A number of things need to be prepared before you can publicly defend your thesis. Below you will find a summary of the information in the established rules for licentiate seminar and public defence of a doctoral thesis.

LICENTIATE SEMINAR

The licentiate thesis should be presented and discussed at a public licentiate seminar. The licentiate thesis is reviewed by an external reviewer and approved by your Examiner.

Notification of licentiate seminar

In order to set a time for the licentiate seminar your supervisor should contact the research administrators in order to check that the proposed time for the seminar doesn’t conflict with another seminar or public defence.

The licentiate seminar should be notified in writing by sending in the notification form to Registrator at the latest four weeks before the established date.

The information about the time and place of your licentiate seminar will be made public through information on the University’s web sites (www.bth.se). You may also be contacted by the Communications Office for a press release on your thesis.

External reviewer

Your Examiner should appoint an external reviewer to review your thesis and lead the discussion at your licentiate seminar. The external reviewer should have a deep knowledge about your subject and have no conflict of interest towards you or your supervisors.

Printing and publication

Note!  The licentiate thesis must be publicly available in electronic form (pdf-document) and in printed form at least three weeks before the licentiate seminar. Printing should be planned in good time!

The licentiate thesis is part of Blekinge Institute of Technology licentiate dissertation series and published online and in print by the University Library. For information on the process of printing and publishing see the Library’s web site on this. Contact the Library in good time to ensure that everything is available in time!

DOCTORAL DEFENCE

The doctoral thesis should be presented and defended at a public defence. The doctoral thesis is reviewed by an external opponent and approved by an external Examination committee.

Request to defend thesis

In order to set a time for the public defence your supervisor should contact the research administrators in order to check that the proposed time for the defence doesn’t conflict with another public defence or seminar.

The public defence should be notified in writing by sending in the request form to Registrator at the latest two months before the established date.

The time and place of the defence as well as the opponent, Examination committee and Chairman of the defence is established by the Dean of your Faculty at the latest six weeks before the proposed date.

Opponent and Examination committee

The Dean at your Faculty will designate an Opponent and members of the Examination committee based on the request by your supervisors. The Opponent should be an aknowledged expert within your field of study and a majority of the members of the Examination committee should at least have qualification required for appointment as a docent.

For the appointment of both Opponent and members of the Examination committee it is important to have a gender balance and that there are no conflict of interest towards you or your supervisors.

Public notification (“Spikning”)

When the time and place of your public defence has been established a public notification of your thesis should be made, the process of “spikning” of your thesis.

The process of “spikning” traditionally involves nailing your published thesis to a board at your Department. This is accompanied by the e-publication of the thesis in full-text in the University Library digital archive DiVA.

The digital link to the thesis in full-text is used when information about your public defence is made public on the University’s web sites (www.bth.se). Accordingly, you must prepare the digital registration/publication well before and at the latest three weeks before your public defence.

The information about the time and place of your doctoral defence will be made public through information on the University’s web sites (www.bth.se). You will also be contacted by the Communications Office for a press release on your thesis.

Printing and publication

Note!  The doctoral thesis must be publicly available in electronic form (pdf-document)  and in printed form at least three weeks before the public defence. Printing should be planned in good time!

The doctoral thesis is part of Blekinge Institute of Technology doctoral dissertation series and published online and in print by the University Library. For information on the process of printing and publishing see the Library’s web site on this. Contact the Library in good time to ensure that everything is available in time!