Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 13:10:36 +0100
From: Ruth Chandler <R.Chandler-AT-ucc.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Valence


Hi Inna, Paul

Congratulations to you both! it is very interesting to hear about the external examining -i still have this to come and, am expecting to be roasted over an open fire re the image of thought i have made!

do you have contact with any student bodies campaigning over fair examination procedures? if you, or anyone else on line, know of anything, it would be interesting to compare notes with the practices uk students, where they are represented, find unacceptable.( i belong to an organisation, the National Postagraduate Committee that campaigns and provides consultation on mots matters postgraduate in the uk) it would be good to check out the differences and similarities) the NPC, amonsgt other activities, collects horror stories and examples of what PGs think is 'good' practice ( and why) to try and feed a student driven agenda into the rapidly changing ground of the UK educational framework 

reply off list if you, or anyone else, are interested in giving your perspective on the viva or on any other issue pertaining to PG education. 

Complaints procedures are top of the list at the moment-the UK has two external systems here, crudely put, the courts and something known as the visitorial system-both of these can only be used after all internal proceedures have been followed and, quite often the supervisor is the first port of call ( bit tricky if thats the problem!) the visitor (in the case of my HEI this happens to be someone appointed to act for Elizabeth  2) is very unsatisfactory and considerble effort has been put in to demonstrate that this contravenes the new human rights legislation. There are strong moves to appoint an ombudsman, but the sticking point on this is securing govermental and university ndependence, who, in short, watches the watchers and on what would its claims to being able to make a decision about a doctoral thesis reside?  I would be especially interested in hearing about other models (or ideas about this problem) and what you perceive to be their strengths and weaknesses.

best wishes
Ruth.C

>>> Paul Bains <P.Bains-AT-murdoch.edu.au> 08/19 1:58 am >>>
Inna,
Valence looks good to me but I'd need to check a definite reference. 
Your ordeal sounds medieval. Some of these 'examiners' are pretentious
wankers.
My topic was 'relations'.
Short and simple.

later,
Paul.


At 23:47 17/08/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi Paul.
>it was certification exam, then proposal, then written dissertation, then
>oral defense with 5 committee members. Grilling. External readers are on 
>the committee and supposed to be present during orals too. 
>What was your topic?
>forgot to mention, two foreign languages were required, one-french
>taht i passed by total miracle. i do not speak french. Was told by the
>way during orals that Massumi's translation as "valence" (increase in
>valence etc) is wrong --it should be value. What do you think? I think
>that Deleuze meant more "technical" term than value.
>What do other french-speakers think? Charles?
>inna
>On Sat, 18 Aug 2001,
>Paul Bains wrote:
>
>> I hope the viva 'defence' went well. I suppose you have external
>> examiners/readers for the thesis?
>> I also completed recently.
>> paul.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
>