As the year winds down, I’ve been thinking about rituals to mark endings.
My son just received an email from ANU with digital copies of his two diplomas: one in mathematics/statistics and one in linguistics/philosophy. That’s it. He’s graduated from university after four painful years. He won’t be attending graduation, because that is the last thing someone with social anxiety wants to do, but an email saying You’ve graduated! Seems a bit anticlimactic to me.
Last week, I was an opponent for two fabulous PhD students defending their thesis as the Norwegian University of Science and Technology--they know how to mark the end of a PhD. Here's the view at 9:30 am outside the examination room.
Two international examiners read the thesis and provide a written assessment, then they are invited to Norway as the primary and secondary opponent. Each thesis is self-published as a self-contained book and distributed. The thesis defense is an all-day event that starts with a “trial lecture” to a general audience based on a topic selected by the opponents but not directly related to their research. After lunch, the student presents their defense. The primary opponent has 45 minutes to ask questions, followed by 30 minutes for the secondary opponent. I was worried about filling the time, but it ended up being a great opportunity to talk about the future, the challenges their research may face, and how their learnings might address the challenges. After the examiners confer, we headed to the department to announce our decision and share refreshments. And finally, the student treated everyone to dinner filled with impromptu speeches and thank you's by the student, mentors, and external examiners.
Phew. It was long and was quite an expense for the student. But you only get your PhD once in a lifetime, and it really felt like a finish.
My defense at the University of Utah was typical for biomedical informatics in the US--an hour-and-a-half presentation and discussion where my 5-person internal committee determined whether I passed and followed by chocolate mousse cake that I brought to celebrate. It felt mostly like an extra meeting for my committee and a little like a celebration from me. From my observation in Australia, it’s even more anti-climactic--two external examiners have months to read the thesis and submit their decision, and at some point the student presents a “completion seminar”.
The other opponent was from Finland where the experience is similar but even more formal and longer, and the student is given a sword. In Sweden, the student may present their research, but it's also possible the opponent presents the student's research, and they nail their thesis to a wall. Nothing says Finished like nailing a book to a wall! Here's a wall of biomedical theses I stumbled across at University of Gothenburg.
Have a wonderful break over the holidays--I hope you participate in some rituals to mark the end of 2023 and are refreshed and ready for 2024.
The PhD advisor Østein Nytrø made sure that Tapio Salakoski from University of Turku, Brian, and I spent some time outdoors near campus.
That sounds like an amazing (if nerve-wracking for the candidate!) way to complete a thesis.