PhD Failure and Appeals
 After years of sustained dedicated effort it can come as a terrible shock to a PhD student to discover that their PhD examination has ended in failure. But unfortunately this is happening all too often. If it has recently happened to you, you will need to make a crucial decision. Were the examiners correct in their judgement that you have not made a fundamental contribution to knowledge within your research area? Alternatively, do you feel that you have been unfairly treated and that you should lodge an appeal against their decision?
Surprisingly, there are many reasons why the examiners' judgement may need to be confronted. Consider the following:
- The examination may not have been conducted in strict accordance with the university's procedures, and as a result you may have been put at a disadvantage.
- The selection of your examination panel may have been inappropriate, and this did not become apparent until the viva was in progress.
- Your research topic was in an interdisciplinary area. This is notorious for introducing significant difficulties, both of supervision and in competently conducting the research at the various stages: the research itself, writing up and examination. In particular, at the examination stage none of your examiners may have had the necessary understanding and competence to be able to bridge the disciplines and to be able to make a proper assessment of your research contribution. In other words, your thesis may have 'fallen down the middle' between two or more subject disciplines.
- Your external examiner may have given you an unduly hard examination because of academic rivalry or in order to settle scores with your supervisor. For example, your supervisor may have recently failed one of your examiner's recent PhD candidates.
Recommendations
It is important to go with your gut feeling in deciding whether you should lodge an appeal against a failed PhD. Such a procedure can be lengthy and demanding, so if you do go ahead, consider the following:
- In order to bounce back after failing a PhD viva you will need to be mentally strong, so try to attend an assertiveness course.
- Familiarise yourself completely with your university's examination and appeals procedures. Ensure that the university provides you with a full description of the reasons why your examiners decided to fail you.
- Ask a disinterested academic member of staff in a related research area to look over your thesis and make an overall independent assessment of its quality.
- Seek out and talk to students who have made a successful PhD appeal. This can be especially illuminating and encouraging. Be sure to follow up the red and blue links included in the 'Further Information' section below.
- If you can afford it, speak to a lawyer who specialises in academic appeals. This would not be primarily with the intention of taking the university to court! However, a lawyer can usually determine quite quickly whether you have been unjustly treated by the university. They can also monitor the conduct of your appeal and ensure that it is carried out promptly and properly, ideally by being present at the hearing. This is vitally important since any university which has demonstrated that it has deficiencies in its examination procedure is also unfortunately likely to be defensive and to have deficiencies in its appeals procedure.
Further Information
I am able to speak with in-depth knowledge about PhD viva failure, since I was myself required to undergo a lengthy and difficult appeal. I described my experiences in a short article for the Times Higher Education Supplement, entitled When a PhD is less than appealing. A significantly longer, unpublished version of this article is also available, entitled Too much appeal.
For further information about PhD failure and PhD appeals see:
- Appeals Procedure for Research Degree Students (University of Essex)
Hard lessons by John Wakeford
PhD 'failure' rates revealed (Zoe Corbyn)
Raging Against the Machine by John Wakeford
Unfinished business by Miranda Irving
What Goalposts? by John Wakeford
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