Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences

Nominating an assessment committee

At least 2 months before submitting your PhD thesis, you and your principal supervisor must nominate a committee to assess your thesis and PhD defence.

NEW RULE: As of 1 October 2019 at least one of the external assessors must be employed as associate professor, professor or senior researcher at a university. The new rule will not apply to already appointed assessment committees.

Appointing an assessment committee

The principal supervisor and the PhD student are responsible for nominating members of the assessment committee
Nominations must be sent to the Graduate School using the form "Nominating an assessment committee" at least 2 months before the thesis is submitted
The nominees must consent to be on the committee before the form is submitted
The Graduate School submits the the names of the nominees to the PhD Study Board and the Dean’s Office for approval
The Graduate School informs all members of the assessment committee, the PhD student, and the principal supervisor when the committee is officially appointed.

The PhD student is not permitted to have contact with members of the assessment committee from the start of the assessment period until the assessment has been sent to the principal supervisor and the PhD student.

Composition of the assessment committee

The assessment committee consists of three members:

A chairperson, who must be employed by the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences as an associate professor, senior researcher, professor, clinical associate professor or clinical professor
A representative from a Danish research institution (must not be employed at the University of Copenhagen)
A representative from a research institution abroad, representing international research.

At least one of the two external members must be employed in the relevant subject area at a university.

Preferably, the members of the committee should represent both genders

Rules applicable to all members of the committee

All members must be at an academic level corresponding to associate professor or higher in the relevant subject area. If an assessor does not have the title "professor" or "associate professor", the CV of the relevant assessor must be submitted in the form "Nominating an assessment committee"
None of the suggested members must have published articles together with the PhD student nor worked on manuscripts together
None of the PhD student’s supervisors can be members of the assessment committee.

Please consider if any of the suggested members could be disqualified of any reason; personal, financial or other reasons.

Assessment committee for industrial PhDs

If you are a PhD fellowships financed through the Industrial PhD scheme; at least one of the members of the assessment committee must have company-relevant research experience within the relevant field.

The work of the assessment committee

The assessment committee for a PhD student consists of three members. The principal supervisor of the PhD student is responsible for nominating the members of the assessment committe.

Assessment of thesis

The assessment committee has two months to reach a conclusion on whether the PhD thesis can be recommended for public defence
The principal supervisor must be available for questions during the assessment committee’s work
The PhD student is not permitted to have any contact with the assessment committee from the start of the assessment process until the assessment has been sent to the principal supervisor and the PhD student
The principal supervisor must read and if relevant comment on the assessment before it is sent to the Graduate School
The chairperson signs the assessment on behalf of the assessment committee and submits the assessment by email to the Graduate School. The assessment must be submitted no later than three weeks prior to the expected defence. Otherwise it might delay the further planning of the defence.
The Graduate School will send the assessment to the PhD student and the principal supervisor.
If the thesis is not recommended for defence, the Graduate School will facilitate the next step in the process.

After the thesis has been recommended for defence

The members of the assessment committee must be present during the PhD defence and ask questions to initiate an academic discussion with the PhD student
After the defence the assessment committee makes the final recommendation as to whether the PhD student should be awarded the PhD degree. All three members must sign the signature form and the chairperson submits the form to the Graduate School.