The doctoral examination-A workshop for examiners and candidates (Two-days online)
Monday- Tuesday 30th and 31st January 2023
Time: The session will open at 9am first day and remain open for 48 hours. All participants will be sent a schedule in advance.
Requirements: Google Account. The workshops will be through Google Docs.
Tutor: John Wakeford
For all doctoral candidates, with supervisors and examiners welcome too.
Registering for a doctorate is one of the most important decisions you have ever made. Your doctorate will take over your life for at least three years and probably turn out to be a turning point in your life and career.
Most programmes for doctoral students (and supervisors) focus on the process of studying and supervision. But in this programme we will explore the even more important and often neglected issue of the doctoral examination as it operates in the UK in general and Bangor University in particular.
For the best chance of success you need to start thinking about it early on. So, even if you feel the examination seems to be a long way ahead, you would be most welcome to take part.
Over the last 35 years John has developed his unique approach to this, based on sharing experiences, group exercises, flexibility and the use of first-hand accounts provided by doctoral students, supervisors and examiners. Since 2010 he has worked with Bangor University Doctoral School in developing a programme for supervisors, but we will spend these two days demystifying the features of an examination system that many find opaque and often frightening. So, my aim is to ensure that you have the confidence to engage with the examination process with the highest chance of success.
In the past John has delivered this face to face, but, for the current situation, has now prepared an on-line version in which up to 15 participants can take part from home or from any other locations at times of your own convenience. It could probably amount to no more than seven hours work but you will take part as much as you like by joining a confidential Google Docs document created by all participants that will be open for contributions over a period of 48 hours.
After you have registered, John will send you a JotForm, ask you in advance about your research area, your year of study, full- or part-time, any issues you would like addressed during the session and any special needs. He will then invite you to join a new Google Docs page which then becomes the communication tool for all participants for the whole session.
Penny Dowdney, Doctoral School Manager, will join the session for part of the time to address any specific queries related to Bangor procedures.
The indicative programme will be tailored to the topics that you raise but will be modified as we go along. It will certainly cover issues such as
- Specific regulations for the examination of Bangor students
- What are examiners supposed to do
- How to establish whether your work is good enough to pass
- Common misunderstandings of the doctoral examination process
- Preparing for your viva
- What to do if you don’t pass first time