When the thesis is accepted for defence, the Graduate School must be informed about time, date and place for the preparatory meeting and defence.
Preparatory meeting
Before the defence, a preparatory meeting must be held. This is normally on the same date, 1 to 2 hours before the actual defence. The meeting is primarily for members of the assessment committee. The student is encouraged to participate in the last part of the meeting to meet the assessment committee before the defence. The main supervisor is not formally invited, but can participate if all parties agree. The PhD student and the main supervisor are responsible for arranging this.
Time of the defence
As soon as possible after the submission of your PhD thesis, the PhD student and the main supervisor are responsible for arranging a date for a public defence. The date is preliminary, until the thesis is approved for defence.
The defence is held on weekdays and often begins at 2 pm.
Place of the defence
PhD defences from the Faculty of Health Sciences must take place in one of the SDU campus'. If you are affiliated with the department of Regional Health Research, the defence may also be held in connection with the hospital where you have completed your PhD programme. When advertising the defence at other locations, there must be a clear statement that the defence is held under the auspices of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark.
The main supervisor is responsible for booking the location for the defence and the preparatory meeting room.
If the defence will take place at one of SDU's campuses, rooms can be booked through the booking system, which all university employees have access to.
Other rooms you can book at Campus Odense:
- O100 (book through Bo Christensen)
- The Campus conference section or meeting rooms
- The Seminarium room at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (book through Birgitte Gotthardsen Jacobsen)
- The Auditorium at DIAS (Book through Ane Kristine Coster)
- The Seminar room at DIAS (Book through Resource Finder in Microsoft Outlook)
- Meeting rooms at Campus Kollegiet
- Booking of classrooms is possible after the timetable planning:
- January - May: Booking is possible from late December
- June - August: Booking is possible from the middle of May
- September – December: Booking is possible from late June
Please ensure that the defence room is booked so that it is available at least 30 minutes before the defence to allow time for setting up PC equipment, Powerpoint projector etc.
The Graduate school needs to approve the time and venue for the public defence. Please send an e-mail to phd@health.sdu.dk with information about date, time and place for both the pre-meeting and defence, The Graduate School will then send out the official invitation, information for the assessment committee, speaking paper and more.
The PhD student is responsible for ordering refreshments, bottles of water and floral arrangements for the defence room at the expense of the PhD's department.
You can choose to conduct your defence digitally or physically, or both.
Digital defence and Zoom support
If you plan your defence digitally, we recommend using Zoom and can only give support in Zoom. If you choose to use another system, we cannot help you. EdHub can provide support if the PhD student or at least one member of the assessment committee is attending the defence via Zoom. Further, we can only provide support if the defence is on SDU grounds. If you are at a different location, please contact the local IT department for help.
Zoom support can be booked through our inquiry form here.
If you need help in setting up streaming of your defense and the defense is located at SDU*, please contact SDU ITservice servicedesk@sdu.dk. If the defense is located at another location, please contact their IT department.
*SDU IT can only support defences at Campus Odense, and not Klinikbygningen or Winsløwsparken. If your defence takes place there, you can only get support if the PhD student or at least one member of the assessment committee is attending via Zoom.
Before the defence
Before the defence we can help by creating and setting up the Zoom meeting, booking the necessary equipment etc. We will also arrange a meeting, to talk through the practicalities of the defence. When booking support, please be very clear in explaining, what you need help with. We cannot guarantee availability, but we will do our best to guide you in conducting the defence on your own.
Once the link for the preparatory meeting and defence has been made, please send it to phd@health.sdu.dk. The Graduate School will then send out the official invitations.
During the defence
Right before the defence we can set up camera, microphones and Zoom. During the defence we can be at hand and try to resolve issues during the presentation. We can also help by creating breakout rooms for the assessment committee to vote in at the end.
Signing of the Protocol
After the digital defence session has been completed, the chair of the assessment committee will have to organize the signing of the protocol. The Graduate School accepts scanned and e-mail signatures, the chair of the assessment must send a pdf with all signatures to the Graduate School.
When the PhD thesis has been approved for defence, and a date has been settled, please let the Graduate School know as soon as possible.
The Graduate School will send an official invitation to the assessment committee, the research unit and department, as also send practical information to the assessment committee and the chair.
The invitation will be posted the University's calendar and on the Graduate School's website and Facebook.
Before the defence, please consult the department secretary regarding refreshments and a flower arrangement for the defence.
Prepatory meeting
Before the oral defence, the assessment committee and the PhD student have a preparatory meeting. The meeting usually starts one hour before the defence, and the PhD student is allowed to participate in the last 30 minutes of the meeting.
Language
We recommend that the defence is conducted in English, but if all members of the assessment committee are Scandinavian and everybody including the PhD student agree, the defence can be conducted in Danish/Scandinavian - be aware that language barriers may occur even in between Scandinavian languages.
The chair of the assessment committee acts as chair for the defence.
The oral defence consists of
- A lecture of 30-45 minutes by the PhD student to present his/her work
- Examination of the student by the two external members of the assessment committee(maximum 1 hour in total)
- The chair of the defence may also allow questions to the student from the audience, but must ensure that the oral defence does not last longer than two hours
The final recommendation is made immediately after the defence examination (and any questions from the audience). If the oral defence is considered to be satisfactorily completed, the assessment committee signs the protocol. The result is announced to the student prior to the official conclusion of the defence.
It is common for the PhD student to host a reception after the defence. The Faculty does not finance these receptions.