Examination of doctoral courses

Guidelines for course examiner

According to the Higher Education Ordinance, the university shall appoint an examiner to set grades upon completion of a course. As the course director, you are responsible for contacting your head of department / department management to inform about your planned course and provide a basis for decision regarding an examiner.

At KI the following applies for examiners:

• The head of the course responsible department is delegated the right to appoint examiners for doctoral courses. The head can, if he/she wishes, delegate this right of decision to someone else.
• Examiners of doctoral courses must have a doctoral degree
• Examiners of doctoral courses must be employed at KI (see below about affiliated persons)
• There must be a written decision on appointed examiners
• One examiner per course

The department's written decision on appointed examiners

It is advisable to appoint an examiner for each specific course and for a limited time. The written decision about the examiner can, for example, consist of a list of all the department's courses during the current semester, with the examiner's name stated for each course. This list, or other collection of decisions, must be available to the department's Ladok administrator for doctoral courses so that Ladok authorisation can be assigned.

The appointed examiner may in some cases belong to a department other than the one responsible for the course.

Additional teachers on a course can, by delegation, be responsible for formulating or marking examination assignments or for assessing students in oral or written examination, either partially or on the whole course. The assessing teachers are liable to hand over the documentation of assessment to the examiner who is responsible for setting the grade.

Affiliated and the role as examiner

An affiliated person cannot exercise authority on behalf of KI. In the event that an affiliated person is appointed as an examiner on a course, he/she shall be employed as an adjunct teacher/adjunct during the time period of the course, i.e. the same period for which the examiner is appointed.

The examiner's role in Ladok

Since a new version of  Ladok was launched in 2017 the examination is done directly in the system by the appointed examiner. 

New examiners must participate in an online course, see Ladok e-learning course for teachers and examiners. After completing the training, authorisation is granted in Ladok as an examiner for the specified department.

Authorisation to examine on a particular course is granted by the department's study administrator. It is the department's responsibility to ensure that written and updated decisions on appointed examiners exist.

See also Reporting and signing results in Ladok - doctoral courses.

Examination

The course syllabus shows how a doctoral course is going to be examined. It is important that intended learning outcomes, learning activities and examination are related and coherent. The examination must contain a summative (and when appropriate also a formative) assessment of each course participant.