Internal examination committee (the ”green light” committee)

• The internal examination committee is comprised of two PhDs from the department, among which one should be professor (the convenor). The two internal examiners should also have participated in the dissertation draft seminar.
• The director of PhD studies appoints the members of the internal examination committee after consulting with the supervisor(s) and the doctoral student.
• When the final product is available, the committee makes an overall judgment of the academic quality of the thesis in order to issue a recommendation as to whether the thesis is ready to be presented at a public defense.
• The supervisors and internal examiners should adhere to a schedule so as to give the internal examiners good advanced warning of when they are expected to perform the internal examination, and to enable them to give their recommendation relatively quickly (usually within 2–3 weeks of receiving the manuscript).
• The two internal examiners should preferably agree on a recommendation.
• If the committee decides that the thesis is not yet ready to be defended, the two internal examiners should provide a written statement specifying what the doctoral student should do in order to get the manuscript ready for a public defense. If the go-ahead (“green light”) is given, no written statement is required.
• If the internal examiners among themselves, or the examiners and supervisor(s), make completely different judgments on the quality of the thesis and, despite all efforts, it proves impossible to reach agreement, the issue shall be referred to the board of supervisors (“handledarkollegiet”).

Grading committee

• As a rule, the two internal examiners also sit on the grading committee at the public defense (“betygsnämnden”), in which case they must be at least associate professors (“docenter”).