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Public defence at Aalto University
During the public examination of the doctoral thesis, or the defence, the doctoral student defends the results of their doctoral thesis against public criticism and answers questions presented by the opponent, who has been appointed to evaluate the thesis. The course of the public defense is supervised by a custos, who usually is the supervising professor of the doctoral student. The public defence is also a ceremonial occasion that follows the academic traditions of each field.
On this page you can find Aalto University's instructions for arranging public defences.
On this page you can find Aalto University's instructions for arranging public defences.
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Date and time of the defence
The doctoral student agrees the date of the defence with the opponent and the custos. The date and time of the defence are then confirmed by the Doctoral programme committee of the School. This can happen in the same meeting where the permission for defence is granted or later, depending on the School.
Customarily the defence begins at 12 noon sharp and takes approximately 2 hours. The audience must enter the hall by 12 noon, but the repondent, opponent and custos enter at 12:15 sharp.
Place of the defence
The public defence can take place
- at the premises of Aalto University
- remotely over an interactive online platform such as Zoom or Teams
- in hybrid form (both on campus & interactively online)
In case the defence is arranged remotely or in hybrid form, participation from all channels must be interactive (is must be possible for the participants to ask questions at the alloted time).
Language of the defence
Language of the public defence confirmed by the Doctoral Programme Committee and is customarily Finnish, Swedish or English, depending on the language of the thesis and the languages spoken by the doctoral student and the opponent.
Doctoral student generally gives the Lectio Praecursoria (max. 20 minutes) in the language of the public defence.
Defence arrangements and practicalities
The practical arrangements of the defence are the responsibility of the doctoral student. Some departments offer help with the arrangements.
Venue and invitations
- Make sure that a lecture hall for the defence and a space for preparation before the defence is booked (usually the booking is made for 10:00-16:00, to reserve time for preparations). Ask help from your department or supervising professor.
- In advance, check that the technical details of your presentation work in the hall - if you need help, contact the lobby services of the building. You can also make a service request for IT or AV assistance at [email protected] (several days in advance).
- Agree in advance with the custos how to proceed if there are any technical problems during the defence. It is recommended to have at hand an appointed person for fetching help, if needed.
- You can invite personal guests to the public defence, such as persons related to the field, pre-examiners, advisors, family etc.
- The School takes care of publishing the public defence announcement at aalto.fi.
- Venue signs: Depending on the building, you can either send an A4-sized notice of the defence (Defence of XX XX, date, place) to the lobby services of the building, who will post it outside the hall where the defence will take place, or send the same information to be placed on the video screens of the building (Ekonominaukio 1).
General arrangements
- Check out your School's defence protocol and dress code, links available in the section Schools' protocols for the public defence and post-doctoral party below
- If you wish to offer refreshments for the audience after the defence as is customary, you need to arrange and pay for it. There are cafeterias in most campus buildings which cater for refreshments.
- It is recommended that you arrange for a person to help out with the practical arrangements at the defence, e.g. sorting our any last-minute practical dilemmas, arranging refreshments and giving out audience etiquette (available for ARTS).
- Take care of the Post-doctoral Party ("Karonkka") arrangements
- Contact IT Services several days in advance to agree on IT support for the remote public examination by writing to [email protected].
- Please note that there should be someone from your own team monitoring Zoom during the defence, in addition to custos and yourself. IT services can help mainly before and at the beginning of the defence. You can ask e.g. a student colleague to help.
- Familiarize yourself with Zoom instructions for remote defences and Zoom Quick Guide (Aalto IT Services).
- Submit a Zoom link for your defence to the Doctoral Programme at the latest 15 days prior the public defence.
- Custos is responsible for instructing the participants during the public examination. Custos should inform the participants to keep their microphones on mute and their webcams closed unless they have something to say at the time allocated for comments.
The doctoral student is responsible for arranging and paying for any refreshments they might wish to offer to the audience after the defence. Catering can be ordered from the student restaurant of the building in question.
The department covers the opponent fee and their travelling and accomodation costs, if relevant.
The costs of the Karokka party are the responsibility of the doctoral student.
Schools' protocols for the public defence and post-doctoral party
Each School has also their own specific instructions for the public defence and the post-doctoral party, which are academic events following the traditions of each field. These include e.g. protocol/proceedings of the defence, roles of the opponent and the custos, dress code and traditions related to the "karonkka", ie. post-doctoral party.
Doctoral page index
Index of all aalto.fi pages about doctoral education
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Public defence in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. Nurul Anwar
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Public defence in Micro- and nanosciences, M.Sc. Xiaoqi Cui
The integration of novel materials and platforms unlocks the photon, a quantum of light, for broader engineering and advanced applications.
Public defence in Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, M.Sc. Nils Meyer-Kahlen
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Public defence in Electronics integration and reliability, M.Sc. Ayesha Kousar
Role of interface and different forms of carbon nanostructures in controlling electrochemical neurotransmitter sensing- Published:
- Updated: