A Post-Viva Outcome – a Space in the Wilderness, a Scene of Destruction

The viva report for my PhD in Creative Writing, containing nine pages of suggested amendments, was an unanticipated and shocking outcome for both my Director of Studies and my Supervisor of historical content.

The examiner’s decision, for me, has undoubtedly been catastrophic.

After more than five years of extensive PhD research and expansive nationwide visits to historic properties and events, in-depth interviews with key specialized professionals, and, having written and edited over 140,000 words of content (with 60,000 words submitted for the creative element and 20,000 words for the critical component) the contents and comments contained within the viva report seem unjustifiably harsh.

The decision has enforced major life changes upon me. The decision affects those around me. The enormity of the suggested amendments halts my decisions for the foreseeable future.

There are major repercussions for my role as an English Lecturer and the impracticalities of full-time employment, there is now a lengthy delay in the decision to relocate in closer proximity to work and family in the Northwest of England, and there will be innumerable restrictions to leisure time, affecting health and well-being.

The cruellest blow struck with the realisation that my future historical fiction novel, The Hind in the Ley, whose origins commenced when I undertook an MA program at Brunel University in 2017, will not be published, or appear on book sellers shelves, until at least 2027.

Examiners decisions are based on the work laid before them but is there any consideration for the human being and their dedication behind the work?

I teach English Language GCSE to re-sit students, and I see their pained expressions. I experience their despondency, and I sense the sheer weight of the burden placed on them as a direct result of the decisions made by examining governmental bodies.

Despite receiving the examiners report six weeks ago, the sheer overwhelming enormity of the workload which lies before me, hit me with force this week and I crumbled at work.

Described as ‘bureaucratic formalism,’ (Tidey, 2020) the PhD and viva panel process in the UK is somewhat comparable to a good old cold-water dunk on the ducking-stool.

Q1) - Have I considered throwing in the towel in favour of a free and simple life? Answer - Yes.

Q2) - Do I regret the decision to embark upon doctoral study? Answer – No.

Q3) - Would I do it again? Answer - Not a chance!

Taking a positive perspective across the compulsory space which has been set out in front of me, an add-on to the original itinerary, I now can perfect my thesis and finally tick off the bureaucratic boxes. In addition, one agreeable outcome to the decision is that I am not required to sit a further viva examination. Yes, the decision could have been much worse!

But the most insightful lesson I have taken from this arduous journey, spanning a decade, is the vantage point of my students which I have now been shown.

There is only one way forward from a scene of destruction. We must build. With contagion effect, we must build. Students will do it together. Out there in the wilderness.