Thesis assessment
The PhD thesis must be assessed by a committee of three experts within the relevant research field. The committee must submit a preliminary opinion on whether the thesis is qualified for defence.
Preliminary assessment
The assessment committee must determine whether the thesis is qualified for defence. If the thesis is considered qualified, it means that the PhD student may defend it as is. The assessment committee a approve a thesis for defence and at the same time make this approval conditional. If the committee consider their conditions for approval to be decisive, they must send the thesis back for changes to the thesis.
If the assessment committee demands changes, the preliminary recommendation must be negative. HR/PhD forwards the forms necessary for the preliminary assessment to the members of the assessment committee.
When the preliminary assessment is ready, it must be sent to the staff in HR/PhD who will upload it in DTU DOCX. It must be sent no later than two weeks before the defence. HR/PhD will forward a copy of the preliminary recommendation to the PhD student.
If the assessment committee finds:
- that the thesis is qualified, the defence can take place; and
- that the thesis is not qualified, the recommendation must also include a unanimous or majority recommendation that will form the basis for the decision of the head of the PhD school as to whether the thesis may be submitted again in a revised form and within which time limit. The PhD student and the principal advisor shall be given the opportunity to comment on the recommendation of the assessment committee within two weeks.
In special cases it is possible to recommend to the Dean that the thesis be assessed by a new assessment committee.
HR/PhD will inform the PhD student of the decision as soon as possible, and the thesis must be returned to the PhD student.
Recommendations by the assessment committee
The forms which the assessment committee must complete in connection with the preliminary and final recommendations, are sent to the assessment committee together with the thesis.
(Cf. Section 18(2) and Section 19(2) of the PhD Order)
- The thesis is submitted to the department.
- The assessment committee submits a positive preliminary recommendation.
- The thesis must be available to the public no later than two weeks before the defence.
- The PhD student defends his/her thesis. If the preliminary recommendation contained suggestions for minor changes, the PhD student will be given a chance to address these during the defence.
- It is the responsibility of the chair of the assessment committee to ensure that the assessment committee does not request changes to the thesis after the defence.
- After the defence, HR/PhD sends the thesis and a possible corrections sheet to the Orbit team.
- The PhD student has copyright to the thesis.
Copyright to articles, illustrations, pictures and graphs
It is the responsibility of the PhD student to ensure that he/she has not transferred copyright. It is also the responsibility of the PhD student to ensure that he/she has been granted the right to use other material than his/her own.
When a PhD thesis consists of articles, figures, pictures, graphs etc. which have been published in journals, it is important that the PhD student has obtained the right to use these. This can either be done by choosing to publish in an Open Access journal – if available within ones research area. Alternatively you can upon submission of the article, inform the publisher that it will later on be submitted as part of a PhD thesis and as a consequence it must be also be published in DTU Orbit.
You can read more about Open Access at the homepage of DTU Library, or you can contact DTU Library where they are happy to help look into the publishers’ copyright and publishing policies.
(Cf. Section 18(3) and (4) of the PhD Order)
- The thesis is submitted to the department.
- The assessment committee submits a negative preliminary recommendation.
If the assessment committee requests that the PhD student make significant changes such as adding references, changing the structure, rewriting paragraphs or similar, the recommendation must be negative. - The PhD student and principal supervisor are to be given a deadline of at least two weeks to comment on the recommendation.
- Based on the negative recommendation and any comments from the PhD student and principal supervisor, the head of the PhD school decides whether:
I. the defence cannot take place
II. the thesis may be submitted again in a revised form within a deadline of at least three months (and be assessed by the previous assessment committee)
III. it should be recommended to the Dean that the thesis should be assessed by a new assessment committee
- HR/PhD sends a copy of the recommendation to the PhD student with information on whether the thesis should be revised and submitted again and in that case when.
If the head of the PhD schools decides that the thesis cannot be submitted for defence, the PhD student's enrollment at DTU ceases.
Assessment committee
The principal advisor is to send the proposal for the appointment to the department's PhD coordinator who will upload it in DTU DOCX.
The proposal for examiners must contain information which enables the PhD committee to assess whether there is a reasonable correlation between the subject of the thesis and the professional background of the examiners. Such information (in CV form) must be up to date and include academic qualifications, employer and other relevant information about the qualifications of the proposed examiners, along with an outline of relevant publications.
The PhD committee reviews the composition of assessment committees and makes its recommendation to the head of the PhD school.
Staff in DTU Corporate HR will send the thesis to the approved members of the assessment committee. The PhD school will communicate directly with the external assessment committee members in regard to reimbursement for travel expenses and payment of examiner's fee.