Doctoral degree programmes (PhD)

Completion of your PhD

Completion of your PhD

When your thesis is ready for submission and the training component has been completed, you must submit an application requesting assessment of your thesis for the PhD degree. The application must be presented to the doctoral committee at the faculty/centre and submitted to the person with administrative responsibility for the PhD programme.

  1. Submission

    To avoid delays, it is important that the committee has been established by the submission date. The committee should be planned at an early stage and at least be under way a couple of months before the submission date. Formal requirements relating to the committee are regulated by Section 6-3 of the PhD Regulations, and the committee must be approved by the doctoral committee at the faculty/centre. The supervisor is responsible for proposing members for the committee in consultation with the PhD candidate. The impartiality requirements stated in the Public Administration Act Section 6 apply to committee members.

    The application for assessment of the thesis for the PhD degree must contain:

    • Information about where and when the work was carried out
    • The name of the principal supervisor and, if relevant, co-supervisor
    • Whether the work is being submitted for the first time and confirmation that the PhD work has not been submitted to another institution
    • For article-based theses, you must describe the status of the articles in brief: where and when they were published, accepted for publication, submitted etc.

    Enclosures to the application

    • Enclose a copy of the statement approving the training component
    • If you have co-authors on one or more of your articles, enclose a co-authorship declaration for these
    • Enclose a declaration that all necessary approvals and licenses have been obtained, and copies of necessary approvals, if applicable.
  2. The thesis

    When you send the application for assessment of your thesis, you must also send the thesis as an attachment to an email to the person with administrative responsibility for the PhD programme at your faculty/centre. A file must also be attached with an abstract of the thesis in Norwegian and English. The scientific abstract should not exceed 800 words. For some PhD programmes, the abstract is also used when preparing a press release in connection with the public defence.

    You will likely also want to include a preface. You can work on this when the thesis is under assessment. The preface will be included in the final print after approval.

    The person with administrative responsibility will forward the file for editing and printing to the person responsible for publications at the University Library. You will find more information about printing and publishing the thesis here. It is important that you are available to approve the editing before the thesis is sent for printing. The first print run which is sent to the assessment committee is five (5) copies, one of which you will keep.

    OsloMet has a special template and layout for printing the thesis that takes the fact that it will be downscaled into account.

  3. Assessment

    After you have submitted your application for conferral of a doctoral degree, the faculty/centre will check that you meet the conditions for your thesis to be assessed. If you do, the faculty/centre will send the thesis on to the doctoral committee for evaluation. On the basis of Section 6-3 of the Regulations relating to the Degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, members of the assessment committee will be proposed at the same time. The doctoral committee will formally appoint the assessment committee.

    One of the members of the committee is appointed chair to ensure good progress. The chair is normally an academic member of staff at the faculty/centre and must ensure that the work is quickly set in motion and that the time frame for the committee’s work is complied with. The chair also ensures that a date is quickly set for the public defence. We recommend that the public defence is scheduled on working days. As a rule, the progress schedule entails that a PhD recommendation should be ready within three months of the committee receiving the thesis.

    You will receive notification as soon as the assessment committee sets a date for the public defence. The committee’s recommendation will normally be available five to six weeks before the planned date of the public defence.

    Please also read the Guidelines for Assessing the PhD Degree at OsloMet. Note in particular chapter 5, which describes potential assessment outcomes.

    Guidelines for Assessing the Degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University

    Once a recommendation has been made, you have up to 10 working days to submit written comments to the recommendation. If you do not wish to submit written comments, please give notice of this as quickly as possible. If the recommendation is positive and unanimous, there will rarely be cause to submit comments.

  4. Errata list

    You can apply to make minor corrections of a formal nature (layout, print errors, deletions etc.) before more examples of the thesis are printed, but no changes of a substantial nature. To correct formal errors, you must submit a complete list of the errors (errata) that you wish to correct to the faculty/centre to which the thesis was submitted. The application must have been received no later than four weeks before the expected recommendation from the committee has been finalised. The errata list must be approved by the faculty/centre before the errors can be corrected. Corrections can only be made once. The errata list will be included in the final print of the thesis.

  5. Final printing of the thesis

    The final printing of the thesis with a preface and, if applicable, an errata list will be conducted when the recommendation has been finalised and the faculty/centre has made the formal approval. It is also important that you are available at this time to approve the final version of your thesis before it is printed.

    A minimum of 25 copies of thesis will be printed. The faculty decides whether more copies should be printed. The PhD candidate will receive a few copies, the faculty/center will keep some and the rest will be reserved for handing out at the public defence.

    You can find more information about publication of the thesis after the public defence and publication rights here: Publishing PhD theses

  6. Trial lecture and public defence of the thesis

    The trial lecture and public defence of the thesis are normally held on the same day, and at OsloMets premises. Exceptions from the general rule must be justified. The public defence chair will normally be the dean or vice dean/head of centre.

    Trial lecture

    The assessment committee will specify the topic for the trial lecture, and you will be informed of the topic ten (10) working days beforehand by the faculty/centre.

    The public defence chair will also chair the trial lecture.

    The trial lecture itself should take 45 minutes. The purpose is to allow you to document your ability to impart research-based knowledge. The lecture should be structured in such a way that it can be followed by an audience with prior knowledge equivalent to what could be expected of advanced students of the subject area. When assessing the trial lecture, emphasis should be placed on both academic content and the candidate's ability to impart knowledge.

    The committee's assessment of the trial lecture is announced prior to the public defence.

    Public defence

    The defence chair will be responsible for ensuring that the allotted time is effectively used in terms of conducting the different parts of the proceedings within the given time frame.

    The two opponents will decide how their tasks should be delegated. The maximum time allotted for the public defence, including a fifteen-minute interval between the two opponents, should be three hours. The second opponent normally uses less time than the first opponent.

    The candidate or the first opponent will initially describe the results of the scientific thesis and place the thesis in a greater academic perspective. Practice varies somewhat between the PhD programmes in this context, so check the practice that applies to your programme.

    The first opponent then begins the opposition and raises specific points of discussion or objection in the thesis to which you are expected to respond. The public defence should be an academic discussion between the opponents and you on the formulation of research questions, methodology, empirical and theoretical bases, documentation, and form of presentation. Particular emphasis is placed on testing the validity of the main conclusions of your thesis.

    The questions the opponents choose to pursue are not necessarily limited to those mentioned in the committee’s recommendation. The opponents should seek to give the discussion a form that allows those unfamiliar with the content of the thesis or the subject area to follow the discussion.

    The defence chair may invite other people present at the defence to take part in the discussion ex auditorio once the ordinary opponents have concluded their opposition. The defence chair will conclude the public defence and declare the public defence closed. The committee’s evaluation of the public defence will be given as a separate report form.

  7. Roles and tasks related to the completion of digital dissertations at OsloMet

    OsloMet has created an overview of roles and tasks related to the implementation of digital dissertations at OsloMet. This is a supplement to the guidelines for conducting digital dissertations. The roles and tasks of key participants and support personnel are described here. It is emphasized that local adaptations are possible.

    Roles and tasks related to the completion of digital dissertations at OsloMet.

  8. Doctoral dinner

    If you would like to end your public defence day with a doctoral dinner, the following tips may be of use.

    Who should be invited to the dinner and what are their roles?
    The doctoral dinner is your event. It is up to you to invite the defence chair, members of the committee and supervisor to the dinner. It is also natural to invite colleagues and people who have helped you with work on the thesis.

    As regards table placements, you are relatively free to choose, but you should ensure that you and your partner, the members of the assessment committee, the defence chair and the principal supervisor are given central positions at the table.

    Speeches

    The defence chair, the third member of the assessment committee and the supervisor will normally give speeches. The toastmaster must be notified that the defence chair is the first to give a speech during the doctoral dinner. It is also a tradition that you give a speech and thank the university, the committee, the research environment, your family etc.

    Can the costs of the dinner be covered?

    You must cover all costs relating to the doctoral dinner yourself. The Norwegian Tax administration has removed the possibility for deducting a certain amount on your tax return for the doctoral dinner. See the Norwegian Tax Administration’s website on deductions.

  9. PhD conferral

    PhD conferral is the highest formal approval of your PhD work and when you are conferred (awarded) the degree of Philosophiae Doctor.

    The PhD conferral ceremony is a formal ceremony for everyone who has attained a PhD after completing their researcher education at OsloMet. The ceremony is arranged once a year, preferably in the spring at the beginning of June.

    The rector leads the ceremony and a main speech is given to the new doctors. He/she will give a short presentation of your thesis and you will receive your PhD diploma. 


    The university will send you an invitation to the PhD conferral ceremony and you are welcome to invite your closest family and friends to the event.

     

    If you cannot attend, your diploma will be sent to your private address after the conferral ceremony.  

  10. Diploma

    A digital diploma will be available for you in the Diploma Registry and Studentweb. Students who lack the national ID-number will be sent printed diplomas to their semester address registered in Studentweb. This rule will apply until the Diploma Registry has implemented a login policy for the persons without Norwegian national identity number.

    For further information: Diploma - Student - minside (oslomet.no)

Useful links

Useful links