Logo

PhD Thesis Proposal Defense: Common Questions and Feedback

PhD thesis proposal defense questions and feedback

This past two weeks I attended a number of proposal defense of PhD students at my University. In this post, I discuss the general format of a proposal defense as well as discuss the most common questions asked and feedback given to the students by the external examiners.

Structure of a PhD proposal defense

Outcomes of a phd proposal defense, common questions and feedback for chapter 1 of the proposal, common questions and feedback for chapter 2 of the proposal, common questions and feedback for chapter 3 of the proposal, general feedback, final thoughts, related posts.

A proposal defense has: the student defending his proposal, two external examiners, the student’s supervisors, the audience, and the chair of the defense. The defense is structured as follows:

  • The chair opens the session by welcoming and acknowledging the student, his supervisors and the external examiners.
  • The chair also outlines how the defense will be undertaken including any rules that should be adhered to.
  • The chair then welcomes the PhD student to introduce himself and make a presentation (usually 15 minutes).
  • After the presentation by the student, the chair opens the floor to the external examiners to give their comments, ask questions and give feedback to the student on how to improve the proposal.
  • The student is then required to respond to the questions asked and comments given.
  • The chair then makes his remarks.
  • Afterwards, the PhD student, his supervisors and the audience are requested to leave the room to allow the chair and the examiners to make their determination. The student and his supervisors are then called back in and the determination is spelt out to them.

There are about 4 possible outcomes after the student presents and defends his proposal:

  • The proposal passes with minor or no corrections.
  • The proposal passes with major corrections.
  • The student retakes the proposal by re-writing it (may include change of topic) and defending it again.
  • The proposal is rejected.

Rarely will a student be asked to re-take or will a proposal be rejected especially if it has been adequately supervised. This is because before the proposal is submitted for oral defense, it must be reviewed and signed by the supervisors.

Below is a list of the common questions and feedback for chapter 1:

  • What is your working definition of [concepts]?
  • Which sector do you want to focus on?
  • From a [country/region] perspective, please explain what is the problem?
  • How do you intend to solve the problem you have identified?
  • What will your proposed solution comprise of?
  • Who are the recipients of your proposed solution?
  • What is the primary outcome of the research?
  • Your objectives use [concept] while your problem statement talks of [a different concept]. What’s the difference between the two [concepts]?
  • In the research objectives, there is an interchange and insertion of different words. Be careful about the concepts you use. There needs to be consistency in the concepts used throughout the proposal.
  • What is the knowledge gap? That is, what is known and what is unknown that your study will attempt to address?
  • How do you relate [different variables included in the topic]? Is one a precedent of the other?
  • Are you investigating or examining? The topic says investigating while the objectives talk of examining.
  • The presentation does not discuss [sector of focus], the opportunities that exist, and the challenges it faces. This would give the student a good basis for undertaking the research.
  • There is no continuity in the objectives.
  • There is no discussion of the study’s contribution to knowledge and practice, which is very important for PhD-level study.
  • The background has many concepts that throw off readers on what the focus of the study is.
  • The problem statement is not focused.
  • What is the placement of the study regionally?
  • The objectives are too long and broad; they should be specific.
  • What is the underlying hypothesis of your study?
  • One of the research questions is biased. The researcher should take a neutral stand.

Below is a list of the common questions and feedback for chapter 2:

  • Which theories have inspired your work and who are the proponents of those theories?
  • For each theory discussed in your proposal, briefly state what it says and how it informs your study.
  • How are the theories related to your study?
  • Why did you select those theories and not [other theories]?
  • There are no empirical studies reviewed in your proposal.
  • Your work must converge with other peoples’ work to be able to show the gap that your study is trying to fill.
  • How did the choice of theories help you come up with your study’s concepts and variables?
  • How will you measure the variables [in the topic]?
  • You have just touched the surface of the empirical review, which should be a substantial section of your literature review.
  • It is not clear what the research gap is from the literature review.
  • After the empirical review, that’s when you now discuss the conceptual framework.
  • The conceptual framework should clearly show the dependent and independent variables and their relationships.

Below is a list of the common questions and feedback for chapter 3:

  • Kindly explain what your research philosophy is.
  • What will your [quantitative] model comprise of?
  • How are you going to verify and validate your [quantitative] model?
  • Why is the sampling formula appropriate to your sector and study? Justify the sampling formula used in the proposal.
  • Justify the choice of the sampling technique [e.g. purposive sampling].
  • Justify your choice of data collection and data analysis methods.
  • Are you going to use an inductive approach or a deductive approach to your study?
  • There needs to be consistency between your objectives and research philosophy.
  • If you have a number of population categories, you need to clearly articulate the sampling techniques for each category.
  • The data analysis methods should be clearly articulated.
  • The ethical considerations of your study should be adequately discussed.
  • The data collection instruments should be part of the proposal defense.
  • Your choice of research design and methods should be justified.
  • What is your unit of analysis?
  • Who are your study’s population?
  • Will you have different questionnaires for different respondents?
  • The data collection tools should have adequate background information questions to enable comparisons across different socio-economic and demographic groups.
  • Why are you lagging a variable? Justify the need to lag the variable.
  • Justify the choice of the model [e.g. Structural Equation Model].
  • Which specific multivariate analysis will you use?
  • Which tests are you going to conduct for the model and why? [e.g. normality, multicollinearity tests etc]
  • The variables of your study should be defined.

In addition to the chapter-specific questions and feedback given, the students also received feedback on:

  • The formatting of their proposals, including the font styles and size allowed, the numbering of the documents,
  • The inclusion of front pages such as cover page, declaration, abstract, table of contents,
  • The inclusion of back pages such as reference list and appendices which should include letter of introduction, consent letter for study respondents, data collection instruments, and work plan (Gantt chart) for the study.
  • The style of referencing recommended by the School e.g. APA, which should be consistent throughout the proposal. The proposal defense should also include some of the citations so as to give it an authoritative feel.

From my observations during the four proposal defenses I attended, a proposal defense is an opportunity for the PhD student to defend his work and to convince the interviewing panel that the student knows what he is doing and what is required of him moving forward. Most of the panellists will do their best to make the student feel comfortable rather than intimidate him so PhD students should not panic when preparing to defend their proposals.

Of importance is adequate preparation before the defense and making sure that the proposal and presentation follow the guidelines provided by the School. Lastly, PhD students should keep in mind that the aim of the proposal defense is to help improve upon the student’s proposal and ensure that the research will meet the scientific rigour and standards of a PhD-level work.

How To Write Chapter 1 Of A PhD Thesis Proposal (A Practical Guide)

How To Write Chapter 2 Of A PhD Thesis Proposal (A Beginner’s Guide)

How To Write Chapter 3 Of A PhD Thesis Proposal (A Detailed Guide)

How To Format A PhD Thesis In Microsoft Word (An Illustrative Guide)

Comprehensive Guidelines for Writing a PhD Thesis Proposal (+ free checklist for PhD Students)

Grace Njeri-Otieno

Grace Njeri-Otieno is a Kenyan, a wife, a mom, and currently a PhD student, among many other balls she juggles. She holds a Bachelors' and Masters' degrees in Economics and has more than 7 years' experience with an INGO. She was inspired to start this site so as to share the lessons learned throughout her PhD journey with other PhD students. Her vision for this site is "to become a go-to resource center for PhD students in all their spheres of learning."

Recent Content

SPSS Tutorial #11: Correlation Analysis in SPSS

In this post, I discuss what correlation is, the two most common types of correlation statistics used (Pearson and Spearman), and how to conduct correlation analysis in SPSS. What is correlation...

SPSS Tutorial #10: How to Check for Normality of Data in SPSS

The normality assumption states that the data is normally distributed. This post touches on the importance of normality of data and illustrates how to check for normality of data in SPSS. Why...

  • Translators
  • Graphic Designers
  • Editing Services
  • Academic Editing Services
  • Admissions Editing Services
  • Admissions Essay Editing Services
  • AI Content Editing Services
  • APA Style Editing Services
  • Application Essay Editing Services
  • Book Editing Services
  • Business Editing Services
  • Capstone Paper Editing Services
  • Children's Book Editing Services
  • College Application Editing Services
  • College Essay Editing Services
  • Copy Editing Services
  • Developmental Editing Services
  • Dissertation Editing Services
  • eBook Editing Services
  • English Editing Services
  • Horror Story Editing Services
  • Legal Editing Services
  • Line Editing Services
  • Manuscript Editing Services
  • MLA Style Editing Services
  • Novel Editing Services
  • Paper Editing Services
  • Personal Statement Editing Services
  • Research Paper Editing Services
  • Résumé Editing Services
  • Scientific Editing Services
  • Short Story Editing Services
  • Statement of Purpose Editing Services
  • Substantive Editing Services
  • Thesis Editing Services

Proofreading

  • Proofreading Services
  • Admissions Essay Proofreading Services
  • Children's Book Proofreading Services
  • Legal Proofreading Services
  • Novel Proofreading Services
  • Personal Statement Proofreading Services
  • Research Proposal Proofreading Services
  • Statement of Purpose Proofreading Services

Translation

  • Translation Services

Graphic Design

  • Graphic Design Services
  • Dungeons & Dragons Design Services
  • Sticker Design Services
  • Writing Services

Solve

Please enter the email address you used for your account. Your sign in information will be sent to your email address after it has been verified.

17 Thesis Defense Questions and How to Answer Them

EditrixJD

A thesis defense gives you the chance to show off your thesis work and demonstrate your expertise in your field of study. During this one- to two-hour discussion with the members of your thesis committee, you'll have some control over how you present your research, but your committee will ask you some prodding questions to test your knowledge and preparedness. They will all have read your thesis beforehand, so their questions will relate to your study, topic, methods, data sample, and other aspects.

A good defense requires mastery of the thesis itself, so before you consider the questions you might face,

1. What is your topic, and why did you choose it?

Give a quick summary in just a few sentences on what you've researched. You could certainly go on for hours about your work, but make sure you prepare a way to give a very brief overview of your thesis. Then, give a quick background on your process for choosing this topic.

2. How does your topic contribute to the existing literature? How is it important?

Many researchers identify a need in the field and choose a topic to bridge the gaps that previous literature has failed to cover. For example, previous studies might not have included a certain population, region, or circumstance. Talk about how your thesis enhances the general understanding of the topic to extend the reach beyond what others have found, and then give examples of why the world needs that increased understanding. For instance, a thesis on romaine lettuce crops in desert climates might bring much-needed knowledge to a region that might not have been represented in previous work.

3. What are the key findings of your study?

When reporting your main results, make sure you have a handle on how detailed your committee wants you to be. Give yourself several options by preparing 1) a very general, quick summary of your findings that takes a minute or less, 2) a more detailed rundown of what your study revealed that is 3-5 minutes long, and 3) a 10- to 15-minute synopsis that delves into your results in detail. With each of these responses prepared, you can gauge which one is most appropriate in the moment, based on what your committee asks you and what has already been requested.

4. What type of background research did you do for your study?

Here you'll describe what you did while you were deciding what to study. This usually includes a literary review to determine what previous researchers have already introduced to the field. You also likely had to look into whether your study was going to be possible and what you would need in order to collect the needed data. Did you need info from databases that require permissions or fees?

5. What was your hypothesis, and how did you form it?

Describe the expected results you had for your study and whether your hypothesis came from previous research experience, long-held expectations, or cultural myths.

6. What limitations did you face when writing your text?

It's inevitable — researchers will face roadblocks or limiting factors during their work. This could be a limited population you had access to, like if you had a great method of surveying university students, but you didn't have a way to reach out to other people who weren't attending that school.

7. Why did you choose your particular method for your study?

Different research methods are more fitting to specific studies than others (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative ), and knowing this, you applied a method that would present your findings most effectively. What factors led you to choose your method?

8. Who formed the sample group of your study, and why did you choose this population?

Many factors go into the selection of a participant group. Perhaps you were motivated to survey women over 50 who experience burnout in the workplace. Did you take extra measures to target this population? Or perhaps you found a sample group that responded more readily to your request for participation, and after hitting dead ends for months, convenience is what shaped your study population. Make sure to present your reasoning in an honest but favorable way.

9. What obstacles or limitations did you encounter while working with your sample?

Outline the process of pursuing respondents for your study and the difficulties you faced in collecting enough quality data for your thesis. Perhaps the decisions you made took shape based on the participants you ended up interviewing.

10. Was there something specific you were expecting to find during your analysis?

Expectations are natural when you set out to explore a topic, especially one you've been dancing around throughout your academic career. This question can refer to your hypotheses , but it can also touch on your personal feelings and expectations about this topic. What did you believe you would find when you dove deeper into the subject? Was that what you actually found, or were you surprised by your results?

11. What did you learn from your study?

Your response to this question can include not only the basic findings of your work (if you haven't covered this already) but also some personal surprises you might have found that veered away from your expectations. Sometimes these details are not included in the thesis, so these details can add some spice to your defense.

12. What are the recommendations from your study?

With connection to the reasons you chose the topic, your results can address the problems your work is solving. Give specifics on how policymakers, professionals in the field, etc., can improve their service with the knowledge your thesis provides.

13. If given the chance, what would you do differently?

Your response to this one can include the limitations you encountered or dead ends you hit that wasted time and funding. Try not to dwell too long on the annoyances of your study, and consider an area of curiosity; for example, discuss an area that piqued your interest during your exploration that would have been exciting to pursue but didn't directly benefit your outlined study.

14. How did you relate your study to the existing theories in the literature?

Your paper likely ties your ideas into those of other researchers, so this could be an easy one to answer. Point out how similar your work is to some and how it contrasts other works of research; both contribute greatly to the overall body of research.

15. What is the future scope of this study?

This one is pretty easy, since most theses include recommendations for future research within the text. That means you already have this one covered, and since you read over your thesis before your defense, it's already fresh in your mind.

16. What do you plan to do professionally after you complete your study?

This is a question directed more to you and your future professional plans. This might align with the research you performed, and if so, you can direct your question back to your research, maybe mentioning the personal motivations you have for pursuing study of that subject.

17. Do you have any questions?

Although your thesis defense feels like an interrogation, and you're the one in the spotlight, it provides an ideal opportunity to gather input from your committee, if you want it. Possible questions you could ask are: What were your impressions when reading my thesis? Do you believe I missed any important steps or details when conducting my work? Where do you see this work going in the future?

Bonus tip: What if you get asked a question to which you don't know the answer? You can spend weeks preparing to defend your thesis, but you might still be caught off guard when you don't know exactly what's coming. You can be ready for this situation by preparing a general strategy. It's okay to admit that your thesis doesn't offer the answers to everything – your committee won't reasonably expect it to do so. What you can do to sound (and feel!) confident and knowledgeable is to refer to a work of literature you have encountered in your research and draw on that work to give an answer. For example, you could respond, "My thesis doesn't directly address your question, but my study of Dr. Leifsen's work provided some interesting insights on that subject…." By preparing a way to address curveball questions, you can maintain your cool and create the impression that you truly are an expert in your field.

After you're done answering the questions your committee presents to you, they will either approve your thesis or suggest changes you should make to your paper. Regardless of the outcome, your confidence in addressing the questions presented to you will communicate to your thesis committee members that you know your stuff. Preparation can ease a lot of anxiety surrounding this event, so use these possible questions to make sure you can present your thesis feeling relaxed, prepared, and confident.

Header image by Kasto .

Related Posts

Avoid These Words and Phrases in Your Academic Writing

Avoid These Words and Phrases in Your Academic Writing

7 Mistakes to Avoid When Emailing Professors

7 Mistakes to Avoid When Emailing Professors

  • Academic Writing Advice
  • All Blog Posts
  • Writing Advice
  • Admissions Writing Advice
  • Book Writing Advice
  • Short Story Advice
  • Employment Writing Advice
  • Business Writing Advice
  • Web Content Advice
  • Article Writing Advice
  • Magazine Writing Advice
  • Grammar Advice
  • Dialect Advice
  • Editing Advice
  • Freelance Advice
  • Legal Writing Advice
  • Poetry Advice
  • Graphic Design Advice
  • Logo Design Advice
  • Translation Advice
  • Blog Reviews
  • Short Story Award Winners
  • Scholarship Winners

Take your thesis to new heights with our expert editing

Take your thesis to new heights with our expert editing

  • Scholar's Toolbox

What? Why? How? A list of potential PhD defense questions

phd proposal defense questions

In August 2020, I defended my PhD successfully. In the preceding months, I had generated a list of potential defense questions by using various different sources (websites, other defenses I watched, colleagues, and my supervisors). The list ended up helping me a lot. Today I shared this list with a colleague who is soon defending, and I thought: Why not share it publicly?

Note: The questions were compiled with a Finnish PhD defense in mind. In Finland, the defense is at the very end of the research process, and no changes to the PhD will be made after the event. The defense is also a public event.

The list was last edited: November 3rd, 2022

Title and cover.

  • Why did you choose this title? Were there any other kinds of titles you were considering?
  • Why did you choose this photo/image as your thesis cover? (if there is one)

Topic and contribution to the field

  • Why did you choose this research topic?
  • Why do you think this topic is important? For whom is it important?
  • What do you think your work has added to the discipline/field/study of this topic?
  • How is your study original?
  • [Your topic] seems to be something that is usually studied discipline X. However, your thesis represents discipline Y. How did you navigate the interdisciplinarity of your work?

Paradigm/theory/concepts

  • How did you decide to use this particular conceptual/theoretical framework?
  • How did your chosen framework help you to explore your research problem?
  • How would someone using another theoretical framework interpret your results?
  • What are the shortcomings of this particular theory/conceptual framework?
  • How would you describe/define/summarise … [insert a term]
  • In your work, you introduce a new concept/theory. Why did you decide to do that instead of using an existing concept/theory?
  • Could you describe your theoretical/methodological framework in a way that the audience also understands it? (for public defenses)

Literature review

  • Why did your literature review cover these areas but not others?
  • The literature review looks very tidy – doesn’t anything challenge it?
  • Why did you (not) include the work by X in your study?
  • Which scholar(s) have you been influenced by the most?

Research question(s)

  • How did you come to formulate this particular research question / these research questions?
  • How did your research questions/problem changed during the research process?
  • Were there research questions you decided to add/remove during the research process?
  • Why don’t you have a research question?
  • How did you decide to use these particular methods of data collection/analysis? Were there other options you considered?
  • Why did you choose quantitative/qualitative/mixed methods approach?
  • What informed your choice of methods?
  • What are the advantages/disadvantages of the chosen methods?
  • How did you select your participants/this particular data?
  • Describe how you generated your data.
  • Why did you analyse your data in this way? What other ways were there available? Why didn’t you choose those methods?
  • If you could still improve this measure/procedure/etc., how would you do it?
  • How would you explain the low/high response rate of your survey?
  • How did you triangulate your data?
  • If you could do your study all over again with unlimited resources, how would you do it?
  • How do you explain the discrepancy between your findings and the findings of previous studies?
  • Did you expect these kinds of results? Why (not)?
  • What is the most important result of your work?
  • Who should care about your work and the results?
  • How generalizable are your findings and why?
  • Were there any other ways to present your results?
  • Based on your findings, how would you develop [your topic]?
  • What is common or different to these substudies included in your dissertation?
  • What did [your approach] reveal that other approaches could not have reveal?
  • What did you not see because you did your work [in this way]?
  • How could [x] now be rethought in the light of COVID-19?
  • What kinds of implications do your results have for further research/practice/policy?

Research process

  • How did your own position/background/bias affect your research?
  • Describe your researcher positionality.
  • What were the biggest challenges during the research process?
  • Were there any surprises during your research, pleasant or unpleasant?
  • What was the most interesting part of your work?
  • How did you address research ethics during your research?
  • What implications do your findings have for [your topic]?
  • What do you see as the problems in your study? What limitations do these impose on what you can say? How would you address these limitations in future studies?
  • What could you not study in the end? Why?
  • What kind of a dissertation did you want to do originally? Why did your plans change?
  • If you could now redo the work, what would you differently?
  • Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about your thesis which you have not had the opportunity to tell us during the defense?

Future research

  • What do you plan to do next with your data?
  • What would be the next logical study to do as a follow-up to this one?
  • What will you study next?
  • How does gaining a doctorate advance your career plans?

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

Leave a reply cancel reply.

  • Scholar’s Toolbox
  • In the Spotlight
  • Working in Academia
  • Miscellanea
  • Contributors
  • About ECHER

Graduate Center | Home

  • Newsletters

Defending Your Dissertation: A Guide

A woman in front of a bookshelf speaking to a laptop

Written by Luke Wink-Moran | Photo by insta_photos

Dissertation defenses are daunting, and no wonder; it’s not a “dissertation discussion,” or a “dissertation dialogue.” The name alone implies that the dissertation you’ve spent the last x number of years working on is subject to attack. And if you don’t feel trepidation for semantic reasons, you might be nervous because you don’t know what to expect. Our imaginations are great at making The Unknown scarier than reality. The good news is that you’ll find in this newsletter article experts who can shed light on what dissertations defenses are really like, and what you can do to prepare for them.

The first thing you should know is that your defense has already begun. It started the minute you began working on your dissertation— maybe even in some of the classes you took beforehand that helped you formulate your ideas. This, according to Dr. Celeste Atkins, is why it’s so important to identify a good mentor early in graduate school.

“To me,” noted Dr. Atkins, who wrote her dissertation on how sociology faculty from traditionally marginalized backgrounds teach about privilege and inequality, “the most important part of the doctoral journey was finding an advisor who understood and supported what I wanted from my education and who was willing to challenge me and push me, while not delaying me.  I would encourage future PhDs to really take the time to get to know the faculty before choosing an advisor and to make sure that the members of their committee work well together.”

Your advisor will be the one who helps you refine arguments and strengthen your work so that by the time it reaches your dissertation committee, it’s ready. Next comes the writing process, which many students have said was the hardest part of their PhD. I’ve included this section on the writing process because this is where you’ll create all the material you’ll present during your defense, so it’s important to navigate it successfully. The writing process is intellectually grueling, it eats time and energy, and it’s where many students find themselves paddling frantically to avoid languishing in the “All-But-Dissertation” doldrums. The writing process is also likely to encroach on other parts of your life. For instance, Dr. Cynthia Trejo wrote her dissertation on college preparation for Latin American students while caring for a twelve-year-old, two adult children, and her aging parents—in the middle of a pandemic. When I asked Dr. Trejo how she did this, she replied:

“I don’t take the privilege of education for granted. My son knew I got up at 4:00 a.m. every morning, even on weekends, even on holidays; and it’s a blessing that he’s seen that work ethic and that dedication and the end result.”

Importantly, Dr. Trejo also exercised regularly and joined several online writing groups at UArizona. She mobilized her support network— her partner, parents, and even friends from high school to help care for her son.

The challenges you face during the writing process can vary by discipline. Jessika Iwanski is an MD/PhD student who in 2022 defended her dissertation on genetic mutations in sarcomeric proteins that lead to severe, neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy. She described her writing experience as “an intricate process of balancing many things at once with a deadline (defense day) that seems to be creeping up faster and faster— finishing up experiments, drafting the dissertation, preparing your presentation, filling out all the necessary documents for your defense and also, for MD/PhD students, beginning to reintegrate into the clinical world (reviewing your clinical knowledge and skill sets)!”

But no matter what your unique challenges are, writing a dissertation can take a toll on your mental health. Almost every student I spoke with said they saw a therapist and found their sessions enormously helpful. They also looked to the people in their lives for support. Dr. Betsy Labiner, who wrote her dissertation on Interiority, Truth, and Violence in Early Modern Drama, recommended, “Keep your loved ones close! This is so hard – the dissertation lends itself to isolation, especially in the final stages. Plus, a huge number of your family and friends simply won’t understand what you’re going through. But they love you and want to help and are great for getting you out of your head and into a space where you can enjoy life even when you feel like your dissertation is a flaming heap of trash.”

While you might sometimes feel like your dissertation is a flaming heap of trash, remember: a) no it’s not, you brilliant scholar, and b) the best dissertations aren’t necessarily perfect dissertations. According to Dr. Trejo, “The best dissertation is a done dissertation.” So don’t get hung up on perfecting every detail of your work. Think of your dissertation as a long-form assignment that you need to finish in order to move onto the next stage of your career. Many students continue revising after graduation and submit their work for publication or other professional objectives.

When you do finish writing your dissertation, it’s time to schedule your defense and invite friends and family to the part of the exam that’s open to the public. When that moment comes, how do you prepare to present your work and field questions about it?

“I reread my dissertation in full in one sitting,” said Dr. Labiner. “During all my time writing it, I’d never read more than one complete chapter at a time! It was a huge confidence boost to read my work in full and realize that I had produced a compelling, engaging, original argument.”

There are many other ways to prepare: create presentation slides and practice presenting them to friends or alone; think of questions you might be asked and answer them; think about what you want to wear or where you might want to sit (if you’re presenting on Zoom) that might give you a confidence boost. Iwanksi practiced presenting with her mentor and reviewed current papers to anticipate what questions her committee might ask.  If you want to really get in the zone, you can emulate Dr. Labiner and do a full dress rehearsal on Zoom the day before your defense.

But no matter what you do, you’ll still be nervous:

“I had a sense of the logistics, the timing, and so on, but I didn’t really have clear expectations outside of the structure. It was a sort of nebulous three hours in which I expected to be nauseatingly terrified,” recalled Dr. Labiner.

“I expected it to be terrifying, with lots of difficult questions and constructive criticism/comments given,” agreed Iwanski.

“I expected it to be very scary,” said Dr. Trejo.

“I expected it to be like I was on trial, and I’d have to defend myself and prove I deserved a PhD,” said Dr Atkins.

And, eventually, inexorably, it will be time to present.  

“It was actually very enjoyable” said Iwanski. “It was more of a celebration of years of work put into this project—not only by me but by my mentor, colleagues, lab members and collaborators! I felt very supported by all my committee members and, rather than it being a rapid fire of questions, it was more of a scientific discussion amongst colleagues who are passionate about heart disease and muscle biology.”

“I was anxious right when I logged on to the Zoom call for it,” said Dr. Labiner, “but I was blown away by the number of family and friends that showed up to support me. I had invited a lot of people who I didn’t at all think would come, but every single person I invited was there! Having about 40 guests – many of them joining from different states and several from different countries! – made me feel so loved and celebrated that my nerves were steadied very quickly. It also helped me go into ‘teaching mode’ about my work, so it felt like getting to lead a seminar on my most favorite literature.”

“In reality, my dissertation defense was similar to presenting at an academic conference,” said Dr. Atkins. “I went over my research in a practiced and organized way, and I fielded questions from the audience.

“It was a celebration and an important benchmark for me,” said Dr. Trejo. “It was a pretty happy day. Like the punctuation at the end of your sentence: this sentence is done; this journey is done. You can start the next sentence.”

If you want to learn more about dissertations in your own discipline, don’t hesitate to reach out to graduates from your program and ask them about their experiences. If you’d like to avail yourself of some of the resources that helped students in this article while they wrote and defended their dissertations, check out these links:

The Graduate Writing Lab

https://thinktank.arizona.edu/writing-center/graduate-writing-lab

The Writing Skills Improvement Program

https://wsip.arizona.edu

Campus Health Counseling and Psych Services

https://caps.arizona.edu

https://www.scribbr.com/

Grad Coach

Preparing For Your Dissertation Defense

13 Key Questions To Expect In The Viva Voce

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) & David Phair (PhD) . Reviewed By: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | June 2021

Preparing for your dissertation or thesis defense (also called a “viva voce”) is a formidable task . All your hard work over the years leads you to this one point, and you’ll need to defend yourself against some of the most experienced researchers you’ve encountered so far.

It’s natural to feel a little nervous.

In this post, we’ll cover some of the most important questions you should be able to answer in your viva voce, whether it’s for a Masters or PhD degree. Naturally, they might not arise in exactly the same form (some may not come up at all), but if you can answer these questions well, it means you’re in a good position to tackle your oral defense.

Dissertation and thesis defense 101

Viva Voce Prep: 13 Essential Questions

  • What is your study about and why did you choose to research this in particular?
  • How did your research questions evolve during the research process?
  • How did you decide on which sources to include in your literature review?
  • How did you design your study and why did you take this approach?
  • How generalisable and valid are the findings?
  • What were the main shortcomings and limitations created by your research design?
  • How did your findings relate to the existing literature?
  • What were your key findings in relation to the research questions?
  • Were there any findings that surprised you?
  • What biases may exist in your research?
  • How can your findings be put into practice?
  • How has your research contributed to current thinking in the field?
  • If you could redo your research, how would you alter your approach?

#1: What is your study about and why did you choose to research this in particular?

This question, a classic party starter, is pretty straightforward.

What the dissertation or thesis committee is assessing here is your ability to clearly articulate your research aims, objectives and research questions in a concise manner. Concise is the keyword here – you need to clearly explain your research topic without rambling on for a half-hour. Don’t feel the need to go into the weeds here – you’ll have many opportunities to unpack the details later on.

In the second half of the question, they’re looking for a brief explanation of the justification of your research. In other words, why was this particular set of research aims, objectives and questions worth addressing? To address this question well in your oral defense, you need to make it clear what gap existed within the research and why that gap was worth filling.

#2: How did your research questions evolve during the research process?

Good research generally follows a long and winding path . It’s seldom a straight line (unless you got really lucky). What they’re assessing here is your ability to follow that path and let the research process unfold.

Specifically, they’ll want to hear about the impact that the literature review process had on you in terms of shaping the research aims, objectives and research questions . For example, you may have started with a certain set of aims, but then as you immersed yourself in the literature, you may have changed direction. Similarly, your initial fieldwork findings may have turned out some unexpected data that drove you to adjust or expand on your initial research questions.

Long story short – a good defense involves clearly describing your research journey , including all the twists and turns. Adjusting your direction based on findings in the literature or the fieldwork shows that you’re responsive , which is essential for high-quality research.

You will need to explain the impact of your literature review in the defense

#3: How did you decide on which sources to include in your literature review?

A comprehensive literature review is the foundation of any high-quality piece of research. With this question, your dissertation or thesis committee are trying to assess which quality criteria and approach you used to select the sources for your literature review.

Typically, good research draws on both the seminal work in the respective field and more recent sources . In other words, a combination of the older landmark studies and pivotal work, along with up-to-date sources that build on to those older studies. This combination ensures that the study has a rock-solid foundation but is not out of date.

So, make sure that your study draws on a mix of both the “classics” and new kids on the block, and take note of any major evolutions in the literature that you can use as an example when asked this question in your viva voce.

#4: How did you design your study and why did you take this approach?

This is a classic methodological question that you can almost certainly expect in some or other shape.

What they’re looking for here is a clear articulation of the research design and methodology, as well as a strong justification of each choice . So, you need to be able to walk through each methodological choice and clearly explain both what you did and why you did it. The why is particularly important – you need to be able to justify each choice you made by clearly linking your design back to your research aims, objectives and research questions, while also taking into account practical constraints.

To ensure you cover every base, check out our research methodology vlog post , as well as our post covering the Research Onion .

You have to justify every choice in your dissertation defence

#5: How generalizable and valid are the findings?

This question is aimed at specifically digging into your understanding of the sample and how that relates to the population, as well as potential validity issues in your methodology.

To answer question this well, you’ll need to critically assess your sample and findings and consider if they truly apply to the entire population, as well as whether they assessed what they set out to. Note that there are two components here – generalizability and validity . Generalizability is about how well the sample represents the population. Validity is about how accurately you’ve measured what you intended to measure .

To ace this part of your dissertation defense, make sure that you’re very familiar with the concepts of generalizability , validity and reliability , and how these apply to your research. Remember, you don’t need to achieve perfection – you just need to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of your research (and how the weaknesses could be improved upon).

Need a helping hand?

phd proposal defense questions

#6: What were the main shortcomings and limitations created by your research design?

This question picks up where the last one left off.

As I mentioned, it’s perfectly natural that your research will have shortcomings and limitations as a result of your chosen design and methodology. No piece of research is flawless. Therefore, a good dissertation defense is not about arguing that your work is perfect, but rather it’s about clearly articulating the strengths and weaknesses of your approach.

To address this question well, you need to think critically about all of the potential weaknesses your design may have, as well as potential responses to these (which could be adopted in future research) to ensure you’re well prepared for this question. For a list of common methodological limitations, check out our video about research limitations here .

#7: How did your findings relate to the existing literature?

This common dissertation defense question links directly to your discussion chapter , where you would have presented and discussed the findings in relation to your literature review.

What your dissertation or thesis committee is assessing here is your ability to compare your study’s findings to the findings of existing research . Specifically, you need to discuss which findings aligned with existing research and which findings did not. For those findings that contrasted against existing research, you should also explain what you believe to be the reasons for this.

As with many questions in a viva voce, it’s both the what and the why that matter here. So, you need to think deeply about what the underlying reasons may be for both the similarities and differences between your findings and those of similar studies.

Your dissertation defense needs to compare findings

#8: What were your key findings in relation to the research questions?

This question is similar to the last one in that it too focuses on your research findings. However, here the focus is specifically on the findings that directly relate to your research questions (as opposed to findings in general).

So, a good way to prepare for this question is to step back and revisit your research questions . Ask yourself the following:

  • What exactly were you asking in those questions, and what did your research uncover concerning them?
  • Which questions were well answered by your study and which ones were lacking?
  • Why were they lacking and what more could be done to address this in future research?

Conquering this part dissertation defense requires that you focus squarely on the research questions. Your study will have provided many findings (hopefully!), and not all of these will link directly to the research questions. Therefore, you need to clear your mind of all of the fascinating side paths your study may have lead you down and regain a clear focus on the research questions .

#9: Were there any findings that surprised you?

This question is two-pronged.

First, you should discuss the surprising findings that were directly related to the original research questions . Going into your research, you likely had some expectations in terms of what you would find, so this is your opportunity to discuss the outcomes that emerged as contrary to what you initially expected. You’ll also want to think about what the reasons for these contrasts may be.

Second, you should discuss the findings that weren’t directly related to the research questions, but that emerged from the data set . You may have a few or you may have none – although generally there are a handful of interesting musings that you can glean from the data set. Again, make sure you can articulate why you find these interesting and what it means for future research in the area.

What the committee is looking for in this type of question is your ability to interpret the findings holistically and comprehensively , and to respond to unexpected data. So, take the time to zoom out and reflect on your findings thoroughly.

Discuss the findings in your defense

#10: What biases may exist in your research?

Biases… we all have them.

For this question, you’ll need to think about potential biases in your research , in the data itself but also in your interpretation of the data. With this question, your committee is assessing whether you have considered your own potential biases and the biases inherent in your analysis approach (i.e. your methodology). So, think carefully about these research biases and be ready to explain how these may exist in your study.

In an oral defense, this question is often followed up with a question on how the biases were mitigated or could be mitigated in future research. So, give some thought not just to what biases may exist, but also the mitigation measures (in your own study and for future research).

#11: How can your findings be put into practice?

Another classic question in the typical viva voce.

With this question, your committee is assessing your ability to bring your findings back down to earth and demonstrate their practical value and application. Importantly, this question is not about the contribution to academia or the overall field of research (we’ll get to that next) – it is specifically asking about how this newly created knowledge can be used in the real world.

Naturally, the actionability of your findings will vary depending on the nature of your research topic. Some studies will produce many action points and some won’t. If you’re researching marketing strategies within an industry, for example, you should be able to make some very specific recommendations for marketing practitioners in that industry.

To help you flesh out points for this question, look back at your original justification for the research (i.e. in your introduction and literature review chapters). What were the driving forces that led you to research your specific topic? That justification should help you identify ways in which your findings can be put into practice.

#12: How has your research contributed to current thinking in the field?

While the previous question was aimed at practical contribution, this question is aimed at theoretical contribution . In other words, what is the significance of your study within the current body of research? How does it fit into the existing research and what does it add to it?

This question is often asked by a field specialist and is used to assess whether you’re able to place your findings into the research field to critically convey what your research contributed. This argument needs to be well justified – in other words, you can’t just discuss what your research contributed, you need to also back each proposition up with a strong why .

To answer this question well, you need to humbly consider the quality and impact of your work and to be realistic in your response. You don’t want to come across as arrogant (“my work is groundbreaking”), nor do you want to undersell the impact of your work. So, it’s important to strike the right balance between realistic and pessimistic .

This question also opens the door to questions about potential future research . So, think about what future research opportunities your study has created and which of these you feel are of the highest priority.

Discuss your contribution in your thesis defence

#13: If you could redo your research, how would you alter your approach?

This question is often used to wrap up a viva voce as it brings the discussion full circle.

Here, your committee is again assessing your ability to clearly identify and articulate the limitations and shortcomings of your research, both in terms of research design and topic focus . Perhaps, in hindsight, it would have been better to use a different analysis method or data set. Perhaps the research questions should have leaned in a slightly different direction. And so on.

This question intends to assess whether you’re able to look at your work critically , assess where the weaknesses are and make recommendations for the future. This question often sets apart those who did the research purely because it was required, from those that genuinely engaged with their research. So, don’t hold back here – reflect on your entire research journey ask yourself how you’d do things differently if you were starting with a  blank canvas today.

Recap: The 13 Key Dissertation Defense Questions

To recap, here are the 13 questions you need to be ready for to ace your dissertation or thesis oral defense:

As I mentioned, this list of dissertation defense questions is certainly not exhaustive – don’t assume that we’ve covered every possible question here. However, these questions are quite likely to come up in some shape or form in a typical dissertation or thesis defense, whether it’s for a Master’s degree, PhD or any other research degree. So, you should take the time to make sure you can answer them well.

If you need assistance preparing for your dissertation defense or viva voce, get in touch with us to discuss 1-on-1 coaching. We can critically review your research and identify potential issues and responses, as well as undertake a mock oral defense to prepare you for the pressures and stresses on the day.

phd proposal defense questions

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

You Might Also Like:

Research aims, research objectives and research questions

12 Comments

Jalla Dullacha

Very interesting

Fumtchum JEFFREY

Interesting. I appreciate!

Dargo Haftu

Really appreciating

My field is International Trade

Abera Gezahegn

Interesting

Peter Gumisiriza

This is a full course on defence. I was fabulously enlightened and I gained enough confidence for my upcoming Masters Defence.

There are many lessons to learn and the simplicity in presentationmakes thee reader say “YesI can”

Milly Nalugoti

This is so helping… it has Enlightened me on how to answer specific questions. I pray to make it through for my upcoming defense

Derek Jansen

Lovely to hear that 🙂

bautister

Really educative and beneficial

Tweheyo Charles

Interesting. On-point and elaborate. And comforting too! Thanks.

Ismailu Kulme Emmanuel

Thank you very much for the enlightening me, be blessed

Gladys Oyat

Thankyou so much. I am planning to defend my thesis soon and I found this very useful

Augustine Mtega

Very interesting and useful to all masters and PhD students

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

  • Print Friendly

Enago Academy

13 Tips to Prepare for Your PhD Dissertation Defense

' src=

How well do you know your project? Years of experiments, analysis of results, and tons of literature study, leads you to how well you know your research study. And, PhD dissertation defense is a finale to your PhD years. Often, researchers question how to excel at their thesis defense and spend countless hours on it. Days, weeks, months, and probably years of practice to complete your doctorate, needs to surpass the dissertation defense hurdle.

In this article, we will discuss details of how to excel at PhD dissertation defense and list down some interesting tips to prepare for your thesis defense.

Table of Contents

What Is Dissertation Defense?

Dissertation defense or Thesis defense is an opportunity to defend your research study amidst the academic professionals who will evaluate of your academic work. While a thesis defense can sometimes be like a cross-examination session, but in reality you need not fear the thesis defense process and be well prepared.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesHaytonPhDacademy

What are the expectations of committee members.

Choosing the dissertation committee is one of the most important decision for a research student. However, putting your dissertation committee becomes easier once you understand the expectations of committee members.

The basic function of your dissertation committee is to guide you through the process of proposing, writing, and revising your dissertation. Moreover, the committee members serve as mentors, giving constructive feedback on your writing and research, also guiding your revision efforts.

The dissertation committee is usually formed once the academic coursework is completed. Furthermore, by the time you begin your dissertation research, you get acquainted to the faculty members who will serve on your dissertation committee. Ultimately, who serves on your dissertation committee depends upon you.

Some universities allow an outside expert (a former professor or academic mentor) to serve on your committee. It is advisable to choose a faculty member who knows you and your research work.

How to Choose a Dissertation Committee Member?

  • Avoid popular and eminent faculty member
  • Choose the one you know very well and can approach whenever you need them
  • A faculty member whom you can learn from is apt.
  • Members of the committee can be your future mentors, co-authors, and research collaborators. Choose them keeping your future in mind.

How to Prepare for Dissertation Defense?

dissertation defense

1. Start Your Preparations Early

Thesis defense is not a 3 or 6 months’ exercise. Don’t wait until you have completed all your research objectives. Start your preparation well in advance, and make sure you know all the intricacies of your thesis and reasons to all the research experiments you conducted.

2. Attend Presentations by Other Candidates

Look out for open dissertation presentations at your university. In fact, you can attend open dissertation presentations at other universities too. Firstly, this will help you realize how thesis defense is not a scary process. Secondly, you will get the tricks and hacks on how other researchers are defending their thesis. Finally, you will understand why dissertation defense is necessary for the university, as well as the scientific community.

3. Take Enough Time to Prepare the Slides

Dissertation defense process harder than submitting your thesis well before the deadline. Ideally, you could start preparing the slides after finalizing your thesis. Spend more time in preparing the slides. Make sure you got the right data on the slides and rephrase your inferences, to create a logical flow to your presentation.

4. Structure the Presentation

Do not be haphazard in designing your presentation. Take time to create a good structured presentation. Furthermore, create high-quality slides which impresses the committee members. Make slides that hold your audience’s attention. Keep the presentation thorough and accurate, and use smart art to create better slides.

5. Practice Breathing Techniques

Watch a few TED talk videos and you will notice that speakers and orators are very fluent at their speech. In fact, you will not notice them taking a breath or falling short of breath. The only reason behind such effortless oratory skill is practice — practice in breathing technique.

Moreover, every speaker knows how to control their breath. Long and steady breaths are crucial. Pay attention to your breathing and slow it down. All you need I some practice prior to this moment.

6. Create an Impactful Introduction

The audience expects a lot from you. So your opening statement should enthrall the audience. Furthermore, your thesis should create an impact on the members; they should be thrilled by your thesis and the way you expose it.

The introduction answers most important questions, and most important of all “Is this presentation worth the time?” Therefore, it is important to make a good first impression , because the first few minutes sets the tone for your entire presentation.

7. Maintain Your Own List of Questions

While preparing for the presentation, make a note of all the questions that you ask yourself. Try to approach all the questions from a reader’s point of view. You could pretend like you do not know the topic and think of questions that could help you know the topic much better.

The list of questions will prepare you for the questions the members may pose while trying to understand your research. Attending other candidates’ open discussion will also help you assume the dissertation defense questions.

8. Practice Speech and Body Language

After successfully preparing your slides and practicing, you could start focusing on how you look while presenting your thesis. This exercise is not for your appearance but to know your body language and relax if need be.

Pay attention to your body language. Stand with your back straight, but relax your shoulders. The correct posture will give you the feel of self-confidence. So, observe yourself in the mirror and pay attention to movements you make.

9. Give Mock Presentation

Giving a trial defense in advance is a good practice. The most important factor for the mock defense is its similarity to your real defense, so that you get the experience that prepares for the actual defense.

10. Learn How to Handle Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. However, it is important to carry on. Do not let the mistakes affect your thesis defense. Take a deep breath and move on to the next point.

11. Do Not Run Through the Presentation

If you are nervous, you would want to end the presentation as soon as possible. However, this situation will give rise to anxiety and you will speak too fast, skipping the essential details. Eventually, creating a fiasco of your dissertation defense .

12. Get Plenty of Rest

Out of the dissertation defense preparation points, this one is extremely important. Obviously, sleeping a day before your big event is hard, but you have to focus and go to bed early, with the clear intentions of getting the rest you deserve.

13. Visualize Yourself Defending Your Thesis

This simple exercise creates an immense impact on your self-confidence. All you have to do is visualize yourself giving a successful presentation each evening before going to sleep. Everyday till the day of your thesis defense, see yourself standing in front of the audience and going from one point to another.

This exercise takes a lot of commitment and persistence, but the results in the end are worth it. Visualization makes you see yourself doing the scary thing of defending your thesis.

If you have taken all these points into consideration, you are ready for your big day. You have worked relentlessly for your PhD degree , and you will definitely give your best in this final step.

Have you completed your thesis defense? How did you prepare for it and how was your experience throughout your dissertation defense ? Do write to us or comment below.

' src=

The tips are very useful.I will recomend it to our students.

Excellent. As a therapist trying to help a parent of a candidate, I am very impressed and thankful your concise, clear, action-oriented article. Thank you.

Thanks for your sharing. It is so good. I can learn a lot from your ideas. Hope that in my dissertation defense next time I can pass

Rate this article Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

phd proposal defense questions

Enago Academy's Most Popular Articles

Content Analysis vs Thematic Analysis: What's the difference?

  • Reporting Research

Choosing the Right Analytical Approach: Thematic analysis vs. content analysis for data interpretation

In research, choosing the right approach to understand data is crucial for deriving meaningful insights.…

Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Study Design

Comparing Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Studies: 5 steps for choosing the right approach

The process of choosing the right research design can put ourselves at the crossroads of…

Networking in Academic Conferences

  • Career Corner

Unlocking the Power of Networking in Academic Conferences

Embarking on your first academic conference experience? Fear not, we got you covered! Academic conferences…

Research recommendation

Research Recommendations – Guiding policy-makers for evidence-based decision making

Research recommendations play a crucial role in guiding scholars and researchers toward fruitful avenues of…

phd proposal defense questions

  • AI in Academia

Disclosing the Use of Generative AI: Best practices for authors in manuscript preparation

The rapid proliferation of generative and other AI-based tools in research writing has ignited an…

Setting Rationale in Research: Cracking the code for excelling at research

Mitigating Survivorship Bias in Scholarly Research: 10 tips to enhance data integrity

The Power of Proofreading: Taking your academic work to the next level

Facing Difficulty Writing an Academic Essay? — Here is your one-stop solution!

phd proposal defense questions

Sign-up to read more

Subscribe for free to get unrestricted access to all our resources on research writing and academic publishing including:

  • 2000+ blog articles
  • 50+ Webinars
  • 10+ Expert podcasts
  • 50+ Infographics
  • 10+ Checklists
  • Research Guides

We hate spam too. We promise to protect your privacy and never spam you.

I am looking for Editing/ Proofreading services for my manuscript Tentative date of next journal submission:

phd proposal defense questions

When should AI tools be used in university labs?

  • Graduate School

Hardest Research Proposal Questions and Best Sample Answers

Featured Expert: Dr. Michela Insenga, PhD

Hardest Research Proposal Questions and Best Sample Answers

Practicing with sample research proposal questions and answers can have great benefits for any major research project such as a dissertation or thesis. This is often the final step before you finally get your doctorate degree. However, before all of that, you must first craft a research proposal. This is a detailed outline that will transform into the thesis that you will eventually have to defend in front of a panel of distinguished academics. It is always important to be aware of what thesis defense questions you will be asked when it is all said and done, but you may have to start justifying your research a little earlier on with the completion of a research proposal.

In this article, we include sample questions and answers you could be faced with when submitting your research proposal, some tips for preparing your responses, as well as the benefits of seeking professional help from a grad school advisor .

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Article Contents 13 min read

What to expect for your research proposal.

Early on in your PhD process, you may have to submit a research proposal that details the scope of your research and what you plan to for an eventual thesis or dissertation project. You have already learned how to find a PhD topic , so now it is time to put your passion for your field into practice and start to manifest the ideas swimming in your head.

This document should include the specific topic you would like to research, what angle you will be taking for your research, as well as your justification for choosing this subject. Regardless of whether or not your goals are the same as when you wrote your research interest statement sample , you must still provide an update about what your project is going to examine.

Should you go to grad school? Watch this video:

The purpose of the research proposal is to convince your supervisor that you are on the right direction. You are essentially providing a roadmap for your supervisor through your motives in undertaking this project and how you plan to complete it. Your supervisor will have to evaluate whether or not your project is relevant to the degree you are completing and manageable within the time constraints or other limitations you have.

As a result, you may have to undergo a research proposal defense or your supervisor will ask guiding questions about the state of your project. While this is still very early in the process, it is a great way for getting to know how to prepare for a thesis defense , as the questions you will be have a similar intent. Receiving guidance on your research before spending a lot of time on it can be more beneficial to you as you complete coursework or any other responsibilities as a graduate student. Questions from your supervisor can make your think critically about the end result of your result, and will hopefully lead to a better result.

Be Very Familiar With Your Proposal

This sounds like an obvious tip, but PhD research proposals can be 1500-2000 words long and can be a lot of information to remember at once. Once it is complete, try and have as great of a grasp of the material as you can. Before going into any meeting where you will discuss your work, make sure to become reacquainted with the information you have found and the goals you are hoping to achieve. Re-read your proposal several times to both proofread it for typos or other errors, but also to become comfortable with its contents. You want to make sure that your answers line up with the document you are officially submitting as your proposal.

Ask for Advice

If you are having trouble creating your proposal, you can always consult thesis writing services to help you plan out and put your thoughts into words. Professionals can also help with your speaking ability when responding and help you strategize so that you deliver efficient responses that sum up your research faithfully. Either together with an advisor or on your own, you can predict the obvious questions that are coming and prepare yourself to answer them. If your supervisor will be overseeing your proposal, try to anticipate what concerns they will have. Come up with a list of questions yourself, so you can workshop how you answer them.

Use Strategies to Answer Questions

Just like preparing for graduate school interview questions , you can develop strategies for how to answer questions about your research proposal. Keep your answers direct. You can also pose questions about areas you are unsure about. Do not be afraid to not have all the answers. At this point of your research, you are not expected to know everything point. The purpose of your proposal is to see where you are at right now and what you need to adjust on to make the best final product possible. Your supervisor or other academics that will pose questions about your proposal are not out to get you. They have years of experiences with similar projects, and are likely are qualified to give helpful feedback on your work in progress.

1. What is your research project about?

This answer should be a short summary about your research project. This question may seem like this simplest of them all, but you need to have a solid direction on where you want your thesis to go in order for it be effective. It does not need to be as complete as if you were to be summarizing your final product, since your project is still in its development stages. For instance, a sociological study regarding gendered tendencies towards deviant behaviors on the internet might be formatted in this manner:

For this research project, I plan to examine the rise of online deviant sociological behaviour on social media platforms during recent global shutdowns such as the COVID-19 pandemic and how gender identity and sexual orientation amplify these concerns. These acts of deviance can include instances of catfishing, deception, pornography, obscenity, cyber bullying, flaming, among others. I will also relate these findings to psychological impacts of both the perpetrators and victims or other relevant criminal behaviors that do not take place online, pointing out the differences between common trends for men vs. women in these altercations.

2. Why did you select this particular topic?

This question is meant to assess your motivation for choosing the subject of your research proposal. It is possible that you have previously touched on this kind of question during your graduate school interview when answering “Why do you want to do a PhD?” . This answer is one that could get a little more into your personal inclination towards the research you pursue. Focus on your particular interests and shape it to the goals of the project. For example, if you conducted a study called, “Forgotten Minds: Book History and Women’s Lost Contributions in 18th and 19th-century England” then you can frame your answer in this way:

As a scholar of the marriage industrial complex that permeated British society in past centuries, I am interested in the ways that a patriarchal structure can silence the marginalized voices of others, as matrimony often did for women. This is all the more evident in the interdisciplinary field of book history, where women’s contributions to the publishing were often ignored, erased, or overshadowed by their husbands. I wanted to indicate any trends that can be discovered by examining the roles of women in 18th and 19th-century printing houses and potentially unearth the forgotten stories of women who worked in these instances.

3. Does your project have a working title?

Titles are very important for academic articles or formal dissertation projects. If you have already learned how to publish as a graduate student , you will know that the title is how other academics or students will find your work when searching through journals and databases. You need to make sure your title is accurate to the research provided. At this point, your title will likely not be final, but it always important to be thinking about.

Sample Answer: My tentative title is “Take a Chill Pill: Natural and Traditional Methods for College Student Anxiety Levels”. I chose this title because it represents both the holistic self-care methods such as meditation and exercise as well as prescription medication. It also points out the focus group immediately, since the study will examine current college students between the ages of 18-24 and indicate any patterns for how they manage stress among unprecedented times.

4. What scope do you think your project will have?

Your proposal will likely touch on several points related to your topic, but it is not really plausible to have a project that considers every single aspect imaginable. You may need to narrow this down as you further develop your research. Start thinking of the boundaries you may have to set as you progress through your work.

Sample Answer: This study will examine consumption trends related to the snack food industry. To start with, I have chosen over 25 products from different companies will be able to be listed and reviewed in the final thesis submission.

5. What makes your project original?

Being a publishing academic is all about filling the gaps in scholarship. Make sure to point out what makes your project stand out from others in the field.

Sample Answer: The project focuses on how remote working and telemedicine shifts the delivery of family medicine procedures in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It does engage with similar studies on the topic of telemedicine, but will add a new perspective by discussing family doctors practicing in the greater Montreal area, specifically, which is a subset I have not yet found within existing scholarship.

6. How is your research in conversation with existing scholarship?

While your research must add something to the field, it also should be in a dialogue with other published works. Explain your process surrounding the other studies you have used to guide your own thesis.

Sample Answer: As my project is related to how autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis present themselves in young adults, I have included fundamental studies on the topic from Dr. Arthur Golden and Dr. Melina Rizzo, as well as other more current examples of scholarship. My study will utilize their concepts in relation to a focus group that is below the age of 30.

7. What kind of research methodology will you be using?

How you will be accessing this research is just as important as the research itself. Try to have a clear path about the measures you will take to complete your study.

Sample Answer: I aim to use detailed and meticulously written surveys about women’s birth experiences at hospitals or affiliated birthing centers. These results will act as the main foundation for my study on maternity health care and treatment.

8. Have you found there to be any interesting developments so far?

Was there any part of the part of the process that you did not expect? For this response, detail any new directions your research has taken as of writing your proposal.

Sample Answer: While looking for evidence that suggests that gender socialization of children affects their behaviour, I was surprised to find out that there is a discrepancy between the emotional responses in animated characters based on gender. Female or feminine-presenting characters are shown smiling on screen much more than their male counterparts, and the masculine-presenting characters were generally more likely to be shown as upset or even violent. That is a development in my research that I did not initially think of or foresee.

9. What do you think your biggest limitations for this research will be?

Look into the work you will have to do for your eventual full-length research project. What do you see being the most difficult part?

Sample Answer: I am looking into the nutritional benefits of drug store chewable gummy multivitamins. However, based on an individual’s prior health conditions or genetic makeup, the results may vary or be distorted. I am presuming that this will be a major limitation as I write my thesis.

10. What will be the dependent and independent variables of this project?

When researching, there are different variables that can potentially affect your results. An independent variable is not affected by other variables in your study, while dependent variables also change if other variables do.

Sample Answer: My study will investigate the impact of guidance counselling for junior and senior high school students. The independent variable is the type of help they require, such as college applications, social development skills, or academic performance. The dependent variable would be the actual outcomes of said counselling.

11. What is your provisional research timeline?

Even if it is not 100% stuck to, try to have a detailed timeline in mind about when research will be completed and how you will fulfill all of your obligations prior to the respective deadlines.

Sample Answer: The provisional research timeline for my proposal is designed to ensure systematic progress and timely completion of all research objectives. My timeline is divided into five phases:

Preparation Phase (4 weeks): In this initial stage, I will conduct a thorough literature review to familiarize myself with existing research and identify potential gaps. Simultaneously, I will finalize the research questions and establish the overall framework for my study.

Data Collection and Analysis (8 weeks): During this phase, I will gather primary data through surveys and interviews, ensuring data collection aligns with ethical guidelines. Once collected, I will proceed with data analysis, utilizing appropriate statistical methods to extract meaningful insights.

Literature Integration (4 weeks): Building upon the analyzed data, I will integrate my findings with existing literature to provide a comprehensive context for my research.

Drafting and Revision (6 weeks): I will dedicate this phase to writing the research proposal. The initial draft will be critically reviewed and refined through multiple iterations to enhance clarity and coherence.

Finalization and Submission (1 week): In the final phase, I will incorporate feedback from peers and advisors and polish the research paper to its final form. The completed research paper will be submitted by the designated deadline.

This provisional timeline, spanning 23 weeks, allows for flexibility and contingency plans to accommodate unforeseen challenges. Regular progress assessments and adjustments will be made to ensure timely completion and adherence to all obligations.

12. Who are the demographics who will be most interested in your research?

An important aspect of your research to think about will be who will be the most interested in reading it, as well as who it impacts the most.

Sample Answer: The demographics most interested in my research are likely to be professionals and policymakers within the healthcare industry. Given the focus of my research on implementing technology-driven solutions to enhance patient care and improve healthcare outcomes, healthcare practitioners, administrators, and researchers would find the findings particularly relevant.

Additionally, technology enthusiasts, innovators, and entrepreneurs interested in the intersection of healthcare and technology are also expected to show interest in the research. This group may be keen to explore potential commercial applications of the proposed solutions or seek opportunities for collaboration.

Moreover, the research would significantly impact patients and healthcare consumers. As technology increasingly plays a vital role in healthcare delivery, patients would be interested in understanding how these advancements can positively influence their healthcare experiences and overall well-being.

To ensure the research's reach and impact, I will disseminate the findings through academic publications, conferences, and workshops. Additionally, I will aim to engage with relevant professional organizations, healthcare institutions, and technology forums to stimulate interest and foster practical applications of the research outcomes.

By targeting these demographics, the research can make a meaningful contribution to the field of healthcare technology and help drive advancements that benefit both healthcare providers and patients alike.

13. What do you hope to be the significance of your research?

This is the “So what?” of your research. Will your research have lasting impacts? Evaluate which current issues your research could resolve.

Sample Answer:

The significance of my research lies in its potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery through technology-driven solutions. By addressing current issues such as inefficiencies in healthcare systems, lack of patient engagement, and suboptimal outcomes, my research aims to foster lasting impacts. Implementing technology to improve patient care, streamline processes, and enhance healthcare accessibility could lead to better health outcomes, reduced costs, and an overall improvement in the quality of healthcare services.

14. Are there any ethical issues or debates surrounding your research project?

Some projects are directly tied to ethics and moral issues that are currently being debated. It would be important to mention any ties to these issues and how your research is part of a larger conversation.

Sample Answer: While my research primarily focuses on technology-driven solutions to enhance healthcare, there are potential ethical considerations surrounding data privacy and security. As the research involves collecting and analyzing patient data, ensuring the confidentiality and informed consent of participants is paramount. Additionally, discussions about the responsible use of artificial intelligence in healthcare and potential biases in algorithms are relevant to the larger conversation on the ethical implications of technology in healthcare. Addressing these issues will be crucial to maintaining the integrity and societal benefit of the research.

15. Do you have any personal predictions for the outcome of your research?

If you haven’t yet conducted surveys or a thorough literature review, relay what you think will happen and any other concerns to your supervisor.

Sample Answer: As of now, without conducting surveys or an extensive literature review, I anticipate that the research will demonstrate the potential of technology in positively impacting healthcare outcomes and patient experiences. However, I am also aware that challenges related to data security, technology adoption, and ethical considerations may arise during the research. I will keep my supervisor informed about any unexpected findings and concerns throughout the study to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of the research outcomes.

Now that you have seen some sample answers, here are some additional questions you can take on:

  • What sample groups are you using and why?
  • What secondary sources do you plan to use?
  • What do you believe is the strongest point in your research?
  • Are there any biases that could exist in your research or your secondary sources?
  • What are some ways your findings will be put into practice?
  • What was the approach you took when starting your project?
  • What phenomenon are you trying to understand with this research?
  • How has your research project changed from when you started this degree?
  • Do you see any foreseeable weaknesses or blind spots in your study?
  • What measurement instrument did you use for this research?
  • What theoretical framework is your research based on?
  • Is the literature you chose up to date?
  • What pertinent information have you found so far?
  • Does your research have any use for policy makers?
  • What do you plan to do with this research project once you have graduated?

When you are wondering, “should you pursue a master’s or a PhD?” , you truly need to consider the importance of research within the discipline you choose. Part of being an academic is the ability to contribute to the field and, by extension, society as a whole. The research proposal and the subsequent dissertation may be the last step to complete your degree, but it is also can be the first real step of your professional career.

Any meeting with your supervisor or instant where you have to defend your work is simply part of the process of being a working academic. This can have lasting implications for the future of your career, as knowing how to conduct and present research effectively is key to learning how to find a job in academia . That being said, the first step is putting yourself in the best position to succeed. Using PhD consultants can make all the difference for your project. If you are currently applying to graduate school, these trained experts can help you get into the school of your dreams or assist with finding programs that suit your skillset. They can also provide pointers on your research, as many of them have been in your shoes before.

A research proposal is a concise and structured document that outlines the key objectives, methodology, and significance of a proposed research project, aiming to convince others about the value and feasibility of the study.

A typical research proposal for a doctoral thesis is usually between 10 to 20 pages, depending on the specific requirements of the academic institution and the complexity of the research project.

To find the right research topic for a doctoral thesis, consider your interests, expertise, and the significance of the topic in your field. Engage with relevant literature, consult with advisors and experts, and identify gaps or unresolved issues to narrow down your focus.

Yes, you can and you should include your research on your grad school CV . 

Most graduate programs will ask you to defend your research proposal. However, if it’s a smaller project, a review of the proposal may be sufficient. 

To prepare for a research proposal or thesis defense, thoroughly review your research work, anticipate potential questions, and practice presenting your findings in a clear and concise manner to effectively communicate your research objectives, methodology, and results.

Some mistakes to avoid when writing a research proposal include: lack of clarity in research objectives, insufficient literature review, neglecting to address potential limitations, and failing to align the proposal with the funding agency's guidelines or the university's requirements.

Yes, you can always reach out to thesis writing services for some guidance. 

Want more free tips? Subscribe to our channels for more free and useful content!

Apple Podcasts

Like our blog? Write for us ! >>

Have a question ask our admissions experts below and we'll answer your questions, get started now.

Talk to one of our admissions experts

Our site uses cookies. By using our website, you agree with our cookie policy .

FREE Training Webinar:

How to make your grad school application stand out, (and avoid the top 5 mistakes that get most rejected).

Time Sensitive. Limited Spots Available:

We guarantee you'll get into grad school or you don't pay.

Swipe up to see a great offer!

phd proposal defense questions

Preparing for your PhD thesis defence

As you start thinking about the end stages of your PhD, it’s important to understand the processes and timelines related to the thesis defence so that your degree completion is not delayed. Even if your thesis defence seems far away, there are several planning considerations you can consider early on to help the end stages of your PhD go smoothly.

On this page you will find videos, tools, and information about what the PhD thesis defence is , timelines for the PhD thesis defence , and tips for a successful PhD thesis defence .

All PhD students should also ensure that they read the PhD thesis examination regulations and review the thesis preparation guidelines prior to their oral defence. If your thesis defence will be conducted remotely, you should also review the process for a remote thesis defence .

What is the PhD defence?

Understanding the purpose, processes and possible outcomes of the thesis defence can help you feel more prepared for the defence itself. In this video, you’ll learn about what the defence is, who’s there, what happens, and the deliberation and range of possible outcomes.

Transcript - Demystifying the thesis defence at University of Waterloo (PDF)

You may wish to learn more about some of the topics discussed in this video. Here are some helpful links to learn more:

Examination committee members (including the external examiner): Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on the  PhD thesis examining committee for more information about the committee members, including information about the external examiner and conflicts of interest.

  • Closed thesis defences and non-disclosure agreements: Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on guidelines for thesis examination without public disclosure for more information about closed thesis examinations.
  • Thesis defence decisions and outcomes: Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on  decisions for additional information about decisions and outcomes.
  • Thesis submission: Visit the thesis submission webpage for information about the thesis submission process, including approvals that must be obtained before submitting your thesis.
  • UWSpace: Visit the Library’s UWSpace webpage for information about what UWSpace is and how to submit, or deposit, your thesis to UWSpace.

Timeline to defence

Early planning considerations.

Well before your defence date, there are several considerations to think about that can help make the end stages of your degree go smoothly and ensure your defence date and degree completion are not delayed:

  • Being aware of formatting requirements will save you time on revisions later on – the last thing you want to be doing before submitting your thesis to UWSpace is updating page numbers or your table of contents! Consider using the Microsoft Word or LaTeX thesis template produced by Information Systems & Technology. 
  • The Dissertation Boot Camp can help you develop effective writing practices and strategies for completing your thesis, while the three-part Rock Your Thesis workshop series will provide practical guidance for planning, writing, revising, and submitting your thesis project. You can also book an individual appointment to do backwards planning with an advisor. They can help you utilize the planning tools most effectively, while providing hands-on guidance and feedback.  
  • If you are using third-party content, including your own previously published work in your thesis, or seeking intellectual property protection (for yourself or another involved party), there may be implications for your thesis or defence. Learn more about copyright for your thesis , and email [email protected] for help with copyright questions related to your thesis.
  • Depending on your departmental or discipline’s norms, you may require approval from your entire committee, or just your supervisor. Ensure you talk with your supervisor and/or committee early on to confirm processes and timelines, so you’re not surprised later.
  • Depending on your departmental or discipline’s norms, your supervisor may select an external examiner themselves, or they may seek your input. Talk to your supervisor early on about this process, as in some faculties the external examiner may need to be vetted and approved as early as the term before you wish to defend. Remember that there are conflict of interest guidelines around the appointment of the external examiner , and the PhD candidate should not be in communication with the external examiner prior to the defence.
  • A PhD thesis must be on display for a minimum of 4 weeks prior to the defence date. To accommodate, you may need to submit your thesis as early as 6-8 weeks prior to your defence. Review your faculty specific backwards planning tool for the thesis submission deadline in your faculty and learn more about the display period in the PhD thesis examination regulations.
  • After your successful thesis defence, you will likely have some required revisions to your thesis. It’s important to understand revision timelines , especially if you’re hoping to become “degree complete” before a tuition refund or convocation deadline. Find tuition refund and convocation deadlines in the important dates calendar .
  • Following your thesis defence, there are several steps to be taken before your final, approved thesis is accepted in UWSpace. Ensure that you’re aware of these thesis submission steps and timelines in advance.

Backwards planning tools

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, in collaboration with the Faculties, have prepared faculty specific backwards planning tools to help PhD candidates map out the timelines related to their thesis defence and degree completion.

Select your faculty below to download a PDF copy of the backwards planning tool. We encourage you to discuss your ideal timelines with your supervisor(s) and your department graduate program co-ordinator.

  • Faculty of Health backwards planning tool (PDF)
  • Faculty of Arts backwards planning tool (PDF)
  • Faculty of Engineering backwards planning tool (PDF)
  • Faculty of Environment backwards planning tool (PDF)
  • Faculty of Mathematics backwards planning tool (PDF)
  • Faculty of Science backwards planning tool (PDF)

Tips for success

The PhD thesis defence is the culmination of years of hard work! The tips outlined in this video, compiled from recent PhD graduates and experienced thesis defence chairs, cover tips for preparing for your defence, day-of logistics, and defending successfully.

Transcript - Your Thesis Defence: Tips for Success (PDF)

Will your PhD thesis defence be held remotely? We’ve compiled additional tips for success specifically related to the remote defence.

Facebook logo

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA)

Needles Hall, second floor, room 2201

Graduate Studies Academic Calendar

Website feedback

  • Contact Waterloo
  • Maps & Directions
  • Accessibility

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations .

Dissertation Defense

  • Dissertation Defense: Home
  • Preparing for the Defense

Consider These Example Defense Questions

  • Student Experience Feedback Buttons
  • Attending a Defense
  • Sample Defenses
  • Zoom Resources
  • Dissertation Publishing in ProQuest
  • School of Education Educator Dispositions
  • What do you see as the main contributions of your research for your discipline, practitioners, and/or policy makers?
  • In what ways, if at all, does your study contribute to the existing literature and/or prior research in the field? In what ways does it extend the literature? Contradict the literature? Fill gaps in the literature? Clarify contradictions in the literature?
  • In planning and conducting this study, which major theorists influenced your thinking?
  • What are the conflicting issues in your field (every field has conflicts—hence, the research problem), and what contributed most to your understanding of these issues?
  • In what ways do you expect that your work will clarify the conflicting issues in your field?
  • What motivated you to conduct this study? In other words, what brought you to explore this particular topic?
  • What new learning about qualitative research have you come away with as a result of conducting this study?
  • What, if any, are the unanticipated outcomes of your study? What surprises have you come away with?
  • What new learning about yourself have you come away with having conducted this study? What additional insights has the dissertation experience afforded you?
  • What were the high and/or low points for you in the dissertation experience?
  • If you were to redo this study, how might you conduct this study differently? How might you change your research methodology? Why?
  • How could you build on or extend this research in the future?
  • What are the major strengths and/or limitations of your research design/methodology?
  • What might further strengthen this study?
  • Why did you analyze the data in the way that you did? How might you have analyzed your data differently?
  • What suggestions might you offer somebody about to conduct a study of this nature?
  • How did you arrive at your conceptual framework?
  • What are the theoretical components of your framework?
  • What informed your conceptual framework?
  • How did you decide upon the components that you include in your conceptual framework?
  • How did the components of your conceptual framework assist you in visualizing and explaining what you intended to investigate?
  • How did you use your conceptual framework to design your research and analyze your findings?

Bloomberg, L. D and Volpe, M: Completing your qualitative dissertation: A Roadmap from Beginning to End (Sage 2016).

Was this resource helpful?

  • << Previous: Preparing for the Defense
  • Next: Attending a Defense >>
  • Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 2:22 PM
  • URL: https://resources.nu.edu/c.php?g=1006027

NCU Library Home

Want to Get your Dissertation Accepted?

Discover how we've helped doctoral students complete their dissertations and advance their academic careers!

phd proposal defense questions

Join 200+ Graduated Students

textbook-icon

Get Your Dissertation Accepted On Your Next Submission

Get customized coaching for:.

  • Crafting your proposal,
  • Collecting and analyzing your data, or
  • Preparing your defense.

Trapped in dissertation revisions?

How to create a dissertation proposal defense powerpoint (+example), published by steve tippins on june 21, 2022 june 21, 2022.

Last Updated on: 2nd February 2024, 02:45 am

As part of the dissertation process, you will need to create a dissertation proposal defense PowerPoint to present a summary of the plan for your study. You will need to show how important your study is and how it is useful. 

When creating the PowerPoint, keep in mind that you need to make sure all of your audience can understand all aspects of your study.  The exact content for the defense PowerPoint varies by college, discipline and department, so it is important that you discuss with your committee chair about the requirements. However, we will give some general guidelines that apply to most institutions.

woman in orange jacket wearing headphones and working on her dissertation defense

The defense typically takes 20‐30 minutes. You should keep the timeframe in mind as you consider the information you will have in your presentation. 

Except for aspects of your presentation, such as the research question(s) or hypothesis(es), do not just read the slides. Instead, explain or expand on what is on the slides. To ensure you keep within the timeframe, practice narrating your PowerPoint presentation. 

Although the APA manual does not provide guidelines for creating a PowerPoint presentation, you will need to follow some of the APA style guidelines within your PowerPoint. 

For example, provide in-text citations for quotes, paraphrases, images, graphs, and other information that should be cited. Also, you will need to provide a list of pertinent references. 

phd proposal defense questions

The following are other format requirements for the slides :

  • Create 17-20 slides.
  • Do not provide a lot of information. Be concise and write a few sentences (approximately 1-7 on each slide). 
  • Because your slides will contain only a small amount of information, any extra information that you want to touch on should be put in the notes section of the PowerPoint. 
  • Write the information in your slides for visual appeal and optimum communication, using a legible font size. 
  • You can use graphics and images to enhance and reinforce the information. However, ensure that they do not distract from your information.
  • You can use bullet points but keep them to a minimum of 3-4 for each listing.

Example Dissertation Proposal Defense PowerPoint Format

man in denim shirt using his laptop to create a dissertation proposal

The dissertation proposal will consist of three chapters, which you will be providing information on in the presentation. Although the contents and order of the contents may vary, there are some basic parts of the proposal that are usually required.  

The following is a breakdown of the usual contents that are included in the presentation. Each of these headings below represents the titles of each slide. The information below the headings is the type of content you will need to provide. 

Title (1 slide) : 

  • Dissertation’s Title 
  • Department of Program of Study/Name of University
  • Chair and Committee Members

Statement of the Problem (1 slide):

  • Provide the problem that your dissertation will address. 

Purpose of the Study (1 slide):

  • Provide what the study will do relative to the issue(s) defined in the statement of the problem.

Significance of the Study (1 slide):

  • Provide the main argument of why the solution to the problem that you propose is important. 

Research Question(s)/Hypothesis(es ) (1 slide):

  • Provide the research question(s) or hypothesis(es) relevant to your field of study, written exactly as it is in your dissertation proposal.

The Literature Review (2 slides):  

  • These slides should consist of a coherent, organized overview of the main literature that frames your study’s problem, and the gap in literature that your study will address. Make sure that you include the sources. 

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework (1 slide):

  • This slide should consist of the theoretical/conceptual framework that will help you make sense of the phenomenon that you will investigate. 

Research Design (1 slide):

  • Provide the framework for the methods of data collection and data analysis. Indicate whether the study will be quantitative or qualitative.

Sample and Population (1 slide):

  • Provide the population that refers to the entire group that you will draw conclusions about, and the sample that refers to the specific group that you will collect data from.

Data Collection (1 slide):

  • Provide the methods by which you will obtain the data. If the research design is quantitative, provide methods such as correlation and regression, mean, mode and median or others. If the design is qualitative, provide methods such as, interviews, questionnaires with open-ended questions, focus groups, observation, game or role-playing, case studies, or others.

Data Analysis (1-2 slides):

  • This slide should contain the process you will use to understand, gather, compile, and process the data you will obtain. 

phd proposal defense questions

Limitations (1 slide):

  • In this slide, explain the nature of the limitations and how they will be overcome during your research. 

Delimitations (1slide):

  • Provide the characteristics that describe the boundaries of your study and limit the scope, such as sample size, geographical location, population traits, or others.

References (1-2 slides):

  • Only provide those sources that you referred to in the presentation. Do not provide all the sources that you have in your dissertation proposal.

Thank You/Questions (1 slide):

  • Use this final slide to thank your committee and to request questions from them.

Note : For information about citing your references, refer to Chapters 9 and 10 of the APA Manual 7 th edition.

For instructions on how to create a PowerPoint, see How to Create a Powerpoint Presentation .

View this video for “ Tips and Tricks for your Proposal Defense Day Presentation ” 

You can find several examples of students’ Dissertation Proposal Defense presentations online by searching for “Dissertation Proposal Defense PowerPoint.”  You can also find one at this webpage .

' src=

Steve Tippins

Steve Tippins, PhD, has thrived in academia for over thirty years. He continues to love teaching in addition to coaching recent PhD graduates as well as students writing their dissertations. Learn more about his dissertation coaching and career coaching services. Book a Free Consultation with Steve Tippins

Related Posts

grad student studying in the library

Dissertation

What makes a good research question.

Creating a good research question is vital to successfully completing your dissertation. Here are some tips that will help you formulate a good research question.  What Makes a Good Research Question? These are the three Read more…

concentrated grad student taking dissertation notes

Dissertation Structure

When it comes to writing a dissertation, one of the most fraught questions asked by graduate students is about dissertation structure. A dissertation is the lengthiest writing project that many graduate students ever undertake, and Read more…

professor consulting students in his office

Choosing a Dissertation Chair

Choosing your dissertation chair is one of the most important decisions that you’ll make in graduate school. Your dissertation chair will in many ways shape your experience as you undergo the most rigorous intellectual challenge Read more…

Make This Your Last Round of Dissertation Revision.

Learn How to Get Your Dissertation Accepted .

Discover the 5-Step Process in this Free Webinar .

Almost there!

Please verify your email address by clicking the link in the email message we just sent to your address.

If you don't see the message within the next five minutes, be sure to check your spam folder :).

Hack Your Dissertation

5-Day Mini Course: How to Finish Faster With Less Stress

Interested in more helpful tips about improving your dissertation experience? Join our 5-day mini course by email!

phd proposal defense questions

University of Washington Information School

Doctorate in information science.

  • Advising & Support
  • Capstone Projects
  • Upcoming Info Sessions
  • Videos: Alumni at Work
  • Request more information

Proposal Defense

The purpose of the dissertation proposal defense is to assure that your plan of researching your proposed research question is complete and holds academic merit. Students work closely with their supervisory committees in determining the composition of the dissertation proposal and in writing the proposal.

At least six weeks prior to the dissertation proposal defense, the candidate contacts Student Services to confirm the members of their supervisory committee. This would include the addition of a non-University of Washington external faculty member if previously agreed upon.

The candidate schedules a date, a time, and a room for the dissertation proposal defense. The candidate also submits details regarding the dissertation proposal defense to the iSchool web calendar, the PhD program chair, and Student Services.

At least two weeks before the scheduled proposal defense date, the final written proposal must be submitted to all members of the supervisory committee. The voting members of the committee, in consultation with the student, determine the length and outline the structure of the defense.

The proposal defense is a public event. However, the deliberations of the supervisory committee are private. The supervisory committee records an official decision using the dissertation proposal defense form.

Once the proposal has been defended and accepted, the candidate is cleared to finish writing the dissertation. The candidate submits one paper copy and one PDF version of the dissertation proposal to Student Services.

More Information

  • Dissertation Proposal Defense Policy
  • Dissertation Proposal Defense Form
  • Learn more about supervisory committee policies

Full Results

Customize your experience.

phd proposal defense questions

25 Thesis/Dissertation Defense Questions

December 17, 2023

thesis defense questions, masters dissertation

When you’re considering going to graduate school , or you’re about to defend your master’s thesis or PhD dissertation, chances are you’ve come across something called the thesis defense. The thesis defense is arguably one of the most fundamental steps to take in order to attain your graduate degree. Each university will have its own tailored expectations of the thesis defense. Yet, as a whole, the thesis defense is an opportunity for you to demonstrate in front of the committee the extensive research you’ve completed and the critical skills you’ve developed. Due to the critical nature of the various thesis defense questions/dissertation defense questions you’ll be asked, it’s best to be prepared and practice with other students. Try to even attend a thesis defense if you can. Overall, consider the thesis defense as a chance to showcase how you’ll best contribute to that academic field of research.

The thesis defense can range from anywhere between one to two hours, depending on your program. As a whole, you’ll present how you decided to choose this topic of research, what you discovered, and what those findings led you to realize. The committee – those overseeing and critiquing your thesis defense – will then ask you a series of thesis defense questions, as well as your written thesis because they’ll have already read it by then. In most cases, by the end of the questioning, the committee will either decide to approve your thesis or give you possible suggestions on how to reapproach your research.

How to best prepare for thesis defense questions

Much like preparing for the GRE or deciding what graduate program you wanted to apply to at the beginning of your graduate academic journey, familiarizing yourself with what to expect on the day of your thesis defense will only lighten the burden. Whether you’re a new master’s student or considering how to pursue a PhD , it’s important to know ahead of time how to best prepare for the thesis defense questions. If you’re getting ready to defend the master’s thesis or prepare for dissertation defense questions, see how you can answer the following thesis defense questions that might come your way on the day of the presentation.

1)  What does your research focus on?

Be ready to state right away the synopsis of your research. Although it may seem like a simple, straightforward question, the committee will be looking to see the terminology you use when describing the focus of your research.

2) What influenced you to research this topic?

The committee will be interested in knowing what influenced you to choose this specific topic of research. What motivated you? Shape your answer in a way that reflects the field of study your topic of interest is in and the issues that stood out to you.

3) What does your study encompass and cover?

Consider the parameters and scope of your research for your thesis defense. By defining and delineating the grounds that you covered with your research, you will inform the committee with a better understanding of how you decided to focus on your topic of interest.

Thesis Defense Questions (Continued)

4) what was the goal of your research.

This question will surface often whether you are defending your master’s thesis or preparing for the dissertation defense questions. It’s important to state what your thesis meant to achieve. Think of what the core focus of your thesis is, and state how that was the driving factor in your research.

5) What were your expectations going into this research?

Describe how your hypothesis was formed. Were there any things you had expected or any preconceived notions you had on this topic before you pursued this research? Where did these expectations come from? Did any previous research affect the way you approached your thesis defense as a whole?

Defending a Thesis (Continued)

6) what did you study that made you want to conduct this research project.

This is a great opportunity for you to show what literature you reviewed that led you to pursue the research. Be ready to discuss the literary review of what has already been contributed to this field of study. Reflect on the realizations made when confronting certain data and if it was feasible for you to conduct your research given the existing contributions. Examining this type of literary review will serve you well during the following thesis defense questions.

7)  Who is the targeted audience for this research?

It will be important to state who the targeted audience is, or what types of people will be affected by your research. Will these particular parties benefit from your research? How will they be affected? Consider not just the targeted audience, but also those in parallel groups who may be impacted by your findings.

8)  Why did you choose this title for your research? – thesis defense questions

The way you have named and titled your research will convey what you consider most important to the committee. What does your research try to explain in the given title? Is there a reason you chose the specific words in your title to convey a main point? The committee will want to see the intentionality of every word here and how it relates back to your research.

9)  How did you conduct your research questions and did your approach change?

While you were preparing and conducting your research, you might have found that your research questions were changing, depending on the sample you were studying. Oftentimes, if you are utilizing qualitative research methodology, the types of qualitative questions may change based on the answer. How did that change affect your research process? Did you have to shift your approach to the subject matter or reconsider focus groups?

10)  What impact does your research have on the existing literature?

Reflect on how your research made a contribution to the overall understanding of the field at hand. Think of why this was necessary and state that concisely. This will trickle into other thesis defense questions.

11)  Did you address any gaps in the field of your research?

Answering this thesis defense question will show how significant the findings of your research are. The goal of anyone’s research is to fill in the gaps of a field. Why did the pre-existing literature not suffice to address the focus of your research?

12)  What did you come across during your research?

It helps to have options of how you’ll convey this. Try to be prepared to summarize in detail, within a minute, what your findings were. Then see what you can paraphrase in 5 minutes. How about in 10 minutes? Doing so will assist you in identifying the most relevant piece of information based on how the committee asks you this thesis defense question.

13)  Did you find anything unexpected or surprising during your research process? – thesis defense questions

This would be a good opportunity for you to state how any surprises you came across helped you make certain decisions about your research. While you defend the master’s thesis and think of how you’ll prepare for the PhD dissertation defense questions, this is a “curveball” moment that demonstrates how you took charge of the challenge presented and continued your research despite what you had confronted.

14)  Under what parameters is your research valid?

Parameters were mentioned in question 3 above, but consider the specific conditions that would need to be in place for your findings to be valid. What are the elements that would have to be in place? Be ready to identify these during this thesis defense question.

15)  What were the challenges when conducting your research?

Were there any roadblocks you faced when gathering your data? Did you have to reconsider your research methodology at all? Identifying this will help the committee understand the direction and trajectory of your research.

16)  What were the challenges when working with your subject matter?

If you were interviewing people, did the focus groups not adhere to what you had asked them to do? Why? Walk the committee through your approach here.

17)  Why did you choose the research methodology that you chose?

While you’re defending the master’s thesis or answering dissertation defense questions, you’ll be asked specific questions about your research methodology. Was it qualitative? Quantitative? Why? What made you believe that this would be the most effective way to conduct your research?

18)  How did you form your hypothesis?

Tie back in your expectations for your research and consider what you thought the expected results would be for this thesis defense question. Were there any factors, both past or recent, that had helped shape your hypothesis?

19)  How did you gather the data to conduct your research and what sources did you use?

Recount what steps you took to decide how to access the data. Did certain libraries offer more resources? Was there any censorship that you came across that posed as a roadblock to collecting data?

20)  What are the practical implications of your research?

For both master’s and PhD students, this is always an important thesis defense question to keep in mind. In life outside of the academic institution, how will your research be of practical use to society? It’s a question that most graduate students ask about themselves before graduating, so it’s best to know how to answer this one about your research!

21)  How did you decide what samples to study in the research you found? What was your approach in using sample groups?

For example, if you used sample or focus groups, how did you go about selecting these groups? How did you get access to the data here? Don’t be hesitant to state the challenges you might have faced while doing so. As long as you frame it in a way that helps provide a more intricate portrait of the trajectory of your research, you’re on the right path.

22)  What are the independent and dependent variables in your research?

Use this thesis defense question to show how balanced your research methodology was by naming the different factors. How did the independent variables affect how the dependent variables changed?

Dissertation Defense Questions (Continued)

23)  considering your contribution to this field of research, where else would require further research what more needs to be done in this field.

As a master’s student defending your master’s thesis or as a PhD candidate preparing for your dissertation defense questions, you are already a researcher. And as a researcher, you must present what else must be done in your field of research on top of what you’ve accomplished. What does your research further suggest?

24)  What did you ultimately gather from your research? What did you learn during and after the process? – thesis defense questions 

Aside from stating your findings as a whole, this would be a good moment to express if you found anything significant outside of your thesis that you hadn’t expected. Was there something you learned while gathering your data or writing up your text that you never thought you’d come across?

25)  After you complete your degree, what do you want to pursue professionally?

It’s not uncommon for master’s or PhD students to not know exactly what they want to do once they graduate. But for this last thesis defense question, it’s good to have a solid answer that will tie back into the research you’ve done. Do you have further research plans in this field? Do you want to pursue a profession that would enable this and strengthen the practical reality of it?

Thesis Defense Questions – Additional Resources

We hope you found this list of common thesis defense questions useful as you prepare for defending your thesis. Other articles that you may find relevant include:

  • Top Feeders to PhD Programs
  • Do You Need a Master’s to get a PhD?
  • How to Write a Grad School Statement of Purpose
  • Graduate School Admissions

' src=

Joanna Hong

With a BA from Pitzer College and an MA from University College London, Joanna has worked in London, Berlin, and Los Angeles covering many cultural and political issues with organizations such as Byline Media, NK News, and Free Turkey Media. A freelancer for The New York Times, her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Dazed and Confused Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. In addition, Joanna was the recipient of the 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in Fiction and is currently completing her first novel.

  • 2-Year Colleges
  • Application Strategies
  • Big Picture
  • Career & Personality Assessment
  • College Essay
  • College Search/Knowledge
  • College Success
  • Costs & Financial Aid
  • Dental School Admissions
  • Extracurricular Activities
  • High School Success
  • High Schools
  • Law School Admissions
  • Medical School Admissions
  • Navigating the Admissions Process
  • Online Learning
  • Private High School Spotlight
  • Summer Program Spotlight
  • Summer Programs
  • Test Prep Provider Spotlight

College Transitions Sidebar Block Image

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

Sign Up Now

Navigation auf uzh.ch

Department of Informatics

Quicklinks und sprachwechsel, main navigation, phd proposal and proposal defense, important dates fs24.

Please note: Registration end and submission of the proposal document are on the same date - this being the first day of lectures of each semester. For FS24  this will be 19.02.2024 . PhD students will be notified by e-mail in due time about the submission and defense dates each semester.

Important Dates HS24

Proposal process.

  • PhD student registers for the PhD proposal defense and submits proposal document.

The supervisor informs the PhD Coordinator about the arranged reviewers until the registration deadline.  

The proposal committee will consist of the following people:

•    1st and 2nd Reviewer: external (or internal) with expertise in the area (conflict of interest with supervisor ok); to be arranged by supervisor (no approval needed from PhD committee) •    Meta-Reviewer: Member of the PhD committee •    Supervisor; statement from supervisor endorsing (or commenting on) the direction of the proposal •    [optional] further internal/external reviewers

  • Reviewers write a review of the proposal and decide about pass/conditional pass/fail on the proposal document. Supervisor hands in a statement.
  • PhD student and his/her supervisor will be notified by the Doctoral Committee about pass/conditional pass/fail on the proposal document, and they will receive the feedback from the reviewers.
  • PhD student with pass or conditional pass on proposal document prepares and defends his/her proposal at the proposal defense date. For this oral defense of the PhD proposal, the PhD student incorporates the feedback from the reviewers.
  • PhD student will be notified by Doctoral Committee about pass/conditional pass/fail on PhD proposal (and if revisions will be necessary).

In case of a conditional pass, PhD student incorporates any requested changes into the written proposal (the detailed process for this case is described below).

Proposal Formatting

The PhD thesis proposal must not exceed 20 pages and 80,000 characters (with spaces), illustrations, formula, tables and bibliographies included. A minimum of point 10 font size and 1.5 line spacing must be used. In general, the PhD thesis proposal should not contain any annexed documents.

Proposal Structure and Content

A PhD thesis proposal must contain content on the following topics:

  • Introduction/Motivation (1-2 pages)
  • Related work (2-6 pages)
  • Problem statement (1 page)
  • Proposed solution and research idea (2-6 pages)
  • References (1-2 pages)
  • A dedicated section (e.g., in the prior work section) where the student lists what he/she has published so far
  • A “schedule” (ideally as a flow chart) which shows the sequencing of all work packages, from the start of the PhD till the end of the PhD. From the schedule it must become apparent how long the PhD student has worked on the research topic of the PhD proposal and when the PhD student intends to graduate (obtain the PhD). This is particularly important for PhD students who have switched topics. Master Fast-Track students shall indicate that they are in the Master Fast-Track program; to clarify the timing, they shall include their Master studies in the schedule and indicate when they have started to work on the research topic of the PhD proposal.

Note that for some PhD thesis proposals, additional topics/sections not listed above may be useful to add. The order and exact naming of the sections of the PhD proposal is left to the PhD student. The number of pages indicated above are rough suggestions but can vary significantly from proposal to proposal.

Note that your proposal should focus only on your research. It should not contain your list of activities that explained how you got your ECTS points. This document is about your thesis research only.

Useful Questions for your PhD Proposal

When writing your PhD proposal, it may be useful to think about the following questions. Ideally, your proposal answers all of them:

  • What problem are you choosing to investigate? What is your hypothesis?
  • Why is the problem/hypothesis important/relevant?
  • What are the specific research questions your work will address?
  • How have others attempted to address this in the past?
  • How are you planning to address this?
  • How will you answer these research questions (e.g. what is the method/approach and why have you chosen these?)
  • How will you evaluate the extent to/success with which you have addressed these research questions?
  • What are the expected research contributions of this work? (i.e. what knowledge or research products will your work produce that others in the research community can use?)
  • How will you know that you accomplished your goals? (i.e. what is the stopping condition to be applied to your work?)

It might be useful to structure the proposal around these questions.

Proposal Defense

PhD Students have to defend their thesis proposal at an official thesis proposal date organized at least once a term by the end of the 3rd year of their PhD. Candidates are strongly encouraged to defend their proposal earlier (e.g. at the end of their 2nd year), such that the feedback has more impact. The goal of the thesis proposal defense is to ascertain that the candidate has a plan to finish his/her thesis.

In general, the thesis proposal defense must be given in English. In exceptional cases, the presentation can also be held in German, which is more commonly used in certain research fields (e.g. Business Informatics). If you want to give your proposal defense in German, then you must first petition the Doctoral Committee (providing a reason) at least 6 weeks before the proposal defense date.

Prepare a presentation of 20 minutes' duration. There will be a discussion afterwards (20min).

When preparing your proposal defense please take into account that the proposal defense is not a seminar talk. You need to assure us during your talk that you have good answers to the following questions:

  • What problem are you choosing to investigate? What is your hypothesis? What is your contribution?
  • Why is the problem/hypothesis/contribution important/relevant?
  • How will you answer your research questions (e.g. what is the method/approach and why have you chosen these?)
  • You need to have a clear plan (independent of possible project involvement)
  • What are the expected research contributions of this work? (i.e. What knowledge or research products will your work produce that others in the research community can use?)

In all of this please differentiate between your research contribution and the engineering tasks that you potentially need to undertake. We are interested in the former, not the latter. Also, you might want to consider the use "I" as opposed to "we" in your presentation, such that we know what you are doing personally as opposed to your collaborators (either in the research group or the project).

Please consider adding a detailed example to your presentation for people to be able to follow your ideas. Some things that are obvious to you may not be obvious to others, who are not emersed in your work.

The outcome of the proposal defense is either pass or fail. If you fail you may have to submit a new thesis proposal, defend it again, or both of those. You can only repeat this process once.

Proposal Document Revisions after the Defense (conditional pass)

If you are required to make changes to your PhD proposal and submit a new version to the IfI PhD committee, then please follow the following steps:

  • Carefully revise the PhD thesis proposal taking into account all of the feedback you received on your initial version (from all of the reviews and during the defense). Please use a different font color for those text passages where you have made major edits relative to the previous version, to make it easier to find the changes.
  • Prepare a second document called "Revision Outline" (1-3 pages) where you briefly describe what parts of your PhD thesis proposal (i.e., pages and sections) you have changed, and how you have changed them, in response to the feedback you have received.
  • Submit both of these documents to your advisor and to the IfI PhD committee (by sending them to IfI PhD program coordinator ).

Weiterführende Informationen

 alt=

  • How we work

Successful PhD Dissertation Defense: Questions and Answers

Are you looking for common questions and answers about PhD dissertation defense? You may want to check out the following for some of those you might be asked during the PhD defense of your paper. Before that, though, make sure to take note of them, but not limit yourself just to these common questions.

phd dissertation defense

Questions and Answers

What is your study about, how significant is the topic, how can the research topic contribute to currently available research on it, what were the limitations encountered, the importance of your phd thesis defense.

At the end of all your hard work, you will be required to defend the research that you have done in front of your peers. For many this is something that they will approach with great trepidation. Few people like to talk in public, and defending your own research in front of real experts in your own field that will want to pick holes in what you have done can be a real challenge.

This is why you really do need to spend a lot of time and effort in ensuring that your PhD defense is up to scratch and that you are fully prepared for what may be asked of you. Each institution and even country will approach a PhD defense differently. Yours could be just defending to a board of two professors through to a wider public audience with several professors asking questions of you. Whatever it is that is expected of you, however, you will need to prepare accordingly.

phd dissertation help defense

How to Prepare for Your Defense of Dissertation

After you have submitted your dissertation there really is no time for you to relax. While you cannot do any more to your paper it is now time to very much concentrate on how you are going to defend it. A poorly defended dissertation could result in you being tasked with a huge number of revisions and even additional research. A successful PhD thesis defense, however, should result in only minor changes, it is very rare that a panel will allow you to escape this ordeal with nothing to do.

The following tips will provide you with a good framework to help you with preparing both your presentation and yourself for your PhD proposal defense:

  • Be sure that you know precisely what the format of your defense will be.  Every institution differs in some way with regards to the length of your PhD defense presentation, the makeup of your audience, through to how long they will ask questions for. Make sure that you understand exactly what you are walking into.
  • Don’t leave things to the last minute before you begin your preparations. It can be very easy to fall into the party trap as soon as you have submitted your dissertation, however, you should wait until after your defense PhD thesis before you begin your celebrations.
  • Read and reread your dissertation several times. Re-familiarize yourself with everything that you have done. Also go back to some of your main sources and reread those also.
  • Don’t produce too many or too few slides for your presentation: 100 slides for a 10-minute talk is going to be far too many and 10 will not be enough for 20 minutes.
  • Cover the main points of your research: clearly show why you have done it, why it is important, what impact it will have as well as the usual what you actually did and found.
  • Don’t neglect details on your slides: label axes and try to use the same format throughout.
  • Tell a story: you want your presentation to actually flow so take the time to work on your transitions between slides.
  • Don’t just read the slide: a slide should be a prompt for what you have to say not just a teleprompter for you to read from.
  • Practice. Then practice again. Give your presentation for PhD defense several times to your friends so that you are totally comfortable with what you are doing.
  • Try out the room. walking into a presentation and finding that the projector will not talk to your laptop or some another disaster is avoidable.

While you are never going to be able to prepare for every question for PhD defense you should be able to answer anything around the core area of your research. If asked something that you really do not know the answer to simply say that you don’t know or explain how you would go about trying to find an answer. Just because someone asks you a difficult question, it does not mean that they have an answer to it either.

dissertation defense phd

Our Dissertation Advice Services

One of the mistakes that most graduate students commit when writing is not having any plan at all. This causes them to spend time on doing pointless tasks when they could have focused all their energy in tackling their research, analyzing the information they have gained and translating data into a well written paper. Although many rely on online help, having a clear idea on how or where to begin is an advantage. The good news is that our PhD comics thesis defense writing service can do more than just write dissertations but we can also help coach you into getting your dissertation done in time. From formatting to reviewing and editing we are your one stop shop for all your needs.

We Can Help

It’s not surprising to find graduate students having a hard time getting started on their PhD oral defense especially when they lack a plan of attack. The idea of having to go through this final hurdle often put pressure on students that they can’t seem to focus on their work. This is not a good sign especially if you want to achieve your MBA or PhD. We are ready to help you with all the writing issues!

A banner image of a full bookshelf

PhD in Transition Design

Fundamental change at every level of society is needed to address the issues confronting us in the 21st century. From climate change, loss of biodiversity, and depletion of natural resources, to systems of oppression, inequality, and inequity, Transition Design tackles these kinds of complex, wicked problems.

About our PhD Program

The PhD in Transition Design is for people committed to making a positive change in the world. Our unique program develops future design leaders with the capacity to envision and realize purposeful change across a range of complex systems—from food, water, materials and products, to policy, culture, economy, cities, and social movements. Transition Design acknowledges that we are living in transitional times, takes as its central premise the need for societal transition (systems-level change) to more just, equitable, and sustainable futures, and argues that design and designers have a key role to play in these transitions. This kind of design is connected to long horizons of time, pluriversal perspectives, compelling visions of desired futures, and must be based upon new knowledge and skill sets. Research in Transition Design, while grounded in systems thinking, can also be undertaken from the perspective of many areas of interest—circular economies, commoning, decoloniality, sociotechnical transitions, public policy, stakeholder participation, and futuring, to name a few.

Complex challenges must be addressed through ecologies of interventions that draw on multiple design specialisms, alongside expertise from other disciplines. In this way, Transition Design is a transdisciplinary field that unites researchers from within and beyond Design. This involves service designers, social designers, communication designers, product designers, environments designers, and design historians, working alongside ecologists, anthropologists, philosophers, economists, and political scientists.

Our PhD researchers develop their own research interests within the broad framework of Transition Design. We practice a collective, rather than competitive approach to creating a strong cohort. Program faculty and researchers alike operate as one supportive community with the shared goal of producing transformational work that matters. Throughout the program, you will maintain fluid interactions between theory and practice, through critical engagements with texts, images, media, objects, and experiences. The program is designed to encourage a supportive, critical research culture in which students, their peers, and advisory committees work closely together to shape new knowledge. As a PhD Researcher at CMU, your research will directly shape the development of this dynamic and emerging field.

The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon is a top-ranked Design School, situated at the heart of a world-leading research university, with a thriving undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student community. Upon completing the PhD, graduates are equipped to drive design-led systems-change through academic posts in leading universities and take on influential roles in nonprofit organizations, business, and government. Recent graduate destinations have included the University of Technology Sydney, New York University, Microsoft, University of Michigan, and Northeastern University.

Read more about Transition Design.

Program Structure

The program has two key stages: the first is taught (year 1); the second comprises a self-defined project developed in consultation with an advisory committee (years 2–4). Where schedules permit, our students can take electives from across Carnegie Mellon's rich and diverse curricular offering.

The core curriculum is as follows:

Advancing your understanding of how research from diverse disciplinary domains can inform new kinds of research and practice. Through this 15-week course, you will explore the intersections of theory, practice and praxis, to develop a holistic understanding of research as a reflexive theoretical and practical process. Coursework includes the design of praxis methods to shape your own research. Topics include: research of design, research for design, research by design, and design praxis.

"Teaching Design" focuses on planning, conducting, reviewing, and revising learning experiences in academic and professional contexts. Students will study learning theories and instructional design approaches, probing their value to design education. Students will investigate traditional and emergent approaches to instruction through readings and discussions situated in the realm of cognitive studies, neuroscience, learning science, instructional design, and educational pedagogy. Students will discuss challenges that are common to design, which they will use to brainstorm ways of effectively addressing obstacles that they are likely to encounter when teaching. Students will apply their discoveries to the design of learning objectives, outcomes, instructional activities, performance measures, formative assessments, and summative evaluations, to create innovative and effective teaching and learning experiences based on a context they define. The course will culminate in the design of concrete teaching plans that may take the form of syllabi, project briefs, class exercises, assessment tools, and evaluation metrics.

An “ecoliterate” mindset is the starting point for Transition Design. Indeed, to be ecoliterate is to understand the principles through which natural systems flourish and to apply these principles to society, so that we too may flourish without compromising or destroying the natural systems on which we depend. Spanning 7-weeks, this seminar class focuses on key themes of ecoliteracy to help us navigate our social, ecological, and existential crises. Topics include: place and bioregions, Goethean science, living systems and Gaia, relationality and context, radical holism, and everyday life and infrastructure

This seminar exposes students to the emergent issues in the research and practice of Design through weekly discussions with individual faculty members. Faculty primarily resident to the School of Design present their research and interests to students in 50 minute sessions; two faculty presenting one day each week. The course aims to provide masters students (and some PhD students) first-hand exposure to faculty, their research, and interests. It's also a nice way for faculty to begin meeting grad students.

Driving design-led, systems-level change towards socially and ecologically sustainable, convivial and equitable place-based lifestyles. Through this 15-week course, you will explore multilevel problems to establish mutually beneficial relationships between people, the natural environment and the designed world; repositioning designers as agents of sustainable change. Topics include: living systems & complex problems, mindsets & postures, theories of change, visions, and transition designing.

Introducing future-focused design practices with practical training in futuring and foresight methods. Through this 15-week course, you will be introduced to a broad array of future-focused design practices, coupled with practical training in futuring and foresight techniques and methods. Coursework includes the development of a "Time Machine"—an immersive, future-focussed scenario for storytelling and research activation. Topics include: world modeling, futuring & foresight, emerging design practices, criticality & speculation, design pedagogy, and sustainable futures.

Defining a 3-year research project with your advisory committee, geared toward activating sustainable change. Through this 7-week course, you will frame new research contexts, define questions, plan methodological approaches, design open research structures that adapt and change, and speculate upon research outcomes and their impacts. Coursework includes writing a PhD proposal. Topics include: framing research problems, building an argument, planning your project, keeping research open, and writing a research proposal.

Developing a 2-year period of deep, reflective and self-directed research. Across this sequence of courses—spanning 4 semesters—you work closely with your advisory committee to build upon your research proposal and literature review. During this phase, you will deepen your literature review, undertake field research, develop your practice and begin pulling together your research into a coherent body of work.

Deepening your connection with the craft of writing via a cross-section of academic, journalistic and creative styles. Through this 15-week course this practical hands-on course helps you develop your style, structure and confidence in design writing. Writing is framed as a creative process where ideas are explored, discovered and expressed. Coursework includes planning a literature review. Topics include: conference papers & journal articles, design criticism, podcasts & digital publishing, and transformational design curricula.

Creating the critical space for divergent research themes to coalesce into a clear and conclusive body of research. You will assemble your dissertation in advance of the defense in May of the final semester. Dissertations can be entirely written (60–80K words), or a body of written and practical work (40–60K words, by negotiation). Your final body of work must demonstrate an original contribution to knowledge which expands understanding of transition design.

In addition to the above courses, students and faculty meet every few weeks for Critical Readings in Transition Design—a forum for in-depth discussion and critique of key texts, concepts and tools relating to transition design, and design-led systems-change more broadly.

Click here to view our PhD in Transition Design Planner, illustrating how these courses map across the 4 years of the program.

Current Researchers & Faculty

Phd researchers.

Jabe Bloom

Adam Cowart

Erica Dorn

Tricia Douglas

Kyla Fullenwider

Kyla Fullenwider

Luis Garcia

Luis Garcia

Esther Kang

Esther Kang

Fas Lebbie

William Martin

Saurin Nanavanti

Saurin Nanavanti

Alexander Polzin

Alexander Polzin

Madeline Sides

Madeline Sides

Russell Singer

Russell Singer

Margaret M Urban

Margaret M Urban

Matthew Wizinsky

Matthew Wizinsky

Faculty advisors.

Toward the end of the first year, you are supported in assembling a 2-4 member advisory committee. This mentoring group comprises diverse expertise from faculty from the School of Design , from other schools across CMU, and advisors external to CMU where appropriate.

Requirements & Costs

Entry requirements.

Qualifications Applicants should meet the following requirements:

  • A Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution with a strong record of academic achievement.
  • A Master's degree from an accredited institution with a strong record of academic achievement. In some circumstances, we will consider applicants without a Master's degree, where there is evidence of equivalent community-engagement, leadership, research, writing, or other related experience.
  • Candidates for the PhD teaching fellowship will ordinarily have a Master's degree in Design, and at least two years of professional and/or teaching experience. In select cases, 5+ years of professional design experience, demonstrated by portfolio, may be considered if the applicant's Master's degree is in a related or complementary field.

Language Requirements All applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), or the online Duolingo English Test score. All applicants must submit their highest test score by the application deadline.

  • Our minimum TOEFL total score is 102, with minimum subscores of 25. In addition to single test date TOEFL iBT scores, the School of Design also accepts MyBest scores for TOEFL iBT.
  • Our minimum IELTS score is 7.5
  • Our minimum Duolingo score is 128 total. Subscore minimums: Literacy: 125, Conversation: 120, Comprehension: 135, Production: 105

Scores below these minimums will not be considered for admission. Note : There are additional requirements for teaching fellowship candidates, in regards to written and verbal English language capacities by Pennsylvania State Legislation. All non-native English speakers are required to pass an International Teaching Assistant Test administered by CMU.

There are two funding routes through the program: professional track and teaching fellowships.

Professional track candidates find their own sources of funding. This route is for people who wish to continue their employment whilst also undertaking PhD research, and keep the flexibility to study in a low-residency mode once the first year of coursework is complete.

Teaching fellowships cover tuition, individual health insurance, and provide an annual stipend of $22,500 ($11,250 per semester). Teaching fellows co-teach one course per semester, from semesters 2–7. All teaching fellows must be in residence at CMU for the duration of the program.

Applicants who are accepted into the program, but do not receive an offer of a teaching fellowship, are required to pay the following fees, totalling approximately $69,975 over 4-years:

  • Year 1: $45,700 (2024-2025)
  • Year 2: $6,490 (2025-2026)
  • Year 3: $6,625 (2026-2027)
  • Year 4: $6,760 (2027-2028)

University fees (annual estimate)

  • Activity Fee: $238
  • Transportation Fee: $256
  • Technology Fee: $460

Note : Professional track candidates are responsible for their own individual health insurance at approximately $3,000 per year.

Application

Information on how to apply and what you'll need to include with your application can be found HERE .

Further Information

Please feel free to email us with any questions. You can also check out our FAQs page . As this is a relatively new program, insufficient data exists to provide helpful transparency statistics. This will be shared as it becomes available.

IMAGES

  1. PhD Thesis Proposal Defense: Common Questions and Feedback

    phd proposal defense questions

  2. PhD Thesis Proposal Defense: Questions & Comments

    phd proposal defense questions

  3. 40 Thesis Defense Questions : r/BeMoGradApplication

    phd proposal defense questions

  4. 15 Questions Commonly Ask During Research Proposal Defense

    phd proposal defense questions

  5. thesis defense panel questions

    phd proposal defense questions

  6. How To Do a Proper Thesis Defense with a PowerPoint Presentation

    phd proposal defense questions

COMMENTS

  1. PhD Thesis Proposal Defense: Common Questions and Feedback

    Structure of a PhD proposal defense. A proposal defense has: the student defending his proposal, two external examiners, the student's supervisors, the audience, and the chair of the defense. The defense is structured as follows: The chair opens the session by welcoming and acknowledging the student, his supervisors and the external examiners.

  2. 17 Thesis Defense Questions and How to Answer Them

    A thesis defense gives you the chance to show off your thesis work and demonstrate your expertise in your field of study. During this one- to two-hour discussion with the members of your thesis committee, you'll have some control over how you present your research, but your committee will ask you some prodding questions to test your knowledge and preparedness. They will all have read your ...

  3. Dissertation Proposal Defense: 12 Tips for ...

    Preparing for your Dissertation Proposal Defense. 1. Anticipate Questions. In your presentation, try to answer all of the questions you expect your committee to ask. That way, you control the material. Your committee will be more satisfied with your preparation and understanding and it will be less likely that you have to answer questions that ...

  4. 40 Thesis Defense Questions

    40 Thesis Defense Questions. Practicing answering thesis defense questions in a mock thesis defense is the best way to get ready for this challenging step in your academic career. Aside from knowing your research project inside and out, you must have solid strategies for tackling different question types and talking about why you chose your ...

  5. What? Why? How? A list of potential PhD defense questions

    Note: The questions were compiled with a Finnish PhD defense in mind. In Finland, the defense is at the very end of the research process, and no changes to the PhD will be made after the event. The defense is also a public event. The list was last edited: November 3rd, 2022 Title and cover. Why did you choose this title?

  6. Defending Your Dissertation: A Guide

    Jessika Iwanski is an MD/PhD student who in 2022 defended her dissertation on genetic mutations in sarcomeric proteins that lead to severe, neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy. She described her writing experience as "an intricate process of balancing many things at once with a deadline (defense day) that seems to be creeping up faster and faster ...

  7. PhD Thesis Proposal Defense: Questions & Comments

    In this video, I list the most common questions asked and feedback given during a PhD thesis proposal defense.To see the list of all the common questions and...

  8. Preparing For A Viva Voce (Dissertation Defence)

    If you need assistance preparing for your dissertation defense or viva voce, get in touch with us to discuss 1-on-1 coaching. We can critically review your research and identify potential issues and responses, as well as undertake a mock oral defense to prepare you for the pressures and stresses on the day.

  9. 13 Tips to Prepare for Your PhD Dissertation Defense

    1. Start Your Preparations Early. Thesis defense is not a 3 or 6 months' exercise. Don't wait until you have completed all your research objectives. Start your preparation well in advance, and make sure you know all the intricacies of your thesis and reasons to all the research experiments you conducted. 2.

  10. Preparing the Thesis Proposal Defense

    The defense requires the preparation of a report and delivery of a presentation detailing what I plan to do for the last two years of my PhD. Since defenses are often set up similarly, I've compiled a roundup of my own tips on how to prepare. Create a Plan and Compile Your Resources. As soon as you schedule your proposal defense, create a ...

  11. What questions to prepare for PhD defense?

    23. Generally speaking, PhD defenses come in two flavors, and it is not possible to say a priori which one yours will fall into: A real thesis "defense" focuses on the thesis, and all questions will relate to the scope of the research work. In this case, knowing your own work and its context well enough should be sufficient, but it is of course ...

  12. PDF A Guide for Graduate Students Preparing for a PhD Defense in Arts

    A Guide for Graduate Students Preparing for a PhD Defense in Arts, Sciences and Engineering Revised February 24, 2014 . guidebooks and style manuals available for dissertation writers. However, before beginning the ... If you have questions about the process, including turn- around time for the finished product, call (585) 275-3879 or visit the ...

  13. PDF Proposal And Dissertation Defense Summaries Guide

    Milestone 2: Proposal Defense and Summary i. The proposal defense is to be completed after the passing of the Ph.D. Qualifying Exam. ii. The proposal defense is comprised of 3 parts: a written proposal, a public oral presentation and a closed oral defense of the proposal. iii. The student is required to submit a written research proposal and ...

  14. Tamer Suggested: Top 60 Questions Frequently Asked During Thesis Defense

    Dutch defensive preparations, 1933-1940 /. Kennedy. John R. Maj. Thesis (M.M.A.S.)--U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-125). AD-A214 159 ...

  15. Research Proposal Questions and Answers To Get You Ready!

    It is always important to be aware of what thesis defense questions you will be asked when it is all said and done, but you may have to start justifying your research a little earlier on with the completion of a research proposal. In this article, we include sample questions and answers you could be faced with when submitting your research ...

  16. Preparing for your PhD thesis defence

    Even if your thesis defence seems far away, there are several planning considerations you can consider early on to help the end stages of your PhD go smoothly. On this page you will find videos, tools, and information about what the PhD thesis defence is, timelines for the PhD thesis defence, and tips for a successful PhD thesis defence.

  17. Example Defense Questions

    In what ways, if at all, does your study contribute to the existing literature and/or prior research in the field? In what ways does it extend the literature? Contradict the literature? Fill gaps in the literature? Clarify contradictions in the literature? In planning and conducting this study, which major theorists influenced your thinking?

  18. How to Create a Dissertation Proposal Defense ...

    Get customized coaching for crafting your proposal, collecting and analyzing your data, or preparing your defense. The following are other format requirements for the slides: Create 17-20 slides. Do not provide a lot of information. Be concise and write a few sentences (approximately 1-7 on each slide).

  19. Proposal Defense

    The voting members of the committee, in consultation with the student, determine the length and outline the structure of the defense. The proposal defense is a public event. However, the deliberations of the supervisory committee are private. The supervisory committee records an official decision using the dissertation proposal defense form.

  20. 25 Thesis/Dissertation Defense Questions

    In addition, Joanna was the recipient of the 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship in Fiction and is currently completing her first novel. Thesis Defense Questions - the 25 most common questions that grad students will hear while defending their master's thesis or dissertation.

  21. List of 20 Frequently Asked Thesis Defense Questions

    Regardless of the subject, examiners will ask some typical defense questions. In this article, we will discuss 20 such common defense questions you need to prepare for. Discover the world's research

  22. PhD Proposal and Proposal Defense

    The goal of the thesis proposal defense is to ascertain that the candidate has a plan to finish his/her thesis. In general, the thesis proposal defense must be given in English. In exceptional cases, the presentation can also be held in German, which is more commonly used in certain research fields (e.g. Business Informatics).

  23. Successful PhD Dissertation Defense: Questions and Answers

    Prepare your PhD defense papers: Don't produce too many or too few slides for your presentation: 100 slides for a 10-minute talk is going to be far too many and 10 will not be enough for 20 minutes. Cover the main points of your research: clearly show why you have done it, why it is important, what impact it will have as well as the usual ...

  24. PhD in Transition Design

    About our PhD Program. The PhD in Transition Design is for people committed to making a positive change in the world. Our unique program develops future design leaders with the capacity to envision and realize purposeful change across a range of complex systems—from food, water, materials and products, to policy, culture, economy, cities, and ...