DECISIONS FROM THE COMMITTEE

The Committee's assessment can lead to three possible recommendations: thesis approved for public defence, rejection and revisions required .

Approved for public defence when the thesis...

  • is considered as an independent and comprehensive scientific work of international standard, where the doctoral candidate satisfies the minimum requirements for research competence (ref. Level requirements).
  • may have weaknesses, but these weaknesses are of such a nature that they can be defended in an oral defence, without being corrected in the evaluated thesis.

 

aurora borealis

 

 

Rejection when the thesis...

  • is not considered worthy of a public defence
  • needs fundamental changes to theory, hypotheses, empirical material, methods and/or analysis before it can be recommended for public defence

 

silhouette photo of person holding flashlight under milk way

 

 

Revisions required when the thesis...

  • is considered to have substantial flaws that render it not suitable for public defence in its present form.
  •  may reach a satisfactory standard if the candidate revises the thesis in accordance with the committee’s specific proposals for amendments.
  • is likely to reach a satisfactory level within a three-month period.

Note that it is important to distinguish the scheme with revisions required from the minor revision scheme that applies to journals, so-called revise and resubmit. The threshold for which theses are approved for public defence should not be changed. The scheme is thus intended to concern a small group of theses that would have been rejected with the old system.

 

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SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION

PhD Regulations (UiB level) Programme description (faculty level) Guidelines for evaluation (faculty level)

Part IV. Completion, Section 13. Resubmission for a new assessment Links to an external site. 

Part IV. Completion, Section 11-4. Minor reworking and rejection of the submitted thesis Links to an external site. 

Completion, Assessment committee Part 1: The evaluation committee's assessment fot the thesis. The Committee's recommendation