Instructions to carry out a PhD defense | International PhD School of the University of Santiago de Compostela (EDIUS)

Below you will find information about the steps to follow in a thesis defense depending on its modality.

Performance of the online defense

The online defense will be carried out through the Microsoft Teams software, with the technical support of a professor from the Program who will act as moderator of the defense act as well. This person will be responsible for resolving any incident that occurs in the course of the act of defense. Furthermore, the moderator:
1. Will connect 30 minutes before the scheduled start to the public defense session to welcome the members of the Committee, thesis supervisors and doctoral student.
2. Will record the public session of defense of the thesis. This recording cannot be broadcast since, as an academic document, its sole purpose is to monitor the session.
3. Will begin the video call of the deliberation session while the doctoral student presents the dissertation, sending an email with the links to this session and the secret votation form to the members of the Committee.
For the electronical act of defence, two sessions will be created by the EDIUS upon request of the PhD Program:
1. Session of formal constitution of the Assessment Committee and defense of the PhD dissertation
  1. Access to the session will be granted to the PhD student, supervisor/s, tutor (if necessary), members of the Assessment Committee and technical moderator, with the category of "members of the session" and the members of the university and non-university community attending the event, as "guests of the session".
    
    In this session, the president will act as “host” of the videoconference and will summon the other members of the Assessment Committee and the PhD student at least 30 minutes before the official opening of the act. To do this, the moderator will connect, 30 minutes before the scheduled time for the defense, the PhD student and the members of the Assessment Committee to carry out connection tests and also to confirm that the members of the Assessment Committee have access to the session chat to be able to fulfill their duties.
    
    Then, the President of the Committee will verify the presence of the members of the Assessment Committee and the PhD student in the virtual session. To this end, the Secretary will carry out the identification of the doctoral student and of the members of the Assessment Committee, claiming, if considered necessary, the video comparison or the electronic transmission of the personal ID of each one of them. This procedure will be reflected in the thesis defense minutes.
  2. First, the President of the Committee will have the floor to:
    - Introduce the PhD student and the rest of the Committee. He/she will set up how the act of defense will be developed, indicating the time that the doctorate has to carry out the defense of his/her thesis.
    - Next, he will request the PhD student to begin with his/her presentation.
  3. After the presentation of the doctoral student, the President of the Committee will again have the floor to indicate the beginning of question time for the PhD student, starting with the Committee members, and if possible, giving afterwards the chance to join in to those, among the audience, who have a Doctor degree. For this, the attendees can use the chat enabled in the session to request the President permission to speak.
  4. Once the question time is over, the president of the Committee will take the floor again to indicate that the members of the Committee will be absent from this session for deliberations on the assessment of the dissertation. In addition, he will establish and communicate to the attendees, at that moment, the estimated time for it.
  5. If, due to any unsolvable technical problem for more than 30 minutes, the act of defense cannot be carried out or ended successfully, the president will conclude the act, which will be invalidated, and may be held a second time at the same time two business days later.
2. Deliberation session on the doctoral thesis
  1. After the defense, a second virtual session of the Assessment Committee will be held in parallel for the deliberation and grade of the thesis. This session will be different from the first, and the moderator will not be present, only the members of the Committee. The URL of this second virtual session will be sent by the moderator to the members of the Committee by email, during the defense by the doctoral student.
  2. During the deliberation session, the members of the Assessment Committee will disconnect from the defense session, which will remain open, but without allowing any interaction between those who remain connected in it.
  3. Once the deliberation is finished, the corresponding fields of the thesis defense minutes will be filled out. This text referred to the assessment of the thesis and its defense must be prepared by the Secretary after having been debated by the members of the Assessment Committee in the virtual deliberation session. The text will have to be agreed by voice or, where appropriate, sent by email in editable text format to the members of the Committee for eventual correction and final approval.
  4. After the qualification has been granted the president will end the deliberation and will indicate to the moderator by email that he can proceed to close the deliberation session. The Assessment Committee will return to the online defense session.
  5. In the case of a thesis that obtains the qualification of sobresaliente (outstanding), the Secretary of the Committee will explain how to proceed to carry out the secret and justified ballot for the Cum Laude Mention and the Extraordinary Doctorate Award through the form provided by the USC and available on the board of the deliberation session itself through a link.
3. Activation of the first session
  
  After the deliberation of the Assessment Committee, its president will publicly report on the qualification of the thesis in the session of the act of defense and will conclude the act. The moderator will then proceed to close the session.
4. Defense minute and secret valuation for the Cum Laude mention and Extraordinary award
  
  The documentation for the defense will consist of:
  1. A single minute in which it will be reflected:
    - ((At the beginning of the session) The constitution of the Assessment Committee with express indication of the members and positions they occupy, the day, time and technical means through which the defense of the thesis will be carried out.
    - (In the deliberation session) The progress of the act of defense, the interventions (if any) by the members of the court, time of the deliberation, assessment report and qualification granted by consensus. In addition, express mention on if the doctoral candidate opts to:
      - International PhD Mention
      - Industrial PhD Mention
      - International Joint Supervision Thesis
    And, where appropriate, an indication that the requirements for said mention(s) were met. This information will be reflected in the minute provided by the PhD Program.
    
    The Secretary of the Assessment Committee will send the thesis defense minutes digitally signed to the Servizo de Xestión Académica, doutoramento [at] usc.es (doutoramento[at]usc[dot]es), its incorporation into the doctoral student's file within a maximum period of 24 hours.
    
    If the documentation cannot be digitally signed, it must be sent to the SXA by certified mail or courier, to the address:
    
    Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
    Servizo de Xestión Académica - Terceiro Ciclo
    Pavillón Estudantil – Campus Vida
    15782 – Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña)
  2. Once the deliberation of the tribunal has been completed and if the qualification of Outstanding (Sobresaliente) has been granted, the members of the court must access the following link, within a maximum period of 24 hours after the end of the act of defense, to proceed to the individual and secret assessment of Cum Laude - Extraordinary Award of this thesis.
    
    To proceed with the sending of the form, you will be asked to generate a code that links your three particular and anonymous votes (which must not coincide) as members of the court with the corresponding thesis. This verification code must have the following form:
    
    Mandatory Name and First surname (of the doctoral student) and 2 numbers_2 letters_1 symbol_2 numbers_2 letters_1 symbol
    
    Example: LauraLiñares39dx%98ss&
    
    The link to access the form will be available on the board of the deliberation session.
    
    The results of this vote and assessment once received and verified within 24 hours from the receipt of the documentation will be communicated by the SXA to the doctoral student.
    
    The minutes of the count of the votes of the Cum Laude mention and assessment for the Extraordinary Doctorate Award will be electronically signed by the official designated by the USC, who will certify the result.
    
    Once all the data and documentation have been received, the doctoral student will be able to deposit the doctor's degree.

Performance of the face-to-face defense

The doctoral thesis will be evaluated in the act de defence that will take place in public session, and will consist of the presentation and defense by the doctoral student of the research work prepared before the members of the Assessment Committee.

In case of impossibility of constitution of the committee, according to article 43.10 of the current regulations, the presidency of the committee may convene a new act within the following two days or set a new date that respects a minimum period of seven days of publicity (communicating to the PhD Program) and does not exceed three months from the date of authorization of defense of the thesis.

The academic act of defense of the thesis will begin taking the floor of the president of the committee that will present the doctoral student and the rest of the members of the committee and will establish how the act of defense will be developed, as well as the time available to the doctoral student to make the presentation of his thesis work. Next, he will give the floor to the doctoral student for the presentation of his thesis.

The members of the Assessment Committee may express their opinion on the thesis and formulate as many issues and objections they deem appropriate, to which the doctoral student must answer.

Those doctors present at the public event may formulate questions at the time and in the manner indicated by the president of the committee.

The documentation will consist of a single minutes in electronic format that will be completed and signed by the secretary of the Assessment Committee. This minutes will reflect:

(At the beginning of the session) The constitution of the committee with the express indication of the members and positions they occupy, the day, hour and technical means by which the defense of the thesis will be carried out.
(In the deliberation session) The progress of the act of defense, the interventions (if any) by the members of the court, time of the deliberation, assessment report and qualification granted by consensus. In addition, express mention on if the doctoral candidate opts to:
- International PhD Mention
- Industrial PhD Mention
- International Joint Supervision Thesis
And, where appropriate, an indication that the requirements for said mention(s) were met. This information will be reflected in the minute provided by the PhD Program.

The Secretary of the Assessment Committee will send the thesis defense minutes digitally signed to the Servizo de Xestión Académica, doutoramento [at] usc.es (doutoramento[at]usc[dot]es), its incorporation into the doctoral student's file within a maximum period of 24 hours.

If the documentation cannot be digitally signed, it must be sent to the SXA by certified mail or courier, to the address:

Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
Servizo de Xestión Académica - Terceiro Ciclo
Pavillón Estudantil – Campus Vida
15782 – Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña)

Once the deliberation of the tribunal has been completed and if the qualification of Outstanding (Sobresaliente) has been granted, the members of the court must access the following link, within a maximum period of 24 hours after the end of the act of defense, to proceed to the individual, secret and justified assessment of Cum Laude - Extraordinary Award of this thesis.

To proceed with the sending of the form, you will be asked to generate a code that links your three particular and anonymous votes (which must not coincide) as members of the court with the corresponding thesis. This verification code must have the following form:

Mandatory Name and First surname (of the doctoral student) and 2 numbers_2 letters_1 symbol_2 numbers_2 letters_1 symbol

Example: LauraLiñares39dx%98ss&

The link to access the form will be available on the board of the deliberation session.

The results of this vote and assessment once received and verified within 24 hours from the receipt of the documentation will be communicated by the SXA to the doctoral student.

The minutes of the count of the votes of the Cum Laude mention and assessment for the Extraordinary Doctorate Award will be electronically signed by the official designated by the USC, who will certify the result.

Once all the data and documentation have been received, the doctoral student will be able to deposit the doctor's degree.