Final phase of the dissertation process

• Defence of doctoral thesis | Internal Faculty of Social Sciences
• Checklist-before-and-after-public-defense (pdf, new window)
• Regulations for third cycle education at the Faculty of Social Sciences (pdf, new window)

The below only contains some additional information on department procedures that are not covered in the faculty pages.

Booking and organization of defense

The supervisor and Doctoral student should discuss possible dates for the defense, and then ask the faculty office if the dates are available, following the procedures described in the faculty pages. Note that defenses can only be planned during the official academic semesters. 

After day and time have been approved by the faculty, one needs to book the venue for the defense. Supervisors should turn to Kristina Gröndahl Nilsson for help.

The department's practice is to have five members in the examination committee, two of whom are the green readers. In addition, there is usually one political scientist from another university, one non-political scientist from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Lund, and one person from another faculty in Lund. 

The supervisor shall discuss potential candidates with the Director of doctoral studies and then fill in the form with proposals for the opponent and examining committee. This must then be approved by the Head of department (or deputy head of department responsible for doctoral student issues) and sent to the faculty office for approval by the Dean.

Moreover, ask the research administrator Helen Fogelin to book:

1. travel tickets (and hotel if needed) for both opponent and the committee member from external university,
2. a room for the examination committee’s meeting after the defense, including fruit and water,
3. flowers for the venue, as well as water for the opponent and the Doctoral student,
4. a lunch table at a restaurant for the examination committee, supervisors and opponent.

Doctoral studies defense budget 

Around the time of the manuscript conference, the supervisor should contact the Director of Doctoral studies for the Excel form for the defense budget to begin planning. The supervisor is responsible for making sure that costs stay within budget, keeping the Doctoral student informed.  

After the defense, ask Marie Persson to help with paying the remuneration for the opponent. The opponent receives a remuneration of SEK 12,000 (minus 25% SINK tax for colleagues from non-Nordic countries). The examination committee members receive no remuneration but will be compensated for their travel expenses.

Language review/translation

Supervisors and Doctoral student need to discuss need for language review and possible translations, since the costs for these processes shall be covered by the allotted budget. A professional language review usually takes 2–3 weeks and needs to be planned in advanced. 

It is possible to use AI tools for language review purposes. Check LU’s pages on AI.

Department nailing

Besides the formal mandatory nailing, that the Doctoral student should read about in the faculty pages, we have an informal nailing tradition at the department. The ceremony takes place at the bottom floor, where the Doctoral student nails their thesis to the wall. This is followed by drinks and snacks in the lunchroom. The ceremony normally takes place on a Wednesday, three weeks before the defense.