Last week, I observed my first thesis defense here. A requirement for graduation for all undergraduates here is the writing of a thesis. Most of the students in the education department perform some sort of classroom research, write it up, and make a defense with three faculty members grilling them. It’s quite a sight and I’m quite happy that I’ve never needed to do such a thing.
I was chatting with my colleague prior to the defense about the thesis. I asked her the title and my response was “no sh*t,” meaning: that’s quite an obvious conclusion she’s got there. Another lecturer came to this conclusion as well and proceeded to ask her where the ‘research question’ was and what was the problem she was trying to solve. She was ill-prepared to answer these things. I felt genuinely bad for her. After the grilling, a discussion amongst the lecturers commenced and I put in my two cents, saying that the student’s thesis advisor needs to take some responsibility for this, as he/she had to approve the thesis in the first place. Another colleague responded that the advisors have so many people to keep track of that they can’t possible be held accountable for every thesis! Oh, I beg to differ. I saw they gave her a numerical grade of around 70. That’s pretty much a B in these parts.
Now, there’s talk of me being one of the inquisitors…