am a British West Indian, and eviscerated by being denied a PhD, and instead awarded an Mphil. This award is subsequent to sitting a Viva, and resubmitting in compliance with the corrections the examiners asked me to make. I cannot appeal this downgrade because it would be on the basis of challenging the examiners' academic judgment. This is outside the ambit of the awarding university's regulations.

I am not satisfied, in fact I am terribly unhappy, to be downgraded from a PhD to an MPhil. I have been racking my mind and seeking advice as to what can be done to secure an upgrade from an Mphil to a PhD. Having serendipitously stumbled across your website, I am hopeful that somebody might be able to help.

I will argue vigorously and rigourosly that I should have been awarded a PhD, seeing that I have done the corrections incumbent upon me, and even more significant - my thesis is the only doctoral thesis written on the Old Testament book of Obadiah. I did a search of the world's universities and none of the them registers any doctoral thesis on this book. This is a first for the world and the university that awarded me an MPhil.

Needless to say, it has been extremely difficult and upsetting to accept an Mphil. I would be most grateful for some sound advice on how I may upgrade. Can anyone help?