Well, I think it's a good idea.
(Bear with me, it might take a while for me to reach my point.)
*A while back there was some talk here on MRS about the viva/oral defence of theses and why it wasn't necessarily the best or easiest thing for Australian students (not least because we're all terrified of the concept) - although we all recognise it would be a valuable thing to have to go through.
*Today at a staff meeting the issue came up that while tenured positions had a fairly open and complex application procedure (presentations on research and teaching, interview), fractional and contract appointments usually only involved an interview.
*This made me think back a couple of months when I was part of a working group on postgrad students' views on how badly academia sucks and how to fix it cheaply ;-) I pointed out that the work one does as a postgrad is almost invariably just given to you - no-one else wants to do it, your supervisor needs help in their unit, you're the only one who knows how to use the equipment and so on. And soon there you are: approaching thirty, PhD in hand, years of teaching experience - but you've never applied for a job. I don't know about you, but the concept of that frightens me. Get through a fractional appointment and you still only have an Academic portfolio and interview experience.
*For me the most valuable assessment in the Teaching Internship is/was the Teaching Folio (although I think the info talk should have been earlier) - the thing itself will be useful later on, and it's really good to have it evaluated by outsiders before your career is on the line.
So, here is my proposal to fix/bring the best out of all of these things.
Instead of a viva, each postgraduate student should be required to - at the end of their candidature, probably after submitting - give a presentation on their research and teaching, much like you would when applying for a tenured position.
It has similar benefits to a viva: okay, the world leaders in the field may not be in the lecture theater, but plenty of other smart people would be, and you get to articulate your research to a truly generalist, intelligent audience.
As an added bonus, you will be able to get feedback on your presentation from staff, peers and anyone else who wanders in. At the end of the process, you have the two quite daunting presentations you need in order to apply for a "real" job all practised, fed(?)back, so as soon as you see an interesting job offer you've already got half the application procedure sorted.
At the end of each semester, the (insert admin body here - school? faculty? GRS?) can book out a lecture theatre for a couple of days, other postgrads and staff are encouraged/required to attend, completing students give their presentations and have questions asked and praise ladled upon them in turn, GRS caters the tea breaks and we all assemble at the Club afterwards for jubilatory drinkies.
What do you think?