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About the adjudication

Once you have submitted your thesis for adjudication, the faculty will appoint an adjudication committee based on a proposal from the department you are affiliated with.

The committee normally has three months (not including holidays) to adjudicate your thesis.

The procedure for appointing committee members, the requirements for individual members and the composition of the committee are described in section 13 of the Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo and section 7 of the Regulations for the degree of Doctor Philosophiae (Dr. Philos.) at the University of Oslo.

  • When and how is the adjudication committee appointed?
  • When will you be contacted?
  • What are the possible outcomes of the thesis adjudication?
  • The recommendation is positive
  • A revision of the thesis is recommended
  • The recommendation is split or unanimously negative
  • Appeals

When and how is the adjudication committee appointed?

  • The Faculty’s administration sends a request to the department you are affiliated with to submit a proposal for the committee. For details of the composition of the committee, see Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo.
  • The department sends a proposal for an adjudication committee to the faculty, and a copy to you.
  • The members of the adjudication committee must satisfy the competence requirements in order to qualify for appointment.
  • You have one week to submit any comments on the composition of the committee.
  • The Dean is responsible for approving the department’s proposal before the faculty sends a letter of appointment to the committee members, and a copy to you.
  • It normally takes a maximum of 4 weeks to appoint a committee once your submission has been approved.

When will you be contacted?

  • ​The committee normally makes its recommendation within three months of receipt of the thesis. Holiday periods may mean a longer wait.
  • If it quickly becomes apparent that the committee needs more than 3 1/2 months to complete the adjudication, you will be notified of this.
  • The candidate must never contact any committee members directly.

When the committee’s recommendation is ready, it will be forwarded to the faculty’s administration, which will then send it to you before review by the faculty. You are entitled to comment on the recommendation before it is reviewed by the faculty. The deadline for comments is 10 working days.

What are the possible outcomes of the adjudication?

The adjudication committee can either recommend that the thesis is approved for public defence, or that it is rejected. The recommendation may also be split.

The committee may also recommend that you submit a revised version of the thesis within six months.

The recommendation is positive

If the committee finds that the thesis is worthy of public defence, the recommendation will be positive. The faculty then needs to approve the recommendation before the final decision is made to hold a trial lecture and public defence. As soon as you are notified that a trial lecture and public defence will be held you need to start your preparations, including printing the thesis and submitting an errata list where necessary.

A revision of the thesis is recommended

The adjudication committee may decide that the thesis needs to be revised before it can be defended. The committee will only give this recommendation if they think a satisfactory revision can be produced within six months. The Faculty is responsible for approving the committee's recommendation and sets the final deadline for resubmission.

A recommendation for a revision can only be given for the first submission of the doctoral thesis. If the committee finds that the revised thesis does not meet the quality requirements, the thesis will be rejected.

If the deadline for submitting a revised thesis is not adhered to, the committee's recommendation will serve as a recommendation to the faculty. In practice, this means that the thesis has been rejected, and you will need to wait at least six months to submit the thesis for the second and last time.

The recommendation is split or unanimously negative

If the committee believes the thesis should be rejected, or is divided over whether it is worthy of public defence, you have two weeks to submit comments after receipt of the recommendation.

If the adjudication committee’s recommendation is split or negative, it will be sent to you in the usual way immediately (by the faculty’s administration) before review by the faculty. You will then have 10 working days to make any comments on the recommendation. No formal decision has yet been made at this point, so comments should not be in the form of an appeal.

The recommendation and any comments will be reviewed by the Faculty.

If the faculty agrees with the recommendation that the thesis is not worthy of public defence (i.e. rejected), you will receive a letter giving the decision. The letter gives you three weeks to appeal the decision.

You cannot submit a revised thesis until six months have passed since notification of the rejection. You can only submit the thesis again once.

Appeals

Rejected applications for adjudication of a doctoral thesis and decisions to reject a doctoral thesis, trial lecture or public defence may be appealed pursuant to section 28 et seq. of the Public Administration Act. Substantiated appeals must be sent to the faculty. The faculty may revoke or modify the decision if it upholds the appeal. If the faculty does not uphold the appeal, it is then sent to UiO’s appeals committee for a decision. The appeals committee may review all aspects of the decision appealed.

If the faculty or the appeals committee deems it necessary, it may appoint individuals or a committee to conduct a review of the decision under appeal and the criteria on which the appeal is based, or to undertake a new or supplementary expert evaluation.

Published Mar. 22, 2016 9:14 PM - Last modified July 30, 2019 11:15 AM