Preparing for the public defence

Doctoral education

Preparing for the public defence

During the public examination of the doctoral thesis, or the defence, the doctoral student defends the results of their doctoral thesis and answers questions presented by the opponent, who has been appointed to evaluate the thesis. The course of the public defence is supervised by a custos, who usually is the supervising professor of the doctoral student. The public defence is also a ceremonial occasion that follows the academic traditions of each field.

On this page you can find Aalto University's instructions for arranging public defences.

Doctoral hat floating above a speaker's podium with a microphone.

How to confirm the details for your defence, opponent(s) and custos?

After you have been granted the permission for defence, the Doctoral programme committee (DPC) can approve the details (date, time and language) of your defence, and nominate the opponent(s) and the custos.

Opponent proposal form (307) is available at Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi). Both the supervising professor and the doctoral student sign it and the doctoral student submits it to their Doctoral programme's Doctoral education services with the proposed opponent(s)' CV and publication list.

Please note that the DPC’s decision on public defence and opponent should be made well in advance, recommended at the latest 5 weeks before the public defence. Note: if the thesis is published through ARTS Theses or has been done jointly with an international partner (Cotutelle), reserve even more time between getting the decision from DPC and the defence date.

Supervising professor proposes opponent(s) who have confirmed their availability and willingness. For more information, please see Proposing pre-examiners and opponents (Being a supervising professor or thesis advisor at Aalto University, aalto.fi). Supervising professor usually acts as the custos, or finds a suitable person for the task. The doctoral student has a right submit an official written reply on the selection of an opponent, e.g. if they feel that the suggested opponent is biased.

Together with the custos, agree on the date and time of the defence, and ensure that the proposed opponent agrees on the chosen date and time before submitting the proposal. Remember to also reserve a suitable lecture hall for the defence. This information will be printed on your thesis, so make sure it will be correct.

Customarily the defence begins at 12 o’clock sharp and takes approximately 2-3 hours. The time given in the form 307 refers to the time when audience must enter the hall. The thesis defender, opponent and custos enter 15 minutes later.

The language to be used in the public defence is Finnish, Swedish or English, or some other language with permission by the Doctoral Programme Committee, if relevant in the case of your thesis.

The public defence can take place

at the premises of Aalto University
remotely over an interactive online platform such as Zoom or Teams
in hybrid form (both on campus & interactively online)

In case the defence is arranged remotely or in hybrid form, participation from all channels must be interactive (is must be possible for the participants to ask questions at the alloted time).

Please note that the opponent proposal form also asks you to specify the planned mode of your defence (on campus, remote, hybrid). In case of defence on campus or in hybrid mode, you are also asked to give the lecture hall you have booked, if possible. This information is needed for the public defence announcement as well. It is important to plan these details out in advance.

If for insurmountable reasons there is a need to make changes to the date, time, language, or custos of the public defence, the Chair of the Committee can re-confirm them. Please contact your Doctoral Programme, if you notice that changes are needed. Please also note that in case of changes you may need to prepare an errata page to your thesis.

Responsibilities regarding defence arrangements

The practical arrangements of the defence are mainly the responsibility of the doctoral student. You can read detailed instructions about student's responsibilities below (scroll down). The following paragraphs list the responsibilities of other parties than student.

When the opponent and custos have been appointed and date, time, and language of the defence confirmed, the Doctoral Programme will send an official invitation to the opponent. The Doctoral Programme also sends instructions for the opponent regarding the examination of the thesis. The opponent is requested to submit their statement by email within two weeks from the date of the public defence to the custos. The guidelines of the Schools can be found via the links below:

The Doctoral Programme will not send the thesis pdf to the opponent (that is student's responsibility). Please read more about the distribution of electronical and printed thesis here.

After the defence, the Doctoral Programme Committee will evaluate the thesis. You can find more information about the approval process here.

The Doctoral Programme Committee appoints the supervising professor as the custos of the public defence. Another professor of the School with a doctoral degree in the same research field may also serve as the custos. The custos has the responsibilities listed below.

Custos is responsible for hosting the opponent(s) during their visit. It is good to inform the opponent about the schedules well in advance. Custos of the defence should agree together with the opponent(s) on travel arrangements for their stay in Finland. The secretarial services of the department handle all the bookings and offer their assistance by request from the custos. Please note that doctoral student should not be in contact with the opponent(s) before the defence, except for sending the thesis in a pdf form to them.
In case illness prevents the opponent from arriving, please contact the Doctoral Programme immediately. If the opponent is able to participate via remote connection, it is possible to switch the defence to hybrid mode instead of postponing it. In case custos becomes ill, please also immediately contact the Doctoral Programme.
The custos is supervising that the public defence follows the guidelines of Aalto University and is responsible for instructing the opponent(s) on practicalities of the defence. The practicalities are presented on page 'Proceedings of the public defence day'. In ARTS, the custos should ensure that the opponent(s) are familiar with the grading scale used and the principles of grading to be observed.
In online or hybrid defences, the custos is responsible for instructing the audience during the defence. Custos should inform the guests to mute their microphones and keep their webcams closed unless they wish to ask a question regarding the doctoral work at the time allocated for comments. Student and custos should agree in advance how to proceed if there are any technical problems during the defence. It is recommended to have at hand an appointed person for fetching help if needed.
The custos ensures that the statement of the opponent is made according to the guidelines of the School and that it is submitted to the Doctoral Programme within two (2) weeks from the date of the defence (in technical schools preferably at latest three (3) days before the next meeting of the Committee). The instructions for each school are found above under heading 'Doctoral Programme'. Before submitting the statement to the Doctoral Programme, it is good to check that signature and a clear indication of pass/fail are included in the statement. It is recommended that the opponent uses a letter form of their own university / company / other affiliation. In case of defences in the Schools of Engineering and Chemical Engineering the evaluation table provided by the programme must be included in the statement.
The statement is delivered to the Doctoral Programme primarily in pdf-form, and depending on the School either to the coordinator (ELEC, ENG, SCI), the planning officer (CHEM) or the general email address of the programme (ARTS: doctoral-arts(at)aalto.fi; BIZ: doctoralprogramme-biz(at)aalto.fi).
In ARTS, custos must also submit their own report to the Committee covering the defence proceedings (e.g. the start and end times, number of persons in the audience).

The secretarial services of the department handle all the bookings and offer their assistance by request from the custos. Note that for opponents based in Finland the travel arrangements and bookings are typically made directly by the opponent or by opponent's home institution, and travel expenses will be refunded afterwards. Department also pays the reimbursement for the opponents. Some departments also offer help for the doctoral student with the practical arrangements.

Doctoral student

The practical arrangements of the defence are mainly the responsibility of the doctoral student. Some departments offer help with the arrangements.

The School is responsible for publishing the defence event page online at Aalto.fi. Your responsibilty is to submit the public defence announcement, which is added to the event.

Discuss with the custos if it is worthwhile to advertise your thesis and the defence outside the Aalto community. You can prepare a press release for this purpose (possible targets: STT, Tekniikka & Talous, science journals, etc.).

Public defence announcement and press release of thesis (aalto.fi)

Unigrafia will send you separate PDF drafts of your doctoral thesis cover and interior. After you approve them, you can combine them and share the draft with your opponent. You should not be in contact with the opponent regarding the thesis in any other way before the defence.

The Doctoral Programme will inform you how the printed version of the thesis is delivered to the opponent and other parties. Some departments also offer help with the distribution of the printed thesis. Please see also the detailed instructions of your own School via:Distribution of thesis (aalto.fi)

You can invite personal guests to the public defence such as persons related to the field, pre-examiners, advisors, and family members.
Check out your School's defence protocol and dress code, links are available in the section Schools' protocols for the public defence and post-doctoral party below.
If you wish to offer refreshments for the audience after the defence as is customary, you need to arrange the catering and pay for it. There are cafeterias in most campus buildings which cater for refreshments.
It is recommended that you arrange for a person to help out with the practical arrangements at the defence, e.g. sorting our any last-minute practical dilemmas, arranging refreshments and giving out audience etiquette (available for ARTS).
Organisation of the Post-doctoral Party ("Karonkka"). All costs for the Karokka party and arrangements are your responsibility.

Make sure that you have booked a space for preparation before the defence (in addition to booking the lecture hall for the defence). Usually the booking is made for 10:00-16:00 to reserve enough time for preparations. Ask help from your department or supervising professor.
Please check in advance that the technical details of your presentation work in the lecture hall - if you need help, contact the lobby services of the building. You can also make a service request for IT or AV assistance at servicedesk@aalto.fi (several days in advance).
Agree in advance with the custos how to proceed if there are any technical problems during the defence. It is recommended to have at hand an appointed person for fetching help if needed.
Venue signs: Depending on the building, you can either send an A4-sized notice of the defence (Defence of XX XX, date, place) to the lobby services of the building, who will display it outside the hall where the defence will take place; or alternatively, send the same information to be placed on the video screens of the building (Ekonominaukio 1).

Contact the IT Services several days in advance to agree on IT support for the remote public examination at servicedesk@aalto.fi.
Please note that there should be someone from your own team monitoring Zoom during the defence, in addition to custos and yourself. IT services can help mainly before and at the beginning of the defence. You can ask a student colleague to help, for example.
Familiarise yourself with the Zoom instructions for remote defences and Zoom Quick Guide (Aalto IT Services).
Submit a Zoom link for your defence to the Doctoral Programme at the latest 15 days prior the public defence.
The custos is responsible for instructing the participants during the public examination. Custos should advice the participants to mute their microphones and to keep their webcams closed unless they wish to ask a question at the given time allocated for comments.