Conditions relating to the dissertation, submission and graduation are described in § 10-20 of the PhD regulations of UiA, and in the supplementary regulations of each faculty. Both regulations are found here.
In addition to the general procedures described below, some faculties/programmes have detailed instructions for their PhD candidates in the final phase of the doctoral training. Please consult your faculty’s PhD coordinator for more information.
Submission
The PhD degree is awarded based on:
- approved completion of the organised training component, possibly other approved training or qualifications
- approved trial lecture
- approved dissertation and a satisfactory disputation
Application form for evaluation of the dissertation must be submitted to the relevant faculty. In addition, the application must be accompanied by documentary evidence of completed coursework component, and co-author declarations if relevant.
All doctoral dissertations at UiA must follow certain standards for layout. Instructions and templates for the first pages of the dissertation are available on the Library´s website.
Evaluation of the dissertation
The faculty appoints an evaluation committee of at least three members, on the basis of proposals from the relevant department. The committee evaluates the dissertation, the trial lecture and the defence of the dissertation. The PhD candidate must be informed of the composition of the evaluation committee.
The evaluation committee submits a report, normally no later than three months after receipt of the dissertation. The report must justify the conclusions and state whether the work is worthy to be defended for the doctoral degree or not.
If a doctoral dissertation is rejected, it can be evaluated in revised form. Evaluation of a revised dissertation can only be done once.
Publishing of the dissertation
The dissertation is published after the evaluation committee has approved it for disputation. Dissertations are published in the publication series “Doctoral Dissertations at the University of Agder”.
The dissertation must be printed and available to the public at the latest two weeks prior to the disputation. The dissertation must be registered in Cristin and in Agder University Research Archive AURA. If possible, the dissertation should be deposited in AURA early enough to be available online by the time of the disputation.
If the candidate is the only author of the PhD thesis, then he/she holds the sole intellectual property rights to the work. Papers or other contributions written by more than one person where it is impossible to ascertain the individual contributions will be deemed co-authored. For such papers, the co-authors jointly hold the intellectual property rights to the work.
Those parts of the PhD thesis to which the candidate holds the sole intellectual property rights, as well as other academic products resulting from work on the thesis and to which the candidate holds the sole intellectual property rights, may be used and developed free of charge in the university’s teaching and research activities. This also applies to making copies (on paper and/or digitally) free of compensation. In any case of such use, the candidate is to be notified in advance, and the candidate’s name placed on each copy in accordance with legal stipulations and good practice.
Dissemination of information concerning new PhD candidates
Responsibilities of the faculty
Each faculty is responsible for providing its PhD candidates with information about the procedures for the publication of PhD dissertations.
The faculty is responsible for announcing the disputation. A press release and photo must be available prior to the publication of the dissertation.
Responsibilities of the PhD candidate
The PhD candidate must, well in advance of, and no later than four weeks prior to the disputation, submit to the faculty a proposal for a press release drawn up in accordance with a template forwarded by the faculty to the PhD candidate.
Trial lecture
Once the dissertation has been found worthy of defence, the doctoral degree programme will be concluded with a public trial lecture and a disputation. The trial lecture must be on a prescribed topic. The evaluation committee decides the topic of the trial lecture and it is announced to the PhD candidate 10 working days prior to the date of the lecture. Both the lecture and the disputation are normally held on the same day, and in the same language as the dissertation is written.
Disputation
When the trial lecture has been found to be satisfactory, the PhD candidate must defend his or her dissertation at a disputation. The disputation must be in public.
Creation and certificate
Based on the report from the evaluation committee and the faculty that the trial lecture and the defence have been approved, the candidate will be created Philosophiae Doctor by the University Board.