Physical PhD defence
At a physical defence members of the assessment committee, the PhD student, usually supervisors and other attendees are physically present. The PhD student presents the PhD project to the audience, e.g. using a power point presentation, followed by questions from the committee and the audience.
All PhD students must submit information regarding PhD defence and diploma in PhD Planner no later than three weeks before the defence.
What to do?
- When you receive information from the Graduate School that your thesis is accepted for defence, we will open the task "Awaiting information regarding defence and diploma" in PhD Planner
Things you need to do before you submit the information:
- Obtain detailed information regarding the venue of the defence, ie., room, building, street and house number, postal code and city
- Obtain the date and the exact start time of the defence
- Clarify whether one of the two external members of the assessment committee will attend the defence online
Submit the information:
- Log in to PhD Planner with your UCPH user account and password
- Find the open task under "My tasks"
- Click on "send to administration" and fill in:
- Information regarding the diploma
- Basic information regarding the defence
- Detailed information regarding the physical defence (all fields included)
- Submit
Since the PhD defense must be publicly available and the candidate is a student at the University of Copenhagen, the defense must be held either at the faculties of the university or facilities under the auspices of the University of Copenhagen.
This can be within the Capital Region / Region Zealand at a university hospital affiliated with the University of Copenhagen or at a research unit where the University of Copenhagen has scientific staff employed. Therefore, the Graduate School cannot allow a fully physical defense to be held outside the university’s auspices.
Exceptions to the rule can be made for industrial PhDs.
If one of the external members of the assessment committee (not the Chairperson) cannot participate physically in the defence they can participate via a digital platform. The defence will still be held as a physical defence with the main focus being on the physical audience.
It is the responsibility of the principal supervisor that the member of the assessment committee, who is not physically present, can follow the defence digitally, including sound, picture and power point presentation and is able to ask questions to the PhD student/author. It is a good idea to email the power point presentation to the assessor in advance.
If both external members of the assessment committee cannot participate physically in the defence, the defence must be held as a digital or a hybrid defence.
Chairperson
Usually, the chair of the assessment committee moderates the defence. In certain situations, a substitute can be appointed. The substitute moderator must be appointed by the Head of Graduate School and must be a permanently employed member of the academic staff at SUND with insight into the area covered by the PhD thesis, e.g. an academic staff member from the department, the head of the graduate programme or the head of department. The chairperson’s task is to welcome the participants, keep the time, make sure that all committee members and other participants can ask questions to the PhD student and finally to conclude the defence by sharing the committee’s recommendation.
Principal supervisor
Principal supervisors have no formal role during the oral defence but it is their responsibility to arrange the defence. This includes booking the venue for the defence (it does not need to be at UCPH) and, if necessary, help the assessors make travel arrangements. However, this is in principle the assessors' own obligation.
If an assessor participates via a digital platform, it is the responsibility of the principal supervisor that the assessor, who is not physically present, can follow the defence digitally, including sound, picture and power point presentation and is able to ask questions to the PhD student/author. It is a good idea to email the power point presentation to the assessor in advance. The principal supervisor is also responsible for arranging any IT support, if relevant.