When will I hear about the outcome of my viva?

Although your examiners may informally tell you the outcome at the end of the viva, the official confirmation of the outcome will be emailed to you (copying in your department) by the Doctoral School team once the examiners have submitted their report forms. 

Examiners are asked to submit their report forms to the Doctoral School within two weeks of the viva and the Doctoral School aims to inform you of the outcome within one week of receiving the report forms.

What are the possible outcomes of the viva?

Your examiners will discuss the outcome of your thesis submission and will decide on one of the following outcomes of the submission:

• Pass PhD
• Pass PhD subject to minor corrections in 3 months
• Pass PhD subject to amendments to address errors of substance or omission in 9 months
• Resubmit for PhD within 18 months (with or without a second viva)
• Re-viva on the same thesis within 18 months
• Pass MPhil
• Pass MPhil subject to minor corrections in 3 months
• Pass MPhil subject to amendments to address errors of substance or omission in 9 months
• Resubmit for MPhil within 12 months
• Fail at PhD and MPhil

The corrections period applies irrespective of your mode of study, and therefore applies to both full and part time students.

What are the most common outcomes?

The most common of these outcomes are:

• Pass PhD - please visit the Final thesis submission and Award process pages for information about the next stages.
• Pass subject to minor corrections in 3 months
• Pass subject to amendments to address errors of substance or omission in 9 months
• Resubmission within 12 / 18 months (with or without a second viva)