VCU Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition Videos

Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is a research communication competition originally developed by The University of Queensland in 2008, and now has been widely adopted at universities around the world. The exercise challenges master’s and doctoral students to present a compelling talk on their thesis/dissertation topic and its significance. Many theses and dissertations can be over 80,000 words and take hours to present, but students in this competition have just three minutes and one slide to convey their often highly-technical research to a lay audience. Judging criteria is centered on three core competencies:

Communication Style: was the thesis topic and its significance communicated in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience

Comprehension: did the presentation help the audience understand the research?

Engagement: did the oration make the audience want to know more?