Actual dissertation presentations

When the preparation is over, the actual dissertation presentations tend not to be particularly onerous. And that was true this time. And this time was unusual: we have been doing this in Reichel Hall in the past years, but that had been booked out. This time, we just did it on the Ocean Sciences campus. We have two big and one small lecture room there, and a huge teaching lab, and several rooms for master students. One of the big lecture rooms, and the teaching lab, can be split in two with a temporary wall, so these both count as two rooms. So even without using the masters rooms I already had six spaces at my disposal. In Reichel I only get three! And I managed making a schedule without getting in the way of the master students. 

The day before, I had already put the documentation in the various rooms. Everything was ready to roll! And my own session was in the afternoon, but Jaco and Martin had a session in the morning, and Jaco had had to abruptly go to the Netherlands for a family matter. So I stepped in. For most of the session, Jaco was there via Teams, but with me there the full session was covered, and I think it was good to have a person physically present.

There was plenty of time for lunch between the morning and afternoon sessions. And then I had my own session. All of my students except one showed up. The one who didn't got in touch the day after, to say they were in the process of suspending their studies. So in a way, I was complete! And I was doing the session with my colleague Mollie, and all her students showed up. A successful session.

The next day I didn't have to be in any of the sessions. My work was mainly making sure that in the lunch break, I updated the documentation in every room. And I still fielded some questions from staff and students. And at the end of the day, I made sure that the teaching lab was in pristine condition again. That wasn't much work; staff and students had left it quite tidy, and the technical staff was also keeping an eye on things. Over the weekend there would be an Open Day, so it had to look spic and span! But at 5 pm, all that was done, and I could take my tired body home. It's done for another year! 

Afternoon documentation ready for distribution 

The next big job now, of course, is the actual dissertations. That is just the students uploading their documents, but there is a fair amount of herding cats involved, to make sure all staff mark the work on time and in the right way. And document what they have done. 

I personally think it was quite nice to do it on our own campus. I will see if School management is OK with me keeping that set-up. I also suspect that next year we might have so many students we would have to hire Reichel Hall for three days if we want to fit all the presentations in. I struggle to imagine the School would look forward to the cost!