Submission Complete

Well, on Tuesday of this week I submitted my Ph.D. thesis to be examined. It felt pretty monumental.

It contains 47919 words, 203 pages, 130 references and 8 chapters. I submitted 1346 days after I started, that's three years, eight months and just over a week.

After handing over two copies of the thing to the University, the process now is to wait until I have my viva, which has been set for the 13th September. At that point, they can apparently do any of the following:

• Award the degree outright
• Award the degree subject to minor corrections. This means that the thesis is acceptable, but corrections, usually typographical, changes in phraseology, corrections of faults in subsidiary arguments, are required.
• Award the degree subject to major corrections. This means that the thesis is acceptable, but corrections, such as rewriting sections, correcting calculations or clarifying or amending arguments, are required.
• Ask me to revise and resubmit thesis either for the same or a lower qualification. This basically means that I have not have met the requirements for the degree.
• Award a lower qualification without corrections. This means that the thesis and/or performance in the viva were not up to standard for a Ph.D., but possibly an MPhil or something else.
• Award a lower qualification with corrections or revisions. This is the same as the above case, but subject to corrections or more major revisions.
• Reject it without the opportunity for resubmission. It's not good enough and there is no reasonable prospect of me being able, in a reasonable time, to revise the thesis or improve performance in the viva, to merit the award of any qualification.

It has to be said that in the last few years of watching people complete their research degrees in the school, I can't remember ever seeing anyone who made it to submission getting anything other than the second or third option. But, this obviously doesn't mean the others can't happen!

So now I get a bit of a break, and get ready to defend my thesis in September.