Three Minute Thesis Competition

The competition

You present your doctoral research in just 3 minutes to a non-specialist audience, using just one static slide. The aim of this event is to help you develop your academic, presentation and research communication skills and to meet and network with students from all faculties.

This year the competition will be both live and virtual. There will be live presentations and also recorded videos shown on the day.

If you decide to submit your presentation on a video, it can be prepared on your phone, tablet, PC and then uploaded to Panopto - instructions on how to do this will be given in due time.

What are the rules?

A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted. No slide transitions, animations or 'movement' of any description are allowed. The slide is to be presented from the beginning.
No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted.
No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment) are permitted.
Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum and competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualified.
Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g. no poems, raps or songs).
Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through either movement or speech.

How to register, help and deadlines

Once you complete the registration form, you will receive a:

link to the 3M Panopto folder where you will record/upload your video
3M slide template
video explaining how to record in Panopto.

There will be two online sessions that will help you to prepare your talk:

Creating impactful presentations on Wednesday 30 April 2025 from 10:00am - 12:00pm
Presentation and public speaking skills on Wednesday 7 May from 10:00am - 12:00pm

Monday 9 June 2025 - Deadline for submitting your video.

Wednesday 18 June 2025 from 12:30pm at JHB 202 where all live and recorded presentations, prize ceremony and networking lunch will take place.

There are cash prizes for the winner, runner up and people's choice.

If you prefer not to present at this time, but would like to support your peers, please join us on the day.

Useful resources

Past competitions

2024

Roger Hiley (winner)
Madhusha Mendis (runner up)
Raabiah Yaacob (people's choice)

2023

Sophie Harris (winner)
Lucia Sagredo-Sanchez (runner up)
Ali Alsaied (people's choice)

2022

Sanjana Karnik (winner)
Luna Dou (runner up)
Amber Ridgway (runner up)
Mayuri Agrawal (people's choice)

History

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an academic competition developed by the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. By 2011, there were more than 900 countries worldwide holding these competitions. In 2020, 3MT moved to a temporary virtual format due to COVID-19 and continued to be held around the world in either a virtual or a live format.

At Oxford Brookes University, we started holding 3MT competitions at Faculty level before COVID-19.

In 2022, we held a multi-faculty virtual competition with fourteen research students presenting their thesis in a 3 minute video