How to defend your PhD thesis - Things to remember

Here are key questions you might face, organised by sections:

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:

• What motivated you to do this research?

• What is your main contribution to knowledge?

• How does your contribution connect to your research goals?

𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:

• How did you select or exclude sources?

• What gaps or challenges exist in the literature?

• How did you address these gaps?

𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲:

• What is your understanding of relevant research methods?

• What other methods did you consider but not use, and why?

• Why is your chosen method appropriate for this research?

• How did you develop your research design?

𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 & 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬:

• Who benefits most from your research?

• What are the main limitations?

• How do these limitations affect your claims to knowledge?

• How could you do things differently if starting again?

𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:

• Did you achieve your objectives?

• Did you answer your main research question?

• What would you do differently (Novelty)?

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