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Is it possible to fail the thesis or dissertation defense?

 

Is it possible to fail the thesis or dissertation defense?

Is it possible to fail the thesis or dissertation defense?

This is a recurrent question among graduate students, whether it is possible to fail the thesis or dissertation defense exam?

The answer is simple and straightforward: Yes, it is possible!

If you are doing a thesis or dissertation defense to pass, naturally, failing is a possibility. However, if you are on your defense day, it is because you have already gone through a qualifying panel, have already had your work monitored and corrected by your advisor, which in theory prepared you for the defense and, consequently, for approval!


Even if rare, failures happen, see some reports:

“I only know one case of failure…it happened about 20 years ago at UFXXX. It seems that the master's student dissatisfied with the criticisms, cursed the board using all kinds of insults! So I don't know if he failed for the content of the work or the offenses!"


"I know a story of a doctoral student who was speaking in his thesis about a species of fish that existed in a specific river in a certain country, however, there was a teacher on the bench who, luckily for the student, knew the country and the river. And he said IN ALL THE LETTERS that this species did not exist there. Then the student confessed that he had “invented it”, because it was such a specific river that he thought no one would dispute it.”


“I knew of a girl on my PPG who couldn't answer ANY questions from the panel. It didn't look like the job was hers. Then she failed"


“I know one who failed his master's degree because he copied and pasted excerpts from the supervisor's wife's thesis in his dissertation. This one didn't have another chance.”


“I have a friend who couldn't defend. The advisor didn't accept her work, it wasn't even for the defense”.


“A master's student failed for plagiarism! The work had pages and more pages copied from sites like uol, G1… she was disapproved and retired! ”


“Legend has it that in my program a doctoral student forged the data of her research.

She and her husband answered the questionnaires that should be applied. The advisor didn't notice, neither did the board. The girl received the title of doctor. However, some time later, the husband took the horn and to get revenge went to the program and denounced the ex. The girl was sued and lost her title.”


“Not in the defense panel. But in qualifying I know a lot of people.”


As we can see, there are several situations that lead to failure, so prepare yourself a lot and avoid the worst!


Note: not all graduate programs have the qualification, which is very bad, because the qualification works as a “thermometer” of work. It should be mandatory everywhere.

PHDPRO

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