The Dissertation Committee's decision

Within a week after their meeting, the Dissertation Committee will send you and your supervisors an e-mail notification of the decision, which can be that your application has been either approved, postponed pending complementary material or clarifications, or has been rejected.

Approved application

Once the Dissertation Committee has approved an application for public defence or licentiate seminar, the doctoral student, supervisor and Examination Board are notified of the decision. The decision includes that the Examination Board have been appointed and the date and venue for the defence/licentiate seminar have been set, and that the opponent has been appointed (not applicable for licentiate seminar).

Deferred application

About one in four applications are deferred by the Dissertation Committee in order to clarify certain queries. Once the administrative officer of the Dissertation Committee has received the required additions/clarifications, the chairperson will make a new decision. In this case, your application does not need to be discussed at a new meeting.

Rejected application

Applications are almost always rejected due to unreported joint publications between your supervisor and a member of the Examination Board or opponent which is less then five years old. If an application is rejected, a new complete application has to be submitted, which causes a significant delay. To avoid this eventuality, make sure you search for co-authored publications (e.g. in PubMed) before submitting your application. Remember that all the scientific papers from the past five years must also be reported if your application is to be considered for approval.