PHD Defence

Once the final version of the thesis has been submitted, candidates are asked to send asap to the members of the Doctoral Examination Board the following material:

1) final version of the thesis;
2) three-year report on the activities;
3) reviewers' comments;
4) point-by-point answer;
5) form: Valutazione finale della tesi di dottorato.

See also instructions published at the Intranet page: Ricerca e terza missione > Dottorati > Carriera, opportunità e servizi per i dottorandi > Esame finale e tesi di dottorato >

Before the defence, the Examining Board shall choose its own Chair by consensus. It shall take its decisions by the majority of voting members participating. The Chair has a casting vote.

At the beginning of the viva, candidates are asked to show an identification document (ID). The Examination Board will be most grateful if candidates could have their ID ready, so as to limit as many as possible delays.

The defence will have the following format:
- language: English
- presentation of the thesis lasting approximately 20 minutes;
- comments and questions by members of the Examining Board, which must be confined to the candidate’s research topic. The thesis supervisor or co-supervisors (where applicable) are precluded from participating in this discussion.

In their presentation, candidates are expected to clearly and convincingly state the purpose of the thesis, describe methods and results, concentrating in particular on novel contributions.

Following the defence, the Examining Board shall deliberate in-camera. It shall decide on the basis of the thesis submitted to it and the way the candidate has defended it. The Examining Board shall take one of the following decisions:
- proposal to the Rector for the conferral of the title of Doctor of Research;
- rejection.

In the case of an online presentation, candidates can connect at any time from the start of the event, but should be sure to join the session sometime before their presentation. For better connection quality, we recommend installing Microsoft Teams and using Chrome. The following minimum equipment is required: webcam, microphone and internet connection. Through the "Share" function, you can share any presentations or files. To guarantee a more stable connection, it is advisable to turn your camera off whilst sharing files, and turn it back on for the questioning time. Although the defence is public, it is forbidden to record the event.

Members of the Doctoral Examining Board are expected to receive with due anticipation the final version of the candidates' theses, along with a report on the three-year activities; external reviewers' comments; point-by-point candidates' answers.

Before admitting candidates to the room, the Doctoral Examining Board determines the sequence of presentations and duration of the questioning. Usually, when more than one candidate is defending, presentations follow the alphabetical order.

The defence itself should proceed in formal stages but otherwise have a congenial and relatively reassuring atmosphere.

Typically at the outset, the Examining Board inform candidates of the sequence of the presentations. Each defence will begin with a 20-minute presentation by the candidate of the research findings, followed by a period of questions and discussion. Questions from members of the Examining Board may elicit further refinements on the topics of the thesis; focus on specific points, illustrations, or passages in the work; engage the student in the most controversial or difficult aspects of the work; extend the ideas of the work to other topics or applications; ask candidates to relate the work to the field and to her or his personal plans for the future; etc. The defence is typically conceived as a stimulating intellectual conversation. As a courtesy, members of the Examining Board would not normally discuss the thesis with the candidate before the defence except through the supervisor or with the supervisor's knowledge and agreement.

At the end of formal questioning, the candidate and other attendees will generally be asked to leave the room, and the Doctoral Examining Board will evaluate the work of the candidate and complete the minutes to be then submitted to the central offices. This evaluation can be deferred at the end of all presentations, so as to avoid repeated breaks during the event. The evaluation is expressed in the form of a qualitative judgment on four dimensions:
- Thesis’s originality
- Quality of the adopted methodology
- Quality of the achieved results
- Knowledge of the topics dealt with