Examination and assessment Archives - Enhancing Postgraduate Environments

Implementing an Oral Exam or Viva

Sibusiso Ncanywa — Mon, 18 May 2026 16:32:09 +0000

Many universities assess postgraduate studies in writing and orally. These materials will help anybody responsible for such implementation.

The “Questions to ask” series draws from literature and institutional experience worldwide. They offer a set of questions to be posed when implementing or evaluating a practice, in this case, the implementation of a viva voce (oral examination). Answering these questions should assist curriculum developers and others ensure best practice in their context. The short video introduces the “Key Questions To Ask When Implementing a Viva”.

In addition to the above video, consult this Viva Questions To Ask PDF file.

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Trust in Postgraduate Education

PostGrad — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 08:07:05 +0000

Video 1: Why do we need trust in higher education?

This video was produced by Sinethemba Oz Konzaphi, Sioux McKenna, and Shiloh Marsh

Here’s a few questions that might guide your viewing:

Grant Cyster points out that trusting someone doesn’t mean you trust them to always get everything right, rather it means trusting them to try with integrity. What does the relationship between trust and creating space to make mistakes mean for postgraduate supervision?
Chrissie Boughey distinguishes between leading the academic project and managing the university. How does this distinction pertain to postgraduate education?
Anthea Adams makes a connection between trust and being seen and valued. How does this play out in higher education?
A few speakers indicate how trust is significant because education is a relationship. What are the implications of this for postgraduate supervision?
Masixole Booi indicates that trust is needed if universities are to decolonise. How can we be open to diverse forms of knowledge and making knowledge while maintaining a strong critical perspective?
Patrick Onyango points out that the university is an eco-system. What aspects of the university inspire trust in you, and which foster mistrust?

Video 2: Why do we need trust in higher education?

This video was produced by Sinethemba Oz Konzaphi, Sioux McKenna, and Shiloh Marsh

Here’s a few questions that might guide your viewing:

Abongile Sonkosi suggests that students need to be careful in placing trust in the university. What are your views on this?
Jan McArthur suggests that students are often deliberately mistrusted and asks how they then learn to be trustworthy. How can we explicitly build trust in supervisory relationships to ensure that trustworthiness is a graduate attribute?
Olebogeng Mokgantshang suggests that universities do not inspire or instil trust and calls for us to reflect on how to address this. What examples can you think of where universities undermine trust in our postgraduate students?
Marike Kluyts suggests that our focus on the knowledge content is sometimes at the cost of building trust in the university as a social good. Do you agree?
Disa Mogashana calls for universities to shape an inner person who is trustworthy. Is this part of our role?
Yanela Ndabula suggests that sometimes mistrust emerges because we do not make our expectations and peculiar ‘ways of doing’ explicit to students. How can we build trust through more transparency about the postgraduate journey?

Thanks to all who attended the Higher Education Close Up conference and provided their inputs into this video. Visit the conference website to learn more about the theme of Trust: https://tinyurl.com/hecu11

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The Viva (Oral Defence)

PostGrad — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 15:08:18 +0000

This series of videos emerges from the Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education project, which brings together Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Directors of Research, Directors of Postgraduate Studies, and Deans to reflect with postgraduate scholars on quality in postgraduate education. You can learn more about this project, funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa and led by Professors Sioux McKenna and Stephanie Burton by visiting the project website.

In this video, the focus is on the oral exam or viva voce. The oral exam is only used in some universities in South Africa though the report from the national review of the doctorate by the Council on Higher Education now recommends it for all. This video looks at some of the key issues.

This video was produced by Sinethemba Oz Konzaphi. Thanks to all who provided their inputs into this video.

Who might find this useful?

This might be a useful video for a supervision development course.

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Higher Degrees, Examining & Vivas

PostGrad — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 15:09:11 +0000

Besides supporting and guiding the postgraduate student to completion, a supervisor has additional roles that they need to fulfil within the institution. This video elaborates on supervisory roles related to the examination of student theses. Firstly, the supervisor has to select suitable examiners as well as prepare students and support them through the examination process. The examination process may include a viva, depending on institutional requirements. Secondly, the supervisor may be approached to be a thesis examiner, and the video discusses a number of important considerations in this process.

Prof Chrissie Boughey at Rhodes University wrote and narrated the presentation. The material was originally developed for a postgraduate supervision course.

Explore these additional resources

Who might find this useful?

This material is mainly for supervisors, although the discussion on thesis examination (and particularly the additional resources) may be useful to postgraduate students who are nearing the end of their studies.

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Formatting your Thesis Part 2 – Layouts and Breaks

PostGrad — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:51:50 +0000

Creating a neat, well laid-out and carefully formatted thesis is an important part of preparing a thesis for examination. Careless errors, inconsistent spacing, and different fonts and font sizes, for example, can communicate to examiners that you do not take your work seriously, and this could create a poor first impression. This screencast recommends a page layout template, and the use of page and section breaks to create a neat, clearly laid out thesis, and takes the viewer through a step by step process of creating the template, and inserting page and section breaks. There are also additional guides under the video, as well as the script with screenshots, for additional reading and assistance.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant.

Explore these additional resources

Formatting:

Extra readings and guides:

Creating section and page breaks
Example of thesis layout: 1 | 2

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, to assist them with formatting their thesis or dissertation.

The post Formatting your Thesis Part 2 – Layouts and Breaks appeared first on Enhancing Postgraduate Environments.

Formatting your Thesis Part 1 – Headings

PostGrad — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:38:27 +0000

Assigning headings to different sections of your thesis is not an arbitrary task. Headings communicate meaning – they indicate the level of importance of sections of your thesis, and also the relationship between sections of your thesis. They create structure, in other words, and it is partly through structure that we signpost, or guide, our readers through our argument. This screencast explains the different headings levels one can assign to parts of a postgraduate thesis or long essay, and shows viewers step by step how to assign heading styles to their own document and use these to create an automatic table of contents when the thesis is complete, which can later be edited and updated as needed, using these tools. This formatting is an important and necessary step in preparing your thesis for examination, and taking care here communicates to your examiners the seriousness with which you approach your research, and asks them to take it seriously too. So, taking your time to get these ‘technical’ details right can pay off during the assessment phase of this journey.

Developed by Sherran Clarence, Independent higher education consultant. Special thanks to Laurence Piper for the narration.

Explore these additional resources

Formatting:

Extra readings and guides:

Choosing a font for your thesis: 1 | 2
Polishing your thesis
Creating headings

Who might find this useful?

This material is primarily for postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars, to assist them with formatting their thesis or dissertation.

The post Formatting your Thesis Part 1 – Headings appeared first on Enhancing Postgraduate Environments.

The Examination Process: assessment of written theses or dissertations

PostGrad — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 11:58:38 +0000

Research degrees in South Africa are assessed by a written thesis or dissertation. This EPE material leads you in an interactive way through various steps of examination process. It stimulates – through a varied range of interactive exercises, resource texts, videos and real life examples – both supervisors and graduate students to think about their tasks and roles in the examinations process. This material aims to contribute to creating a fair and safe examination environment. The first chapter is about the examination process in South Africa and deals with the general features of the examination process; the national standards for master’s and PhD and an example of the examination process at one of the universities in South Africa. The second chapter is about choosing the examiners. It leads you through various considerations when choosing examiners and it pays special attention whether or not to involve students in that choice. The third chapter is about how to examine a research degree. It reviews opposing approaches to examination. Subsequently it focuses on the key element of examination, i.e. the examination report, and how to think about communicating the outcome, compiling the report, the content of the report itself and how to provide meaningful feedback. The fourth chapter deals with orals (vivas), a phenomenon not very common in South African universities but the standard elsewhere in the world academic. This chapter first explains the phenomenon and then leads you through two important considerations, i.e. how to create a safe setting and how prepare for the oral.

View Presentation

Developed by Ms Ronel Steyn (PhD candidate, Rhodes University, South Africa) and Professor Leo de Haan (International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands). Thanks to Colette Gerards (VU), Cristina Sathyamala (ISS), Daniel Steyn (AFDA), Henk van den Heuvel (VU), Hennie Lötter (UJ), Joanna Baskott (ISS), Johan Hattingh (SU), Liezel Frick (SU), Mandy Hlengwa (RU), Melanie Petersen (SU), Rachel Kurian (ISS), Sanne Huesken (ISS), Sioux McKenna (RU), Tristen Yaylor (UJ) and Wil Hout (ISS).

Who might find this useful?

Postgraduate supervisors and postgraduate students.

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Scientific Method and Ethical Considerations

PostGrad — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 10:57:56 +0000

When an academic or a researcher makes a statement, (s)he will have an authoritative voice over the society, as the statement will have a “scientific” nature, and thus an ethical responsibility. But what is a scientific statement, or in other words, what is the demarcation line between science and pseudo-science? This is the question, a very important but somehow neglected one in the academic curriculum, that the philosophy of science has been trying to provide answers. The video sets out the question and introduces three alternative positions—Popper, Kuhn, and Lakatos—in that regard. Video, 9.04 minutes.

Developed by Prof Fikret Adaman (Boğaziçi University, Turkey). Thanks to Ayşe Mumcu for her feedback on the material, and Mert Kaya and Kubilay Turhan for the video recording and editing.

Who might find this useful?

Postgraduate students and supervisors may find this video helpful.

Explore these additional resources

STALEY, K.W. (2014) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
KUHN, T. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
POPPER, K. (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Hutchinson.
LAKATOS, I. (1978) The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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The examination process: auditing your work before submitting it for examination

PostGrad — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 10:31:06 +0000

Video, 9.41 minutes.

Developed by Presenter Prof Gina Wisker (Brighton University, UK). Thanks to Dr Henriëtte van den Berg who commissioned the video and developed supporting documents, and to Mr Brian Munro for the video recording and editing.

Who might find this useful?

Postgraduate students and supervisors may find this video helpful.

Instructions:

Use the questions provided on the following blog to evaluate the different sections of your dissertation/thesis. Assess every aspect of your work as you write the different chapters. Discuss your evaluation with your supervisor during supervision sessions. Repeat the evaluation once you have your complete draft ready for examination.

Link to 40 questions: https://ndphblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/40-practice-questions-for-viva-preparation/

Explore these additional resources

Electronic resources:

Carter,S. (2015). The examiners-perspective lens for doctoral editing. Doctoral Writing. https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/the-examiner-perspective-lens-for-doctoral-editing/
de-Miguel, Mario (2010). The evaluation of doctoral thesis. A model proposal. RELIEVE, v. 16, n. 1. http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v16n1/RELIEVEv16n1_4.htm
McKenna, S (2016) Questions your reader should never have to ask. Doctoral Writing. https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/questions-your-reader-should-never-ask/
Starfield, S. (2015). Writing your thesis with the end in view. Doctoral Writing. https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/tag/making-an-examiner-friendly-thesis/

Articles and books:

Carter, S. (2008). Examining the doctoral thesis: A discussion. Innovations Education and Teaching International 45(4), 367-374.
Golding,C., Sharmini,S., & Lazarovitch, A. (2014 ) What examiners do: What thesis students should know. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2014 Vol. 39, No. 5, 563–576, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.859230
Mullins, G. & Kiley, M. (2002). ‘It’s a PhD, not a Nobel Prize’: How experienced examiners assess research theses. Studies in Higher Education, 27: 369-386
Trafford, V. and Leshem, C. (2002). Starting at the end to undertake doctoral research: Predictable questions as stepping stones. Higher Education Review, 34(4), 43-61.
Trafford,V & Leshem,S. (2008). Stepping Stones to Achieving Your Doctorate: Focusing on Your Viva from the start. Maidenhead: Open University Press. See Appendix 10.2 Audit instrument.

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