Your main supervisor will be asked to submit a proposal for the composition of the assessment committee five months before the PhD student submits his/her PhD dissertation.
It is the main supervisor's responsibility to make sure that all suggested members have agreed to participate in accordance with the schedule and to inform the proposed persons about the scope of the task and the conditions associated with it (deadlines for submission, payment of honorarium, travel rules etc.).
The proposal is approved by the PhD Committee. The composition of the committee may be changed upon the processing by the PhD committee and graduate school.
As a PhD student you need to approve your main supervisor’s proposal for the composition of the assessment committee, before it is submitted to the graduate school. The proposal needs to include a brief presentation of the PhD project and a time schedule.
The requirements for the composition of the committee are as follows:
The composition of the committee is subject to the rules on disqualification laid down in the Danish Public Adminstiration Act (forvaltningsloven). This means, for instance:
The role of the assessment committee is to:
There are three possible outcomes of the assessment of a dissertation:
If the recommendation is positive, the PhD student will receive an e-mail with the assessment attached and the defence of the dissertation can take place.
If the assessment committee recommends revision of the dissertation, the PhD student needs to submit a new, revised dissertation together with a point-by point reply where he/she comments on the assessment committee's remarks.
The author will get at least 3 months to submit a revised dissertation (with the possibility of an earlier resubmission to maintain the original date for public defence) The deadline must be stated in the conclusion of the assessment.
The graduate school needs to receive any comments to the assessment committee’s decision no later than two weeks after the date where the PhD student received the assessment.
Unless special conditions apply, the same assessment committee will reassess the dissertation. The new assessment consists of a free text assessment of the revised dissertation stating the background, a listing of the changes made as well as an assessment of these changes and a recommendation as to whether the dissertation can now be accepted for public defence.
The new assessment must be signed by all members of the committee and should reach the Graduate School of Health no later than six weeks after the resubmission.
If the committee finds that the academic level in the revised dissertation complies with the international standard for PhD dissertations in the field of health sciences, the defence can take place, and the PhD student and the assessment committee need to agree on a new date for the defence.
The public defence is based on the revised dissertation, and the printed version must also be based on the revised dissertation.
Recommended revision of revised dissertation (second revision)
If the assessment committee finds that the academic level in the revised dissertation does not comply with the international standard for PhD dissertations in the field of health sciences, but can be accepted with minor adjustments, the committee can recommend the dissertation for a second revision.
If the assessment committee finds that the academic level in the original dissertation does not comply with the international standard for PhD dissertations in the field of health sciences, and that the quality of the dissertation is below an adequate level for acceptance, the assessment committee should recommend the dissertation for rejection.
If the assessment committee recommends rejecting the dissertation, the graduate school needs to receive any comments on the assessment committee’s decision no later than two weeks after the date where the PhD student received the assessment.
The graduate school management will review the assessment committee’s recommendation, including any comments from the main supervisor and PhD student.
The management then makes the final decision on whether the PhD student is asked to resubmit the PhD dissertation to the assessment committee, resubmit to a new assessment committee or whether the dissertation is rejected completely.
If the dissertation is in fact rejected, the PhD student will be disenrolled from the PhD programme without obtaining a degree.
