Grouped Viva Questions – for the support of mini Vivas or Mock Vivas

 

Adapted and disseminated By Dr Ioannis S. Pantelidis with thanks to Dr Graham Stew (last known employer: University of Brighton) for the original file of approximately 180 questions.

 

Message from Dr Pantelidis:  A few years ago I was given an old file which helped me with mock vivas for my own students who then successfully defended their thesis. When I recently rediscovered the file I realised that the original author Dr Stew is retired and these questions could possibly lost so I decided to publish them for anyone to use along with a Youtube Video with advice on what to look out before your VIVA and during the VIVA (see: https://youtu.be/LDQ1jhgNFDE ). 


If even one more doctoral candidate is helped by my efforts and Dr Stew’s original work then why not give back to the community? I did try to contact Dr Stew via LinkedIn but I never got a reply and I doubt he still checks that LinkedIn account.  My only hope is that he is ok by my decision to share this file and that he will be happy knowing that he is still helping PhD students even post retirement.  So I ask you if you share this file then please do give credit to Dr Stew.  

 

This file contains 200 questions grouped in themes or Doctoral thesis sections.

 

For an easy downloadable PDF file click here

 

For even more VIVA questions see this repository: https://phdvoice.org/viva-question-repository/


 

 

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 

  1. Tell us about your PhD…
  2. What motivated you to research this topic?
  3. What’s your research about?

 

  1. Describe yoru research in a couple of sentences to:
    1. your GrandParents,
    2. a very young sibling/relative,
    3.  a professional in your industry/sector.

 

  1. What were the aims of your thesis and what were the conclusions?

 

 

  1. Why did you choose this particular problem?

 

 

  1. What exactly were you trying to find out?

 

  1. In one sentence, what is your thesis?

 

 

  1. Would you please summarize your thesis for us?

 

 

  1. What were the motivation for your research? Why was the problem you have tackled worth tackling?

 

  1. Where did your research project come from?  How did your research questions emerge?

 

  1. Isn’t this a subjective study? What were you personal reasons for choosing this topic?  What did you hope/expect to find?

 

  1. Has your view of your research topic changed during the course of the research?

 

  1. What led you to choose this topic? What excited you about it?

 

  1. What was the purpose of this study?

 

  1. What do you mean by influence (The title stated: Influence of X on Y)

 

  1. What was your research question? (if you have not been very careful in your thesis structure this is quite possible: The title suggested one, the choice of literature another, and the abstract another).

 

  1. Why did you choose this topic for doctoral study?

 

  1. How did you develop an interest in this subject?

 

  1. Could you tell us a bit about how you came to do this research?

 

  1. What made you want to do research on this?

 

  1. I’d like to know what the origins of this thesis were for you.

 

  1. How did you come to be doing research in this area? Tell us a bit about how you came to do research in this area.

 

  1. Would you please summarise your thesis for us? Could you first summarise the main points of your thesis?

 

  1. You cover several areas in your thesis.  What is the whole thing about?

 

  1. Why is this subject important?

 

  1. Who else thinks it is important?

 

  1. Who has worked on this subject before?

 

  1. What had not been done before?

 

 

ETHICS

 

  1. When and how did you get ethical approval for this research (in case you haven’t been clear in the thesis – or even to test you)

 

  1. What were the ethical implications of your research, and how did you deal with them?

 

  1. How important were ethical considerations in your study?

 

  1. Can you clarify what procedures you follow to ensure that your research observed the canons of the profession with regard to ethical procedures?

 

  1. How did you minimise personal bias? Why did you write in the ‘first person’? or third?

 

  1. What issues arose from researching in your own workplace?

 

  1. How did you handle them?

 

  1. Where there no safety issues? For participants? For yourself?

 

  1. How did you resolve these?

 

  1. Do you feel any sort of betrayal about your participants’ views being in the public domain?

 

 

 

LITERATURE  REVIEW

 

  1. Why did you miss author X? a dreaded question – take your time answering it be honest if you never came across it.
  2. Can you clarify for me what you learned from the review of the literature?

 

  1. Your review of the literature includes this particular work which is no longer considered to be a serious contribution.  Why did you include that work?

 

  1. What previous research influenced you most?

 

  1. Awareness of other work, and distinction from similar work.
  2. Especially recent publications where others are working in the same area – what are the similarities and differences between your work and theirs?

 

  1. How did you know that it had not been studied previously, was it because of the academic or the professional literature?

 

  1. What reading influenced your thinking and guided your research?

 

  1. Who would you say are the key people in your field today?

 

  1. Who has done something similar to you ?

 

  1. Why is this subject important?

 

  1. Who else thinks it is important?

 

  1. Who has worked on this subject before?

 

  1. What did you adapt for your study?

 

  1. Who was responsible for the key conceptual turns, innovations or significant thinking in your field ?

 

 

METHODOLOGY

 

  1. How does your methodology relate to your epistemological approach? Are you certain about this?

 

  1. What was your methodology? (The candidate answered incorrectly by describing the research method.)

 

  1. How would you describe your methodology and why did you decide to use this?

 

  1. What would you say were the central methodological difficulties you experienced during your research?

 

  1. What influenced your thinking and in which way?

 

  1. You have borrowed a theory in developing your theoretical model.  What were the key considerations in doing this?

 

  1. Explain, or talk me through, why you preferred “X” approach to a “Y” approach?

 

  1. Isn’t this “audit”?

 

  1. Why have you done it this way?

 

  1. What other alternatives were there to your approach?

 

  1. What issues of reflexivity are relevant to your study?  How did you deal with them?

 

  1. Were you “theory testing” or “developing theory” in your research?

 

  1. Have you heard about the RRRRR theory and how could you have used it?

 

  1. Was your research deductive or inductive or abductive – and why?

 

  1. What was your conceptual framework?

 

  1. Why isn’t there a conceptual framework in yoru thesis?

 

  1. How and why did you come to select this research design?

 

  1. Please distinguish between methodology and methods.

 

  1. What is the link between your research questions and your hypothesis?

 

  1. What led you to select these models of … ?

 

  1. What are the theoretical components of your framework?

 

  1. How did you decide upon the variables to include in your conceptual framework?

 

  1. How did concepts assist you to visualise and explain what you intended to investigate?

 

  1. How did you use your conceptual framework to design your research and analyse your findings?

 

  1. How did you develop the …you used in your methodology?

 

  1. What precautions were taken against likely sources of bias?

 

  1. What are the limitations in the design? Is the candidate aware of them?

 

  1. In the circumstances, has the best design been chosen?

 

  1. Has the candidate given an adequate justification for the design used?

 

 

 

METHODS

 

  1. Why did you choose that particular method? Why not use other methods instead?

 

85.  Can you look at the data differently?

 

  1. What was your framework for analysis?

 

  1. How did you deal with the data?

 

  1. Can you clarify what your relationship was to the context and subjects of the study?

 

  1. Do you think that your relationship in any way contaminated the study?

 

  1. Have you been sensitive to a problem of a-typicality?

 

  1. Do you think your sample was large enough?

 

  1. How did you analyse the interview data? (There was no reference to any such analysis in the thesis).

 

  1. Explain in detail (missing from the thesis), how the research instruments were developed and used.

 

  1. Where did the questions in the questionnaire come from?  Did you make them up?

 

  1. Did you know the results of your research before you started?

 

  1. What are the differences between a simulation and real life?

 

  1. Why did you use both quantitative and qualitative data ?

 

  1. What are the pros and cons of the methods you chose?

 

  1. Why did you reject the others?

 

  1. Did you use the same technique with each participant ?

 

  1. Did you consider how you might have to curtail a phase of your research, if you saw that it was not working?

 

  1. Why should we trust the analysis you present in Table X?

 

  1. Why was …. a good judgement?

 

  1. Why should we accept your interpretation of …..?

 

 

FINDINGS

 

105.              Summarise your key findings.

 

  1. What do your findings really mean?

 

  1. Are the outcomes what you expected?

 

  1. Were you surprised at any of your findings?

 

  1. Would you say that your results are generalisable?

 

  1. How do your findings relate to the literature on the subject?

 

111.                Did your knowledge of the area allow you to anticipate your results, or were you totally detached from the inquiry?

 

  1. How did gender issues influence culture ? (All respondents were male.)

 

  1. What led you to choose your models of organisational culture?

 

  1. What other models of culture did you consider?

 

  1. Did the finding about χχχχχ surprise you and how did you explain it?

 

116.              Please explain how you arrived at, and then distinguished between, your factual and conceptual conclusions.

 

  1.  Surely it would have been better to use a different method?

 

 

 

CONTRIBUTION

 

  1. In what way is your research original and significant?

 

  1. Can you relate your findings to other important research in the field?

 

  1. What do you see as the key component/task of theory development?

 

  1. Who is likely to care about your research and why?

 

  1. What have you done that merits a Doctorate?

 

  1. What’s original about your work?  Where is the novelty?

 

  1. What are the contributions (to professional practice) of your thesis?

 

  1. What is the relevance of your contribution?To practice?

 

  1. What is the relevance of your contribution?To your profession?

 

  1. What is the relevance of your contribution?To methods?

 

  1. What is the relevance of your contribution?To other researchers?

 

  1. How do your contributions generalise?

 

130.                To what extent would you generalise to settings other than the one you’ve worked on?

  1. Under what circumstances would your approach be usable?

 

132.                How long term is your contribution, given the anticipated future developments in this area?

 

  1. How do your conclusions relate to other conceptual models in the area?

 

  1. What correlations did you draw between the concepts in your thesis?

 

  1. What is your contribution to knowledge?

 

  1. How will your research inform professional practice?

 

  1. You claim your work is reliable; does this mean it is true?

 

138.                On a general level, what, for you, were the most interesting things to come out of your thesis?

 

  1. Explain what is new about your work

 

  1. Tell me how your work differs from that of X.

 

  1. When did you realise that you were on to something?

 

  1. What would you say has been your contribution?

 

  1. Who would be most likely to agree with you?

 

  1. Who would be most likely to disagree?

 

  1. How long do you expect your work to remain innovative?

 

  1. Do you think your research will influence others?

 

  1. What sets your work apart from others’?

 

  1. What do you think you produced that was really new?

 

 

IMPLICATIONS

 

  1. If you had 5 minutes to speak to a group of colleagues about the implications of your study, what would you say?

 

  1. What is the implication of your work in your area?  What does it change?

 

  1. Have you solved the practice problem that you have addressed?

 

152.              Have you changed practice? If not, why not?  Where’s the evidence for change?

 

  1. Do you see yourself as a change agent?

 

154.                How might your conclusions influence public policy or professional practice, and who might be interested in your results?

 

  1. How could your findings be transferred to other corporate cultures?

 

  1. Who will use your material?

 

  1. Who do you think will be influenced by your work?

 

  1. How do you think that influence will occur?

 

  1. Which is your most important recommendation and why?

 

  1. Do you think your recommendations are feasible?

 

 

CRITIQUE

 

  1. If you were doing this study over again, in what ways would you change it?

 

162.                Looking back what might you have done differently? This requires a thoughtful answer, whilst defending what you did at the time.

 

  1. What are the strongest/weakest parts of your work?

 

  1. If you were to change something in your thesis what would it be?

 

  1. Where did you go wrong?

 

  1. What have you learnt from your research experience?

 

  1. Have you evaluated your work?

 

168.                Intrinsic evaluation: how have you demonstrated that it works, and how well it performs?

 

169.              Extrinsic evaluation: how have you demonstrated its usefulness for a specific professional context? 

 

  1. How could you improve your work?

 

  1. Please summarise for us the possible criticisms of your research.

 

  1. Why did you not explicitly state your limitations?

 

  1. Would you say that your thesis has any weaknesses?

 

  1. What were the compromises in the research?

 

  1. What part are you the proudest about your work? Why?

 

 

FUTURE RESEARCH

 

  1. How would you take your work further from here?

 

  1. Where would you like to be in 5 years time?

 

178.              Where will you publish your work? (Think about which journals and conferences your research would best suit.  You should promote your research by publishing papers in journals and presenting them at conferences, which takes your work to a much wider audience).

 

  1. Which aspects of your thesis could be published?

 

180.                You discuss future work in your conclusion chapter.  How long would it take to implement X, and what are the likely problems you envisage?

 

181.                If you were to follow up on your research, or encourage others to build on it, which        specific aspects of it deserve further investigation?

 

  1. Why didn’t you choose journal X to publish your work?

 

  1. How come you have not published any of this work yet?

 

  1. Why did you chose this particular journal to publish your work?

 

  1. Which is the journal you most aspire to publish your work in?

 

  1. Why did you present to X conference?

 

  1. Why have you not presented to any conferences?

 

 

188.                How do you see research developing in the next five years?

 

OTHER

 

  1. What do you understand by the term ‘doctorateness?’ or ‘phdness‘?

 

190.                What would you say were the most important things that you learned from your research both in terms of personal development and from a contribution to the body of knowledge?

 

191.              What are you most proud of and why? (This may be asked (again) towards the end of the viva).

 

  1. What have you learned from the process of completing your Doctorate?

 

  1. How easy was your research journey?

 

  1. What do you mean when you use the term …?

 

  1. On page X you suggest that…why is that…? (take tim to find the section in your thesis)

 

196.                Are there any aspects of your research that you would like to tell us about that we have not discussed?

 

  1. Did your study turn out as you expected?

 

  1. You say … was the result of ….. Could it have been the opposite?

 

  1. You seem unsure of … Why is that?

 

  1. Do you have any questions for us?

 

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