Appointing the opponent, custos and the evaluation board
The faculty council or the dean designated by the council appoints the pre-examiner(s), the possible evaluation board, the custos, and decides on the date of the public examination typically at the same time that the doctoral student is given permission to go ahead with the public defence.
Custos
The custos represents the university in the public examination. He/she ensures that the opponent and the doctoral candidate understand the nature and procedures of the dissertation defence and that the event is conducted in accordance with established practices. The faculties have more specific instructions (see the faculty-specific pages below).
Opponent
The opponent(s) must be experienced and unbiased expert(s) not employed by the University who hold a doctoral degree. In the field of theatre arts, at least one of the pre-examiners and the opponent must hold a doctoral degree, and the other pre-examiner may be appointed based on artistic merits.
The experts must not have joint publications with the doctoral candidate within the past three years. Provisions on the disqualification of experts are laid down in the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003, Sections 27–29) (pdf). Check the faculty-specific instructions on the disqualification of experts.
For opponents unfamiliar with the conventions of the Finnish public defence, you may consider sharing a publication to support their preparation by Laajalahti and Virtanen (2024, Insights for Opponents on fostering interaction in the public defence of a doctoral dissertation. Prologi).
Evaluation board
The faculty council may appoint an evaluation board for each dissertation process. The faculty council approves and grades the dissertation on the basis of the opponent(s) written statements, possibile proposals by the evaluation board, pre-examination statements, and other written comments. Check out the instructions specific to your faculty.
Agreeing on the date and place of the public examination
The Campus Assistants are responsible for the practical arrangements of doctoral defences.
The doctoral researcher must contact the Campus Assistants regarding the reservation of the lecture hall at kampusassistentit [at] tuni.fi before the date of the doctoral defence has been agreed upon with the opponent. This ensures that the defence can be held on the planned date.
Due to the national university entrance examinations, no other events will be held on university premises during weeks 21–23 and orientation week 34.
During the entrance examination weeks, doctoral defenses may be organized on days between examinations in lecture halls that are not specifically equipped with additional electrical infrastructure for the entrance examinations.
The dissertation must be publicly available for at least 10 days before the doctoral defence. The doctoral researcher must prepare a doctoral defence press release well in advance of the defence (at least three weeks before the defence date) and deliver the printed copies of the dissertation in accordance with the instructions of their faculty. The information desks in the university buildings can assist with matters related to mailing.
In exceptional cases, the doctoral defence may, by decision of the Dean, be held elsewhere if the dissertation work is connected to a Tampere University unit located outside Tampere where teaching and research activities in the relevant field are conducted.
For more information on the doctoral defence, please see: Formalities concerning the public examination of the doctoral dissertation .