Thesis submission and viva
Advice on how to submit your thesis and how we’ll be conducting vivas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Your thesis
You should tell us that you intend to submit your doctoral thesis two months before you are due to do so.
You notify us through an official Notice of Intention to Submit (NITS) which you’ll find on the Academic Services website along with details of who to send the form to and how.
Take me to the Academic Services website on doctoral thesis submission
You should submit your thesis to the College Office before or at the “Maximum End Date of Programme”, as shown on your MyEd record. Again, all the details you’ll need are on the Academic Services website, including what arrangements are being made for submission (e.g. the removal of the requirement to print and bind your thesis) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Take me to the Academic Services website on doctoral thesis submission
Take me to contact details for the School and College Postgraduate Offices
Your viva
Once you’ve submitted your thesis, you’ll be contacted by your Internal Examiner to find a suitable date and time for your viva.
We are recommending that vivas are carried out remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are using the Blackboard Collaborate platform, which is fully supported by Learn and works best on the Google Chrome web browser. If you do not currently have Chrome, please download and install it before your session.
The LLC Postgraduate Office will set up the Collaborate meeting and send you and your examiners a calendar invitation, and meeting link, at least two weeks before your agreed viva date.
There will be a short test meeting, with all participants, one week in advance of the actual viva. If this presents any technical challenges, please contact the Information Services (IS) helpline is.helpline@ed.ac.uk
On the day of your viva, the Collaborate space will open 15 minutes before the start of the session to allow for individual equipment checks.
Advice on the purpose of vivas, and what the examiners are looking for, is available on the Institute for Academic Development (IAD) website. You might find the downloadable document A guide for Viva Preparation particularly useful.