lots of steps to finishing before you’re really, truly done. Don’t lost sight of the end. Don’t forget that you will get there one day.

 

PS: and one more step might be to check out The Expectations Issue, the latest issue of Viva Survivors Select, newly out this last week!

Nathan

Goodbyes

Daily Post

Goodbye to your office and officemates perhaps, to a community of fellow travellers on the road to academic success.

 

Goodbye to the piles of paper and folders of files. Whatever your future plans you might be letting go of a lot of stuff.

 

Goodbye to your institution? Maybe. Goodbye to where you live now? Perhaps. There can be a lot of logistics and a lot of feelings that go with moving on from the PhD.

 

Goodbye to the You-That-Was-A-PhD-Candidate. Hello to the You-That-Is-A-PhD-Graduate.

Hello to You-Who-Survived – you managed to keep going in difficult circumstances.

 

At some point after your viva you’ll have to say some goodbyes. And at some point you have to figure out what all of that means for you. Take your time.

Say your goodbyes. Be ready for the feelings. Be ready to say a few hellos too.

Nathan

Enough Is Enough

Daily Post, Sabbatical

What if I hadn’t done enough? What if I needed more results? What if my examiners didn’t see what I saw in my work?

After years of work and months of writing up, as my page count crept towards 200, I started to think that maybe I needed more. A good friend showed me his thesis and it was like a tombstone. I worried until he showed me that the second half of his thesis was appendices of data. Then I worried when he told me that a colleague down the hall had passed her viva with a thesis that was less than sixty pages.

Oh no. What if my writing style is just really waffly and overlong? What if, like my italicised questions, they just go on and on and on and on…

My doubts faded. Of course, it dawned on me, that every thesis is different, naturally. It’s hard to quantify “significant” in the face of the variety of research that people do. There may be broad expectations in your discipline, in terms of style and structure and so on, and it’s worth learning as much as you can about those.

How do you know though? How do you know – or maybe a better word is believe – when you’ve done enough work? When you have enough results? How do you believe?

You have to look at it all. You have to get a sense both from others and yourself that the work you have done matters. You have to reflect on the fact that your thesis may be big or small, have five chapters or nine, and it is just different from everyone elses…

…and like everyone else who has come before, the reason you are here and you are going to pass your viva is because you can’t just be lucky. You can’t just show up and get the right answers or right ideas blindly. You have to be good. You have to do good work. And you have to have done that for a long time.

You have to have enough to be submitting.

You have to have enough to be preparing for the viva.

And that’s what can give you enough confidence that your work matters, you are good, and you will pass.

Enough is enough.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on April 9th 2019.

Nathan

Pride & Achievements

Daily Post, Sabbatical

Make a list of everything you’ve done that makes you feel proud. Think about all of the achievements in your PhD. Reflect on why they matter to you.

Within that list you’ll find the strengths of your work. You’ll see your research’s contributions. You made those contributions.

Make your list. Reflect on all you’ve done. Think about why you could be confident to meet the challenges of your viva.

 

Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on March 2nd 2019.

Nathan

Where Will You Go?

Daily Post

Find half an hour in the days after your viva to sit and reflect on what you’ve done.

You stayed determined. You learned and developed. You created something that no-one else has ever done and that many people can’t do. You built memories. You added to human knowledge and understanding. You succeeded.

Then you passed your viva.

And think, with all of that behind you, where could you go now?

You might have very certain plans, but they are only one possibility. You have risen to an incredible challenge. I choose to believe that you have many more opportunities ahead of you where you can show that you can do something truly special.

Find half an hour in the days after your viva to sit and reflect and remember: I did this – and I can do a lot more.

Nathan

New Beginnings

Daily Post

The viva is an ending but also sparks questions about where your research could go next.

  • What could someone do with your work, now that your thesis is finished?
  • What would be the next steps for your research if you had the option to continue?
  • What new ideas did you not have the space to explore during your PhD?

At the viva there’s no expectation that you will continue in research after your PhD, but it’s reasonable for your examiners to ask you what those next steps might be. It’s important for you to take a little time to consider them before your viva.

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