One more amusing anecdote about &quot;failing&quot; a defence. I was told this happened in the EE department at Princeton.<p>There was a student whose defence wasn&#x27;t going well and the committee’s consensus was that the more work needed to be done. But if the student actually failed the defence, special university regulations would kick in for the second defence which would likely make it impossible for him to defend.<p>Not wanting to do that, the committee came up with an ingenious loophole. Apparently the committee is allowed to take coffee breaks. So they decided to take a coffee break - <i>for two months</i> - while the student went back and fixed up his thesis and managed to defend once proceedings resumed after the &quot;break.&quot;