Viva here I mean the research proposal, sorry.

I attended this presentation where the presenter was defending his PhD research proposal. One of the panel members admitted that he's not in the field but he said that the candidate's proposal doesn't relate to candidate's field, he continued to say that the research is not a part of the field. In a gist, he was basically saying, the research is not suitable or maybe irrelevant to the field.

The heck?
How on earth would the examiner know that the research is even related to the field? He's not even in the field!?
The presenter just stood there feeling shock and didn't know what to do He was just all silent, really cripple-looking : /

I went home feeling a bit upset because I think it's unfair for the examiner to say things like that. If I'm not mistaken, his position is to check the structure of the proposal (whether it's written clearly, follow to procedures of the Uni, etc), not to say that the research is something-something.


Is the examiner correct doing this? Should I be worried?

Anyone?

No one?

I've never come across a viva for a research proposal before. Are you based in the UK?

======= Date Modified 04 Oct 2012 17:59:58 =======
I'd agree with hazyjane that I've never heard of a viva for a proposal. I'd actually be more concerned about the presence of other students, which sounds very strange and rather mean. People do know what's going on in fields other than their own, so I don't find it surprising that the person would comment. If he'd been put on the panel, it's presumably because it was thought he could contribute usefully. The point of the research proposal is to check whether there is a viable PhD project there, not just whether it ticks all the university procedure boxes, and while it's never fun to get it rejected or criticised, it's much much better to be told early on that there's a major flaw, rather than to realise it yourself after wasting months or years.