Adjudication of the thesis (PhD Programme in Social Sciences)

The evaluation committee’s mandate is to assess the thesis and issue a written reasoned recommendation to the Faculty whether they find the thesis worthy of being defended for the doctoral degree at the University of Stavanger.

Publisert: 18. Oct 2020 Endret: 01. Oct 2021

Adjudication of the thesis

If the thesis is worthy of being defended in a public defence, the committee must evaluate and approve the trial lecture and the public defence before the doctoral candidate is awarded the PhD degree.

When and how is the adjudication committee appointed?

The unit confirms that the thesis has been received
Proposals regarding the adjudication committee will be sent to you when available
You have a deadline of one week to put forward any comments on the composition of the committee

The proposal shall be approved by the faculty before the appointment letter is sent to the committee members and copied to you. This process normally takes approximately one week. If it takes longer, you will be notified accordingly.

How long does the adjudication take?

The committee's report shall be available within 3 months from receipt of the thesis by the committee.
The committee must never be contacted directly by the candidate

When the committee’s report is available it will be sent to you. You have the opportunity to put forward comments before the report is sent to the faculty. The deadline for comments is 10 working days.

What if the report is positive?

If the committee finds that the thesis is worthy of public defence in a disputation, they will submit a positive report. The faculty will approve the report before it is finally decided that a trial lecture and thesis defence will be held. As soon as you receive confirmation that a trial lecture and thesis defence will be held, you must start your preparations, including printing of the thesis and submission of a list of errata, if relevant.

What if it is recommended that the thesis be revised?

The adjudication committee may recommend that the thesis be revised before it can be defended in a disputation. The committee will only put forward this recommendation if they believe it is realistic that a revision within a maximum period of six months will be sufficient for the thesis to be approved. It is the faculty which approves the committee’s recommendation and sets the final deadline for the resubmission.

A recommendation to revise may only be given on the first submission of the doctoral thesis. If after the revision the committee finds that the thesis fails to satisfy the quality requirements, the thesis will not be approved.

If the deadline for submission of a revised thesis is not met, the committee’s recommendation will function as a report to the faculty. In practice this means that the thesis is rejected, and you will not be able to submit the thesis for the second and final time until after a period of six months.

What if the report is unanimously negative?

If the committee finds that the thesis should be rejected, or is divided in its opinion of whether the thesis is worthy of public defence in a disputation, you have a two-week time limit to put forward comments from the time you receive the report.

If the adjudication committee’s report is split or negative, it should first be sent to you and you will be given a time limit of 10 working days to put forward any comments on the report. No formal decision has been made, therefore any comments should not be formulated as an appeal.

The report and any comments are sent to the faculty.

If the faculty aligns itself with the report that the thesis is not worthy of defence in a disputation (rejected), you will receive a letter notifying you of the decision. In the letter you will be given a time limit of three weeks to appeal the decision.

A thesis that is rejected may be resubmitted in revised form no earlier than six months following the decision to reject. You may only resubmit your thesis once.