It is a pleasure compiling this recommendation for the Doctorate Hub. Its Professors are vigilant and strategic thinkers with an eye for detail and a devotion to their careers. They have the capability and expert knowledge to teach a variety of subjects across a faculty, and their curiosity of expanding the horizon never diminishes. The Hub has an incredible ability to draw on their own experiences and observations to develop thoughtful opinions on a variety of encounters.

Great and excellent In-Residence at DoctorateHub, Porto, Portugal! Very well organised and particularly useful learning and information delivered in a brilliant style. I would highly endorse and recommend the Porto Workshop to research students that are interested in improving their research thesis and in growing their research “scissor”. Overall, the learning environment was conducive and Porto, a beautiful city.

I am going to graduate on 17th July 2020 and would like to reflect a bit on my DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) journey and incredible role the DoctorateHub played in it.  

Through the past years I have been a regular at the DoctorateHub and engaged in various services for my thesis development such as thesis review; informal community discussions during the webinars; conducting a Mock Viva; or reaching out to them with ad-hoc questions related to my studies. 

So it happened that after the proposal preparation I was matched with a professor outside of my university to be my primary supervisor. He was able to provide me with a number of recommendations and review draft of chapters. It became clear however after the second supervisor’s feedback that the first draft of the thesis needed to be considerably reviewed, else I would not have been able to pass through the stringent Viva examination. This is where I decided to approach the DoctorateHub to see if they could provide help. I have been attending some of the webinars, which were very insightful and instrumental in the further progress throughout the journey and clarified many of the research challenges. It was also an interesting exchange with fellow students that shared their own experiences at the Viva and various research stages.  

It was necessary though to have the thesis submitted within a very short period of time and taking into consideration substantial second supervisor’s feedback. I acknowledge that I needed help in turning around the thesis before the final submission. This is where the Full Thesis Review service came to rescue, followed by providing detailed feedback on the re-written thesis and the Mock Viva. In comparison to the ‘light tough'  feedback from my primary and secondary supervisors, the in depth feedback and discussion with the team at the DoctorateHub allowed me to re-construct a weak version of the initial draft thesis into a more professional and presentable version before the submission. 

I now can confidently say that I would not be able to make through the Viva without these two services. The DoctorateHub team was extremely helpful and thorough with their feedback and detailed suggestions during the thesis review and Mock Viva. The Mock Viva itself added a lot of confidence and helped with the strategies on how to answer difficult questions. I am very happy how I dealt with the questions at the real Viva, it was even complimented by the examiners and major part of it was due to the rehearsal with the Doctorate Hub. 

The DoctorateHub always delivered what was promised for the services, helped to be engaged at the webinars and stay persistent and motivated during the stages when I was almost about to quit. And I will continue to attend the Learning Cafe interactions organised by the DoctorateHub to continue the journey of a researcher-practitioner and perhaps inspire other DBA students and stay connected.

Dr. Sona L.

This is more than a testimonial; it is a declaration.

The DoctorateHub’ outstanding learnings are permanently ingrained in me. They form part of my spinal cord, brain, heart, nervous and circulatory systems. Consequently, the entrenched excellent learnings positively affect my daily thinking and behaviour beyond the academic realm. 

This extensive transformation process occurred gradually from November 2018 to July 2021 due to unrelenting coaching, mentoring and course work. The coursework included: 1. Wicked problem tackling. 2. Thesis writing up. 3. Viva preparation. 4. Virtual Residency. 5. Post Viva - Major modifications and 6. Numerous thesis- stage-based learning teleconferences. 

Whilst Dr Meiszner provided an estimated 80% of the academic ‘gymnastics’ instructions and discipline, Professor Gomišček provided an intense 20% that forcefully dragged out the ‘church-mouse’ silence element of my behaviour. Within their combined focus, there was no hiding spot for this learner. 

In all sincerity, perhaps I might have miraculously attained an empty ‘Doctor’ label in time. But most assuredly, I wouldn’t have achieved the doctoral level of thinking and behaviour that I have today without their excellent mentoring and coaching. 

I remain forever grateful.

Dr Bongi Mkhize

I am a pragmatist, both as a researcher and as an individual. I start this note with this declaration to make clear to the readers that what follows is the product of a specific paradigmatic belief.

A month prior to my DBA viva I learnt of the Mock Viva service offered by the DoctorateHub. I decided then to request the service because I was not sure of my ability to defend my thesis verbally. I was looking for weaknesses in my defence style. That said, I was very sure that my written thesis quality was beyond doubt.

The DoctorateHub team was very responsive and managed to conduct the Mock Viva at very short notice. The Mock lasted around two hours and it was full of engaging debate. The examiners profoundly interrogated the thesis in matters of thesis objective, clarity, methodology and analysis. Acknowledging that every thesis is unique, it might be noted will that in every Viva the questions differ substantially.

So, how would I know that a Mock Viva was helpful to me and might be helpful to others? The basic answer is that doctoral research is mostly a lonely journey. It is very likely that during this loneliness the traveller falls under a sort of illusion that his direction is correct beyond doubt. And this is why such reality checks provided by a scholarly team who are strangers to your work can help you recognize how your real examiner (strangers too) may perceive your work.

The result of my formal Viva was resubmission. The examiners in both the Viva and the Mock Viva were not convinced of the rigor of what I still believe is an original piece of action research. However, as a pragmatist, if I had a Mock Viva further ahead of the official submission, I may have changed it to satisfy the examiners point of view.

So, in a nutshell, I suggest that the Mock Viva with strangers-scholars is worth doing. To gain the most from it, you should have it at least three months before your intended submission date. This will allow you to incorporate new insights that you believe should be addressed.

Another benefit of the Mock Viva was to sharpen my verbal defence style based on the feedback from these professional scholars.

Considering those important components above, I would say a Mock Viva like the one that I experienced can make the difference between a minor and a major revision, or even between a minor and a direct award of your doctorate degree.

Ahmed S.

12 January 2019