Thesis Defense Training: Master Your Defense with Confidence

The training is deliberately built in two stages: in the online half-day, participants clarify the procedure and ground rules of their own defense – along the lines of their own doctoral regulations – get to know the particular presentation logic of the defense talk, develop storyline strategies for their own research, and work through question types along with matching answer strategies. Between the two sessions, each participant prepares their own short talk. The in-person simulation day is where it gets real: each participant defends their own work in front of the group, which takes turns acting as the examination committee and as observers – with video feedback on their own impact.

The group stays deliberately small: a maximum of eight people, so that everyone really does run through their own simulation – and the interdisciplinary mix is not a compromise but part of the realism, since real committees include members from outside the field too. The collegial atmosphere stays protected; the trainer alone asks the truly hard questions, announced and controlled. Anyone who wants to go deeper into presentation design will find the right follow-up format in the Presenting Your Research workshop.