Date: 2020-02-05
Categories: research; admin; phd_students

On the need for PhD viva chairs

I have always been a bit confused by the need for PhD vivas to have "chairs", even when the two examiners are senior academics with a lot of experience.

The QAA guidance says this:

2020-02-05.160002

Note that the meaning is: a chair must be used or else you must do X... where X is something which in practice is likely to be impossible, i.e., somehow prove to the candidate that the viva is being conducted in a fair and consistent manner (how could you ever prove such a thing?).

Clearly a University could decide not to appoint a chair, but then they would be open to a law suit along the lines of "the University failed to follow QAA guidance for PhD vivas".

Given the above, it is somewhat surprising that universities still don't appoint chairs in every situation.

I should emphasize that my own personal view is that 2 senior academics with lots of PhD examining experience should be enough to ensure a reasonable level of fairness in a PhD viva, and that the requirement for chairs in all cases is excessive and unnecessary. However, if the QAA writes the above in their guidance, it seems to me that universities are forced in practice to appoint a chair for each viva.