The Professor Board evaluates the activities of each PhD student yearly and makes a decision on the admission of the student for the following year. A few specific skills are evaluated during this review:
1. Overall scientific activity (in terms of the number of courses, scientific meetings and seminars, international conferences and workshops attended, dissemination activity, publications, etc)
2. Ability to succinctly report on scientific results in written form. Students are invited to write a one-page report on the status and yearly advancement of his/her scientific project.
3. Ability to participate in professional discussion of scientific projects. The student is required to describe to the Professor Board the overall aim of the project, the obtained results and the future steps foreseen to finally achieve the goal. Specific attention will be devoted to assess the scientific maturity of the student and his/her capacity to critically evaluate his/her personal achievements.
4. Skill in giving scientific talks. At the end of every year, each student will be invited to give a 15-min scientific talk in front of the entire astrophysical community of the Bologna area: professors and researchers at DIFA, INAF, CTA will be invited to attend the student talk. Then, the Professor Board will evaluate the ability of the student to critically present the motivation for the project in a broad astrophysical context, its specific goals, and the results obtained so far, as well as the student's capacity to clearly and properly answer the audience's questions.
At the end of the process, the student receives from the PhD coordinator the global evaluation and feedback from the Board.