An online structured course entitled “Facing Your Viva Voce ” was successfully held on the 5th August 2021 at 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm via Webex Online platform. It was organized by the Postgraduate Student Society, Faculty of Science, UTM with the objective to provide and share ‘tips & tricks’ and ‘do’s & Don’ts’, which will serve as guidelines before students face their viva-voce. The invited speaker is Prof. Dr. Suhairul bin Hashim. He is a Professor in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Johor Bahru, Johor. The moderator of this program is Mrs Aneez Syuhada binti Mangsor, representative of the Department of Physics, PGSS FS UTM.
Prof. Suhairul started the presentation by showing the various achievements given to him and his PhD students as a result of continuous hard work and great efforts such as UTM Pro Chancellor awards, Vice Chancellor, best student awards. He described Viva Voce as a verbal counterpart to the written thesis. The skill at presenting the research in writing is demonstrated by the thesis. Meanwhile, Viva voce displays the student’s ability to participate in academic discussion with research colleagues. The speaker emphasized on the important criteria which assist the students defending their viva session. He had successfully taught the students on how to prepare a good slide presentation and the content that should be presented. Besides, the students were exposed to the knowledge on presenting and defending their research well. He mentioned that defending your thesis does not mean being too defensive. He also gives several techniques for the question-and-answer session and how to engage well with the examiners during the viva.
The structured course received many positive feedbacks from participants. The great tips and advice given by the speaker succeed in motivating and preparing the PhD/Master students defending their research during the viva session. The participants appreciated the organizers, especially PGSSFS for their efforts in conducting these remarkable and informative sharing sessions.
