Does anybody have any concrete knowledge or experience on what, generally, constitutes minor corrections and what makes major corrections?

I am aware minor usually tends to mean "slight restructuring" or small additions to sections, but does somebody know exactly? Such as, how much is one usually required to re-do if they are given major corrections after a viva?

Any experiences?

minor corrections = you have 1 month to complete = normally typos, adding clarification of points, rephrasing etc, possibly adding more/different analyses for one or two things - ie nothing major and probably all doable in one week.
Major corrections = you will have 6 months to complete = much more work needed, possibly need to do more data collection or rewrite an entire chapter eg redo the intro and add in much more literature etc.

hopes this helps!

Slightly different timeframes last time I looked at my rules:
Minors: two weeks/one month (many people get minor corrections done in the few hours after the exams). Minors normally means polishing up the work eg. grammar/spelling problems, referencing problems, clarifications, or adding a few paragraphs here and there. Normally, minors mean you can pencil in the corrections and do not need to get your thesis re-bound. I think when it gets to the point of adding new sections etc. it would then fall into major corrections.
Majors:3 mths or 18 mths (candidate has the choice which to opt for), this can mean full re-writes or adding new chapters.

in some uni's minors are anything up to 3 months. majors 6 - 12. It will say in you uni regs

Unlike the others below, I got minor corrections and 6 months to do them in - and yes - the thesis does have to be rebound (pencil won't do). It really depends on your institution - read your regs carefully.

I actually got major corrections, although the reason for this was (they said) because I was part-time and they wanted to give me 12mths to resubmit. There was some re-writing - the abstract and discussion section, and a few points for clarification, nothing I'd deem "major". The corrections actually only took a couple of weeks in the end.

The form at my uni didn't have the words "minor" or "major" written on it, just "pass with corrections", the timescale - <6mths, 6-12mths, and the process for resubmission.

As with everything PhD related, it's pretty subjective and down to both the examiners and the institution to decide. I really wouldn't worry too much about it, even if it takes 12mths to correct, it's not long in the scheme of things. Good luck!
Damo

Has anyone else come across corrections graded into 10 levels? According to my colleagues, level one is no corrections, 2 is minor, 3 is major but not a resubmission, 4 is major with resubmission (3 of my colleagues are doing that now), and 10 is an outright fail. I don't know how levels 5-9 pan out (and I hope I don't find out - still awaiting viva date :p )