thanks for the responses - it was really good to hear that other people think it's strange too. i'm contacting the department tomorrow to talk about it - wish me luck!

hi there - congrats on passing the viva! i did mine recently too, also got minor corrections and they don't look that minor to me! i think being told that you're 'on the cusp' is best ignored - they just want to rain on your parade - don't let them. I think the difference between minor and major is quite subjective and definitely varies hugely depending on the university. My external came from a university where the time allowed for minor corrections was 3 months, and here it's 2. She's given me three month's of work anyway and i'm expected to get it done a month earlier (?*?).

re. the report - at my university you have 2 months from the date you receive the report- you have to be sent an official letter through the mail. - it's really unfair if you have less time to do it because the examiner is dragging their heels. Good luck with it anyway!

i had my viva a recently (minor corrections) and have just received the reports - a couple of things have surprised me:

1 - i received two reports - the external and the internal. Although they don't contradict each other, the internal has added a lot that is not in the external's report and was not mentioned in the viva.

2 - my external's last words were that the extra stuff would only be a couple of pages and i can hand it in earlier than the deadline (2 months) if i want. the internal has included some sweeping statements that imply i should re-do the theoretical framework and re-analyse the data, plus extra redrafts of three chapters.

My first instinct is to just get on with it as i would rather re-write the whole thing than have to deal with university bureaucracy, but i'm genuinely worried that i can't do it all in the time. Would anybody else challenge this? what is actually at stake with minor corrections? could it still be a fail at this point?

I've tried to check with university regulations but they recently changed and haven't been updated. Any advice welcome!