Purposes of the defence

This chapter explores the purpose and contribution of the defence to PhD examination and to doctoral education more generally. Drawing on literature on the defence, we outline the four more commonly cited purposes: assessment, verification, ceremony or rite of passage, and education, and then observe how those four purposes and others are evidenced in the 11 case studies presented in this book. Summative assessment was salient in about half of the cases with the Durham case exemplifying a high-stakes assessment. Verification was not prominent unlike much reported in the literature. The ritual dimension of the defence was similar across cases as a ‘once in a lifetime’ event since in most cases much of the examining had already taken place in advance of the defence. All 11 cases had elements of the defence as educational experience, for example, as the emergence of a future researcher, but the defence is also an opportunity for examiners to observe and learn from each other.