More DBA news in May: it's getting even nearer the end

I last wrote on this topic 11 days ago, saying that "The only minor problem remaining is that a submission/certification form has to be inserted after the acknowledgments in the thesis. What I will do is create a PDF version of the thesis, split it after ten pages into two new documents, then merge the first split, the form and the second split into a new document. Fortunately I have a program that will do this without any bother." 

Not quite as easy as that. The file that denotes the layout of the thesis states that the order of the first few pages should be Title; Abstract; Acknowledgements; Dedication; Declaration; Table of contents; Abbreviations; List of tables; List of figures; and then the text. The appendices should come before the references. The order in my document was Title; Abstract; Table of contents; Abbreviations; List of tables; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Dedication; and of course the references came before the appendices (my supervisor told me to do this: previously the appendices came before the references). So I had to dig out three pages (A & D) and insert them in an earlier place. This shouldn't be a problem, but following the dedication was a section break, which causes the pages following this break to be numbered differently (the pre-text pages are numbered with Roman Numerals (i, iv, etc) whereas afterwards they are numbered normally). As a result, almost the entire thesis got numbered incorrectly. So I had to fix this.

Then I sent the entire document to a PDF printer which naturally creates a PDF (the F in PDF stands for 'file'); I extracted from this the first six pages (title, abstract, acknowledgments, dedication) into a new file and removed those pages from the original document. Then I merged the first six pages, the declaration form and the rest of the document into a new combined document.

After doing so, I discovered that the pagination had gone haywire: I had a blank page after the acknowledgments and tables were starting at the bottom of a page instead of the first line of the next page. So I went through the original Word document, trying to ensure that the pagination was correct. Then I repeated the entire PDF process (create, split, merge) only to discover that somehow two tables had been numbered incorrectly - instead of 13 and 14, they were now numbered 3 and 4 (I don't know how that happened). Another check to see that the lists of tables and figures is correct and then another PDF cycle. Still there were problems.

Then I remembered that Word has its own create PDF functionality: it might be better to use this than send the document to a PDF printer, as the latter can repaginate the document. Indeed this was so, as the PDF that I obtained directly from Word was paginated correctly. After checking that there were no more errors, I split the document and merged, creating the final document which also received a new name. Then it was over to Turnitin in order to upload the document to the university.

I informed the administrative director about the upload and asked about the binding process (apparently two or three copies have to be soft bound prior to the viva exam). After waiting a week with no response, I resent the letter, and yesterday afternoon received a reply. Not a word of congratulation at having got this far; instead dry words: "It is normally up to you to submit the bound examination copies of your thesis but it is obviously not possible at this time. I am waiting for confirmation from the University for the new process but I am assuming the version you submitted via Turnitin will suffice. "

I don't remember if I have mentioned the topic of the external examiner here. The viva is held with one external (to the University) examiner, one internal and my supervisor. My supervisor asked me several months ago about possible external examiners, which struck me as rather strange, as the university should know better than I. Normally I would have asked for someone who had been listed in the references, as this would imply a connection to my topic; there were no recent British authors referenced, so this idea didn't get very far. Then I searched the staff directories of a few British universities, looking for business orientated schools of information. I don't remember now how many I looked at before I found what seemed to be the perfect selection: a lecturer at Northumbria University (and thus reasonably close to Edinburgh) who worked several years for SAP before turning to academia. The administrative director wrote that this lecturer has agreed in principle to be the external examiner; now there is some form of bureaucratic process involved in signing her up.

I wonder whether this examiner gets paid by my university (i.e. from my tuition fees) or whether it is considered part of the job at her university and possibly my university has to reimburse hers. Or whether it's like peer reviewing papers for a professional journal, which is done for free. Also, the fact that her university is close to mine is now irrelevant as the viva will obviously be done via team working software ("We have successfully held four of these since the beginning of the lockdown and it has worked very well on each occasion" - I am surprised that there were so many doctoral candidates from my department at the same stage).

Yesterday's letter ends with the words "I’ll get back in touch once the examiners are approved". The tricky subject of fees will have to be discussed again: I got this wrong in my earlier blog. Fees have to be paid up until the final bound thesis is received, which can be a few months after the viva, depending on its results.

I doubt that I have mentioned this before, but there are five possible outcomes of the viva:

1. to award the degree as is
2. to award the degree subject to minor amendments 
3. to require resubmission of the thesis with major amendments without a further viva 
4. to require resubmission of the thesis with major amendments with a further viva  
5. to fail the candidate.

Of these outcomes, the final one should never happen as the supervisor should only recommend the candidate to submit the thesis when it is complete in the supervisor's opinion. Failed theses are the supervisor's fault! The first outcome is very rare whereas the second is the most common. Of course, this outcome is the one that I expect for my thesis.