The successful completion of the PhD programme is marked by the submission of your PhD dissertation. The dissertation serves as documentation for the scientific work you have carried out during your studies, as well as your ability to communicate in writing the theoretical and experimental skills and results obtained.

When you hand in your dissertation, an evaluation committee is appointed. The dissertation is distributed among the committee members who write an evaluation report and deliver it to GSST within two months. If the dissertation is satisfactory to obtain the PhD degree you defend the thesis at a public PhD defence.

GSST will notify you and your supervisor in detail 3 months before the PhD  dissertation must be handed in.

Please see GSST detailed information concerning the PhD exam.

All forms and templates relevant for the PhD dissertation and exam are found here

Handing in the dissertation

The dissertation is handed in to the PhD aministrator at GSST, and the date of delivery is noted. The dissertation must be handed in as hard copy and electronically:

• 7 hardcopies of the PhD dissertation. See appearance below.

• An electronic version of the dissertation. Either a pdf-file using outline fonts or a dvi-file together with included pictures

• Originally signed co-author statements. Please ask your coauthor to write use anything else than a black pen, as it it hard to tell if the signature is then original. See contents and form below.

• A dated statement made by the supervisor (in both Danish and English), assessing whether or not the course of the PhD study has been satisfactory. The supervisor can contact GSST about the formal requirements if in doubt.

Appearance

A dissertation from the The Department of Computer Science should observe a few design requirements: 

• First of all it should have a uniform appearance.

• The front matter should contain a front page with the University Logo and a title page, both with formulations and appearance as indicated in the dissertation template.

• Front page, title page, table of contents, chapters and other major sections should be open right (i.e. start on right hand-side pages).

• Chapters should have running headings.

• It should be prepared for publication in A4 .

The LaTeX source files of the dissertation template can be downloaded here.

Contents and form

• Please see the The PhD Programme in Science at Aarhus University in English or in Danish.

• Notice that if the PhD dissertation consists of a plurality of articles and any of the constituent articles are the work of more than one author, they should be accompanied by co-author statements.

• Co-author statements sent by e-mail are only accepted in PDF, and only if they are legible. A template is available at the AGSoS website.

Announcing the PhD defense

• The Faculty of Science makes sure your PhD defense is announced in the local papers. All necessary info about the announcement can be found here.

• For announcement in our internal newsletter Insight@Katrinebjerg, please write a short abstract, and send it together with a picture of yourself in jpeg-format to our editorial staff. Please make sure to send it approximately 14 days prior to your defense.

• For announcement in the university newspaper Campus prior to your defense, please send a short abstract to the editorial staff.

• Deadlines for announcing in Campus can be found here.

PhD Defence

The PhD defence takes place after the evaluation committee has written an evaluation report on the dissertation. The defence takes place not earlier than two weeks after the presentation of the written evaluation report is sent to GSST, and no later than three months after the dissertation has been handed in.

The PhD defence consists of two parts: A 45-minutes presentation of your dissertation, followed by a 45-minutes question-and-answer session between you and the evaluation committee members.

After the defence the committee completes the evaluation. If the committee agree that your dissertation and the defence have been passed satisfactorily, they send a recommendation for awarding the PhD degree to the Faculty of Science. Subsequently, The Faculty Board awards you the PhD degree.

PhD Reception

When you have finished your PhD education at BRICS, it is a tradition to organise a small reception for your colleagues. The reception is arranged by you, and paid out of your own pocket. Use Oracle Calendar too book the coffee lounge. If your defense takes place on a Friday afternoon you must book Babbage 2 (Dækket) due to the Friday Bar. The reception usually takes place immediately after the defence, where you are also formally awarded the PhD degree. 

What usually happens is that you buy some bottles of wine/beer and soda, and make sure that there is some kind of snack, chips, peanuts or the like. You can also choose to order reception food (remember to ask for plates, forks and spoons to scoop up the food) at either Matematisk Kantine or Studenterhusfonden (around 70 DKK/person). If you plan to invite everybody from the department, please inform the PhD manager, and she will send an email to everybody. If you order food you should order for around 25-30 people. Remember to ask for a giro card, as the department will otherwise recieve an electronic invoice.

If you choose to order food, make sure you have family/collegues/friends to pick up the food when delivered. Wine glasses can be borrowed from the kitchen in the coffee room, (the rearmost kitchen cupboard - you need your key to open it), and must be placed in the dishwasher after the reception. Used service must be placed in Ada 113 after the reception. Remember to clean up after the reception.