Monthly Archives: December 2015

Preparing for the Viva

Preparing for the viva voce? This can be a daunting and scary process. This is not only because there are elements of the unknown, but also because of what the event of the viva marks in the ‘PhD journey’. Anxiety and apprehension before the viva may also be exacerbated by ‘horror stories’, about vivas that have not gone well. I suggest that you put the ‘horror stories’ in the bin, approach preparing for the viva voce as another learning process in the ‘PhD journey’, and view the viva as an opportunity to discuss your work with experts in your field that are interested in your work! Williams et al (2011) suggest that the viva “allows you to demonstrate your understanding in a different way from the written form of your thesis” (Williams et al 2011: p. 85). This post is aimed at sharing some tips in preparing for one’s viva, and providing reassurance in that preparation, as well as hopefully limiting nerves during the preparation process.

 

Preparation is Key

image001Once you have the date for your viva you can start preparing for it. Preparation for the viva        is an iterative process consisting of:

  • Reading and re-reading your thesis;
  • Apprehending questions that may be asked in the viva;
  • Thinking about answers to those questions; and
  • Having practice sessions answering those questions.
  • Also making sure that you eat well, sleep well, and get some exercise.

 

The Viva: What to Expect?

image003Your institution’s guidelines will provide you with an understanding of the shape and form that your viva will take. Discussion with your supervisors, colleagues, and others that have recently had their viva will also enable you to ‘build’ a picture of what to potentially expect. It is important to familiarise yourself with your institution’s regulations and/or code of practice. The University of Bristol’s Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes can be found here. See section 9.1 on the assessment process; section 9.3 on the role of the examiners; section 9.4 on the oral examination itself; section 9.5 on assessment outcomes, including the examiners’ recommendations; and section 9.6 for results. You may also want to have a look at the Examiner’s Preliminary Report Form and Examiner’s Joint Report Form, concerning the points your examiners will be considering. These can be found under the heading ‘Forms and Guidance Notes for Administrators and Examiners’ here . For discussion on the examiner’s reports, see Williams et al (2011), Chapter 18 – The examiner and the examiners’ report.

 

 Read and Re-read your Thesis                   

image005You know your thesis inside out; you’ve worked on it for X years and Y months. Nevertheless, you’ll still need to read and re-read it. This is a very important part of the preparation process. Whilst reading your thesis make summaries, for example one page summaries per chapter may help you prioritise the most important points to talk about per chapter, or you can make very short summaries of your chapters and findings in bullet form. Re-reading will also help you remember the physical location in the text, of particular discussions and key points. You can also use sticky tabs and/or a highlighter to allow easy access to individual chapters and places at which you made key points, which you may want to directly refer to in the text during the viva. Importantly, reading and re-reading will also enable you to view your thesis from different perspectives. In addition to reading your thesis revisit your examiners’ work so to think about the perspectives from which they may be approaching your work. Also revisit key literature to your work, for example of scholars whose points you use and/or build upon. You may also want to think about how you may structure an answer if you were to defend why using X or Y’s work. You may also want to visit new literature that may have been published since you submitted your thesis.

 

What type of Questions to Expect?

image007I will not here provide examples of types of questions you may be asked in the viva as there are numerous great resources available which have example questions that may be asked in your viva. For such materials see for example, ‘VivaCards’ and the list of ‘Other materials I found useful’ (see below). Use these example questions (as well as adapting these questions to your work) alongside re-reading your thesis, to think about your thesis. Including, your literature review, the methodology you used, the main findings, the original contribution to knowledge, the work’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as implications, dissemination and further research.

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

image001The first couple of times you sit down to do a ‘practice answering questions’ session is likely to feel strange, do not let this put you off. It is important to remember that like the Ph.D. journey, preparing for the viva is too a learning process. Although during one’s Ph.D. journey, one becomes accustomed to talking about their research with their supervisor/s, at conferences, and with the occasional person that wants to know a little more about what it is that one ‘does’ whilst ‘doing a PhD’; one is not necessarily used to moving between elements of the whole thesis in discussion or talking about their doctoral research for more than an hour, this takes some getting used to and requires practice. The process of ‘practice answering questions’ sessions will get you used to, and in the flow of, answering questions on your work for a long period of time (vivas can last from one to three hours). You can, for example, arrange to do daily half hour or one hour, ‘practice answering questions’ sessions for a week or so before the viva (but ideally not the night before), with a friend/partner/family member. These sessions will not only aid you in thinking about how to answer questions but will also get you used to continually answering this type of questions for a period of more than one hour.

 

 Have a Mock Viva

image009Your supervisors will have suggested you have a mock viva, or if this hasn’t come up yet ask them for one. The mock viva is another very important part of the preparation, it not only gives you a feel for what the real thing may be like, it also enables you to reflect on how the mock viva went and utilise those learnings for the real viva.

 

 Create a ‘Viva Checklist’

image011During your preparation put together a ‘viva checklist’ of items to take into the viva with you. The key item on your list will be a copy of your thesis (with sticky tabs and highlighted bits). Your ‘viva checklist’ may look like this:

  • Thesis;
  • Statute book (dependent upon the content of your thesis);
  • Water bottle (talking is thirsty work!); and
  • A notepad and pen/pencil for any notes you may want to take at the end.

 

Useful Preparatory Resources

Here I set out some of the resources I found particularly useful in preparing for the viva:

 Session on Preparing for the Vivaimage013

Most departments organise a session on preparing for the viva voce. These are extremely useful, especially as they allow you to gain the perspectives from a person that both has done the viva but also examines Ph.D. theses.

 

‘Viva Cards’

image015VivaCards These are great! Once you’ve done your initial preparation and feel ready to start practicing answering questions, you can then ask people you know to do ‘practice answering questions’ sessions with you. The VivaCards are a pack of cards with potential questions that may be asked in the viva, for example “If you could start again what would you do differently?” (VivaCards). They are grouped into four categories a) “introductory context”, b) “methods, design and analysis”, c) “results and discussion”, and d) “implications and utilisation” (VivaCards). They are a brilliant preparation tool, as they enable you to practice with anyone, irrelevant of how much or how little they know about your work.

Further materials I found useful

 

Good luck in preparing for your viva!

Post by: Dr Emily Kakoullis, University of Bristol Law School.

 

 

Pension reform in the UK

Introduction

My research interests concern the roles of the numerous stakeholders in occupational pensions, including scheme members, employers, governments and the European Union. The OECD produces an international comparative review of pension systems across OECD countries, the latest version of this report was published on 1 December 2015. The following comment briefly considers some of the recent reforms to the UK pensions system and highlights the need to maintain a focus upon the social importance of occupational pensions, particularly in light of their increasing role in the UK in providing for people in old age through initiatives such as automatic enrolment.

The UK position

The OECD Pensions at a Glance report provides a global perspective of pension systems in OECD countries over the two year period between September 2013 and September 2015 (the “OECD report”). It was observed that there has been a period of “intense reform activity” over the past ten years.  The UK is amongst the many countries that have taken action to address the pressing social and economic issues involved with pension provision.

Since the introduction of the state pension in 1908, the UK has typically provided a low level of state pension which has encouraged individual citizens to save for themselves through private arrangements or through being members of occupational pension schemes provided by their employers.  According to the OECD report, the UK state pension will provide 22% replacement of average earnings following the reforms to the state pension system to be introduced in April 2016. This will improve the rate of the state pension in the UK,  but the level will still be below that in many other countries. The UK system is contribution based, being dependent upon National Insurance Contributions whereas other systems such as in New Zealand are residence based and provide 40% replacement of earnings. The total public spending on pensions according to the OECD report is 5.6% of GDP whereas the average is 7.9%.  It must be remembered that any consideration of state pension provision must be seen in the context of the welfare system, tax rules and occupational pension provision specific to that country.

The political philosophy of encouraging citizens to provide for themselves is routed in liberal, individualistic traditions and is evident from the original welfare system reforms that followed the Beveridge Report of 1942. The early reforms saw the introduction of a contributory state pension provided to everyone at a flat rate for the rest of their lives. However, the low level of the state pension created an opening for more employers to provide occupational pensions. In the current environment, an uncertain economic situation and longer life expectancy has meant that state systems are under considerable strain and the role of the employer in providing for employees in their old age is of ever increasing importance.

Current pensions policy in the UK has seen a continued increase to the role for the employer, with the introduction of automatic enrolment being phased in between October 2012 and February 2018.  Following initial legislation in the Pensions Act 2008, employers are now compelled to enrol their employees into a pension scheme and to make contributions to that scheme.

The current government has also enacted legislation to permit members of defined contribution schemes (also known as money purchase schemes), to access their pension on retirement as cash instead of being obliged to purchase an annuity, increasing the individual’s control over their retirement finances.

Looking to the future, the Summer Budget statement in July 2015 announced the launch of the consultation into whether tax relief for pension contributions should continue in its existing form. The consultation ran from 8 July 2015 to 30 September 2015 and the responses are being considered, according to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review (issued on 25 November 2015) an announcement will be made in the 2016 Budget.

A global outlook

The OECD report observed that about half of OECD countries have enacted pension reforms such as reducing indexation (increases to make allowance for inflation), amendments to pension tax relief, increasing contribution rates and increasing retirement ages. Such reforms seek to reduce the negative effects of an aging population, the slow recovery after the global economic crisis, low returns on investments and low interest rates.

The OECD report observes that recent pension reform to pay-as-you-go systems have had an impact but sees the next major issue for pensions as being one of “social sustainability” and whether pensions will be adequate to support people in their increasing old age.

Conclusions

There are numerous actors within the occupational pensions system, each with financially motivated agendas which often come into conflict. For example, an employer providing a funded defined benefit scheme in the UK will often be faced with difficulty funding a scheme with a significant deficit and seek to save costs; the government must balance the complex issues of state pension spending and incentivising occupational and private pension savings through tax reliefs; and a scheme member is primarily concerned with ensuring that they receive the benefits that they expected to receive in order to provide for them in their retirement.

With the increasing role of occupational pensions in providing for employees in their retirement, the social function of occupational pensions must be kept at the forefront of any policy initiatives. The EU as a stakeholder in pensions has emphasised the need for adequate, safe and sustainable pensions following its 2012 White Paper and has provided useful resources for considering pension provision thorough initiatives such as the EU Ageing Working Group and the OECD report which is part funded by the European Commission. The perspectives gained from working with other countries to develop and share information on addressing concerns about aging, sustainability and adequacy of pensions from a social, member focused perspective, provides an example of a positive benefit from EU involvement in pensions.

James Kolaczkowski

PhD Candidate
University of Bristol Law School