Examination board and opponent

Composition of the examination board  

At least one member of the Examination Board is to belong to a university other than KI and have no current affiliation with KI. The coordinator must not belong to the same department as the doctoral student, the principal supervisor or any of the co-supervisors. One member may belong the student’s own department or the principal supervisor. At least one member shall come from another university than the doctoral student principal supervisor and co-supervisors. If possible, at least one member should have sat on the board during the half-time review. 

All members are to be docents or professors, although in exceptional cases, the Dissertation Committee may approve a proposed member who holds neither position. To apply for an exemption, a letter explaining as to why the proposed member possesses such a unique scientific subject competence that it is not possible to find another unbiased docent or professor. Additionally, a CV and a list of publications for the proposed member must be attached to the application. 

The opponent needs to be a researcher who must hold a doctoral degree (PhD), possess expert knowledge of the thesis’ area and be without conflict of interest with respect to you, your supervisors, or the project. Your opponent doesn’t need to hold a docentship. A highly qualified professor may be considered although he/she does not hold a doctoral degree, in which case this person’s CV (including list of publications) is to be appended to your application.  

Note that only one proposal for an Examination Board member and opponent is to be submitted. The Dissertation Committee can decide on the replacement of one or more of its members. 

The doctoral student is responsible for sending the following document to the opponent and to the chair of the dissertation (the members of the Examination Board will receive the information directly from the Dissertation Committee): 

Preliminary review by the Examination Board 

When the Dissertation Committee has approved your defence application, you are to send a copy of the application (pages D1-D6), a copy of the transcript from your half-time/licentiate seminar and all constituent papers in full to the Examination Board. 

You are also to send a completed form 10 to the Examination Board coordinator. The Dissertation Committee administrator notifies the Examination Board that the application has been approved and instructions for how to proceed. 

The Examination Board then has two weeks to judge whether the constituent papers are of a scientific standard expected of an internationally pre-eminent university and of a scope corresponding to four years of full-time doctoral education. 

When the Examination Board has finished its review, the coordinator sends a signed form 10 to the Dissertation Committee administrator, who sends a copy of the form and further instructions to you and your supervisor(s). 

If no notification has been sent by the Dissertation Committee administrator by two and a half weeks after the submission of the constituent papers to the Examination Board, contact the administrator, who will contact the Examination Board. Any direct communication between you/your supervisor(s) and the Examination Board during the preliminary review would be considered inappropriate. 

The Examination Board is to conduct its preliminary review during semester time unless otherwise arranged before the application was submitted.