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Arrival of the preliminary examination reports: 

• The Dean of the Faculty has made the decision on the six-week length of the preliminary examination. Ths means that the faculty hopes to receive the written statements (recommended length 2–4 pages) within six weeks after the preliminary examiners have received the manuscript.
• The preliminary examiners must provide a substantiated written statement on whether a permission should be granted or rejected for the public examination of the dissertation. They are requested to state this clearly in their reports. They can suggest corrections, but the proposal for permission cannot be conditional. 
• When the written statements arrive to the Faculty, they will be sent immediately to the to the candidate and the supervisor-in-charge.

The doctoral candidate has a chance to comment on the preliminary examiners’ statements before a decision on the permission for the public examination of the dissertation is made by the Faculty Council. The candidate should deliver the comment to the Faculty Council (coordinator responsible for faculty's doctoral studies) within ten days of receiving the statements. 

Deciding on the permission for public examination: 

If both preliminary examination reports reports are positive: 

• the Faculty Council may decide on the permission for the public examination. After the permission for the public examination has been granted, the doctoral student may contact the to discuss the publication of the dissertation. 

If one or more preliminary examination statements do not support the permission for public examination:

• according to the decision of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of 28.8.2024, in situations where two preliminary examiners have different opinions on the granting of permission for the public examination of a dissertation (one statement is positive and one is negative), the Faculty Council always decides on a third preliminary examiner to the dissertation, unless the doctoral student themselves suspends the examination process before the decision of the Faculty Council.
• If two or more preliminary examiners give statements which suggest that the permission should be rejected for the public examination of the dissertation, the candidate is not granted the permission for a public examination of the dissertation and the preliminary examination procedure ends.

Deciding on the public examination: 

Once the candidate has been given the permission for the public examination of the dissertation, the faculty council may decide on the public examination. Usually the permission, the date and the place for the examination are decided and the opponent and the custos are nominated in the same faculty council meeting.

Using the faculty's , the specialisation representative makes a proposal on the public examination to the faculty council. The proposal is sent to Faculty's doctoral studies coordinator via . The proposal includes a proposition on the the date, and the place for the examination, the opponent, the custos and the assessment board.

• The date must suit the doctoral candidate, the opponent or opponents, the custos, and the assessment board. The faculty approves of public examinations taking place outside the academic year with the consent of all the participants. The faculty council does not meet in July or August so in these cases, the final decision and assessment of the dissertation will take place in the autumn.
• Concerning the place of the public examination, the place (hall, room) should be reserved before making the proposal on the public examination. The assistant of the department assists in reserving the place.
• The opponent should be an expert in the field of study, hold at least a doctorate but preferably be a professor or a docent, and their primary employer should not be the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. There can be one or two opponents. 
• The custos must have an employment relationship with the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. The faculty council usually nominates one of the professors or docents of the faculty as the custos.
• The assessment board will propose the grade for the dissertation. In considering the composition of the board, it must be taken into account that the supervisor of the doctoral dissertation cannot be a member of the board or take part in the assessment of the dissertation in any way. Members of the assessment board must hold a doctoral degree. The assessment board comprises at least three members: the opponent; a representative of the subject in question; and a so-called external member. In the assessment board, the discipline is represented by the specialisation representative or a representative of the department proposed by the specialisation representative. The representative of the subject serves as the chair of the assessment board.
• Ineligibilities must be considered, please read the general instructions above.

The candidate and the preliminary examiners must not communicate directly with each other. The faculty's doctoral studies coordinator oversees the communication between the candidate/supervisor(s) and the examiners. The preliminary examiner must mention in their report if they have communicated directly with the doctoral candidate during the preliminary examination process.

Arrival of the preliminary examination reports: 

• The preliminary examiners have one month to give their evaluation
• The evaluation consists of a free-form written report (1-2 pages) and an assessment form. The preliminary examiners must state whether permission should be granted or rejected for the public examination of the dissertation. In the Faculty of Information Technology, the preliminary examiners are also asked for their view on grading of the thesis.
• The statement cannot be conditional to revision. 
• When the written statements arrive to the Faculty, they will be sent immediately to the to the candidate and the supervisor-in-charge.
• The doctoral candidate has a chance to comment on the preliminary examiners’ statements before a decision on the permission for the public examination of the dissertation is made. The candidate should deliver the comment to the coordinator responsible for faculty's doctoral studies as soon as possible after receiving the statements.

Deciding on the permission for public examination: 

• the Dean may decide on the permission for the public examination. 

Making the decision on the public examination:

After receiving the (positive) evaluations from the preliminary examiners, the decision on the public examination will be made. The proposal for the public examination is made using the faculty's form. The form contains instructions on who participate in filling out the form. Please note that for the opponent, the information must be accompanied by a current CV and publication list; these can be in any format (e.g. file or link to a website such as google scholar), as long as they come from the opponent themself.

Once the entire form has been filled, the form and possible attachments should be sent to the coordinator of Faculty’s doctoral studies (or to doctoral-studies-it@jyu.fi) according to the instructions on the form. The coordinator will prepare the decision for the Dean to sign.

The decision on the public examination includes the decision on the opponent(s), the custos, and the time and place of the public examination. Below you will find the Faculty of Information Technology's own more detailed guidelines on these matters.

*Opponent

The supervisor discusses with the doctoral student about potential opponent or opponents, and asks for their consent to the role.

Note! In no case should the doctoral candidate be in any contact with the opponent(s). The supervisors and the coordinator of the doctoral school take care of all communication. The doctoral candidate must inform their supervisor if the opponent has been in contact with them during the examination process.

The criteria for opponents

According to the Degree regulations of the University of one or more opponents are appointed for the public examination of the dissertation. Opponents must be professors or doctoral degree holders with sufficient academic merits. The main post of the opponents must be outside of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. The supervisor of the dissertation cannot act as an opponent. The doctoral candidate shall be given an opportunity to comment on the selection of the opponents. 

What is said about the disqualification of officials in the the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003, 27 §) applies to the dissertation examination process. In the dissertation examination process, the absence of grounds for disqualification means that none of the persons (preliminary examiner, opponent, a member or presenting official of the faculty council, a member of the assessment board) participating in the process has such relationship with the doctoral candidate that would cause the person’s impartiality to be questioned. 

In the Faculty of Information Technology, these additional guidelines should be followed:

1. "Sufficient academic merits": The publication history of the opponent should clearly reach the level of a docent.
2. The supervisors should not have recent close collaboration with the opponent (such as co-authored publications within 3-5 years).
3. The opponent should be familiar with the research field of the thesis.
4. The pre-examiners of the thesis cannot act as the opponent of the same thesis.
5. The opponent should not have an employment relationship with the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ nor be an emerita/emeritus of the University.
6. The opponent can be a docent of the University or the Faculty.
7. The opponent can have part-time teaching responsibilities in the Faculty.
8. The opponent can give visiting lectures in the Faculty.
9. The opponent can supervise doctoral theses in the Faculty, if no fee is paid for the supervision.
10. The opponent can have other active collaboration with the Faculty.

*Custos

The custos must have an employment relationship with the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. Usually the responsible supervisor of the thesis acts as the custos. Please see the .
 

*Time and place of the public examination

The supervisor will agree on the date of the public examination with the doctoral student and the opponent(s). There should be at least one month from receiving the (positive) evaluations from the pre-examiners to the date of the public examination, so that the permission for a public examination, publication of the thesis, etc. can be arranged in time. It is good to have some leeway in the timetable to allow for possible delays and/or the need to revise the dissertation manuscript.

NOTE: The scheduling should be verified with the faculty's scientific editor and/or the university publication services. It is important to ensure that the dissertation is published at least 5 days before the public examination.

The public examination is usually organized at the premises of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, starting at 12 PM. 

The coordinator of doctoral studies will book the lecture hall for the defence (please ask this from doctoral-studies-it@jyu.fi).
 

*Representative of the research area

According to the Faculty’s practice, the Division Leader aims to assign a representative from the research area to attend the public examination. The person should be at least at the level of a docent. The representative follows the public examination, reads the preliminary examination statements, and familiarizes themself with the dissertation, at least cursorily. If needed, the representative discusses with the opponent after the public examination and makes sure that the opponent understands the assessment criteria as defined in the Faculty.

After the public examination the representative gives the doctoral school (doctoral-studies-it@jyu.fi) a short statement on 1) How did the candidate do in the public examination, and 2) Whether the grade suggested by the opponent is in line with the Faculty's grading policy. The coordinator of doctoral studies will give the statement to the Faculty Council to support the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.

After the decision on the public examination has been made:

After the Dean has made the decision on the public examination, the coordinator of doctoral studies will send the official invitation and instructions to the appointed opponent(s).

The coordinator of doctoral studies sends the link to the online version of the published dissertation to the opponent after receiving it from the publishing unit of the university. This is often very close to the examination day (min. 5 days prior). Sending possible earlier versions of the thesis is on the responsibility of the custos. The printed book can be handed to the opponent in the public examination or mailed beforehand. The doctoral candidate takes care of possible mailing (the mailing can be requested from the university printing services or the book can be packed and mailed on the university’s expense by leaving it to the outgoing mail of the Faculty or to university’s registry office).
 

SEE ALSO:

Organizing public examination

Publishing the dissertation

Approval and assessment of the doctoral dissertation

When both preliminary examination statements have arrived and are supporting the granting of the printing permission, please familiarise yourself carefully with the general instructions of JYU described above, as well as with the following instructions at JSBE.

Granting of the permission for the public examination

Granting of the permission for the public examination will be processed in the next possible Faculty Council meeting after the preliminary examination statements have arrived.

The date of the public examination and decision on the opponent(s)

At JSBE, it is recommended that the decision of the opponent and the date of the public examination are processed in the same Faculty Council meeting as the granting of the printing permission. However, the decision of the opponent and the date of the public examination can also be processed later if needed, as the granting of the printing permission should not be delayed, as it is needed for the publishing of the dissertation. Read more about on the Open Science Centre website.

The dissertation supervisor will agree with the opponent(s) about their availability for the task, and tentative date of the public examination.

The responsible supervisor or the Head of the discipline will send the proposal of the opponent, custos and the date and place for the public examination to the administrative coordinator of the doctoral school via HelpJYU form . The Faculty Council will process them in the next possible meeting

Instructions for the opponent(s)

After the Faculty Council has decided on the opponent(s), custos and the date of the public examination, the administrative coordinator of the doctoral school will send the instructions directly to the opponent(s) (cc: responsible supervisor). The instructions are available also following the link below:

Instructions for the dissertation examination at JSBE (for opponents).

The custos delivers the final dissertation to the opponent(s).

The custos will act as the contact person for the opponent regarding the practicalities of the visit. Instructions for the doctoral student and the custos about the are available in Uno.

Dissertation Assessment Board

JSBE appoints an Assessment Board, which prepares a proposal to the Faculty Council on the evaluation of the dissertation. The Assessment Board is appointed by the Head of the Discipline, or in case they act as the supervisor of the doctoral thesis, by the Dean. After granting the permission for public examination, the coordinator of the doctoral school asks the head of the discipline (or the dean) to appoint the Assessment Board, and instructs the chairperson and the member of the board.

The Assessment Board operates according to the procedure accepted in the JSBE Faculty Council meeting on April 16, 2018:

The Assessment Board of a dissertation includes:

• the opponent
• the representative of the discipline, with a doctoral degree (chair)
• the representative of JSBE or JYU, with a doctoral degree (member)

The dissertation supervisor is not allowed to participate in the grading of the dissertation, and thus cannot be appointed to the Assessment Board.

The chair of the Assessment Board will contact the opponent and the member to agree on the time for the meeting of the Assessment Board. The aim is to meet right after the public examination to prepare a statement for a proposal for the approval and grade of the dissertation to the Faculty Council. The chair of the Assessment Board will write and sign the statement and send it to the doctoral school coordinator (via HelpJYU form ), who will take it to the Faculty Council. In addition to the statement of the Assessment Board, the opponent is asked to write their own statement after the public examination. The Assessment Board can remind the opponent on this task when appropriate.

Arrival of the preliminary examination reports: 

• The faculty hopes to receive the written statements within one month after the preliminary examiners have received the manuscript.
• The preliminary examiners must provide a substantiated written statement on whether a permission should be granted or rejected for the public examination of the dissertation. The proposal for permission cannot be conditional. 
• When the written statements arrive to the faculty, they will be sent immediately to the to the candidate and the supervisor-in-charge.
• The doctoral candidate has a chance to comment on the preliminary examiners’ statements before a decision on the permission for the public examination of the dissertation is made by the faculty council. 

Deciding on the permission for public examination: 

If both preliminary examination reports are positive: 

• the faculty council decides on the permission for the public examination. Before the publishing process the doctoral candidate delivers the work to the department-specific scientific editor who will give the publishing permission to the university library publishing unit.

If one or more preliminary examination statements do not support the permission for public examination:

• if one preliminary examiner gives a statement in which they suggest that the permission should be rejected for the public examination of the dissertation, the dean nominates a third preliminary examiner if the doctoral candidate doesn't discontinue the pre-examination process.

• If two or more preliminary examiners give statements which suggest that the permission should be rejected for the public examination of the dissertation, the candidate is not granted the permission for a public examination of the dissertation and the preliminary examination procedure ends.

Deciding on the public examination

After the permission to defend the dissertation the dean will decided on the rest of the public defense matters. The supervisor-in-charge first makes a suggestion by using the doctoral programme’s form. Forms in Finnish:

Doctoral programme in education

Doctoral programme in psychology

Opponents must be professors or doctoral degree holders with sufficient academic merits. The main post of the opponents must be outside of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. The custos must have an employment relationship with the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. The custos introduces the faculty instructions of the public examination to the opponents and ensures that particularly international opponents become familiar with the dissertation practices of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ as well as the grading scales.

The evaluation board members are: Opponent(s) and 1-2 professors or docents or a professor of Finnish Institute for Educational Research who is not a supervisor or involved in dissertation publications.

When both preliminary examination statements have arrived and are supporting the granting of the printing permission, please familiarise yourself carefully with the general instructions of JYU described above, as well as with the following instructions at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences.

Summary of changes for the Faculty Council meeting

After both statements have arrived and are supporting the granting of the printing permission, the doctoral student is asked to prepare a short summary (about 1 page) for the Faculty Council meeting about the changes that will be made to the final thesis based on the preliminary examination statements. The summary of changes is sent to the doctoral school coordinator via HelpJYU form .

Granting of the permission for the public examination

Granting of the permission for the public examination will be processed in the next possible Faculty Council meeting after the preliminary examination statements have arrived. After obtaining the permission for public examination, the arrangements for the public examination can be started.

The date of the public examination and decision on the opponent(s)

The dissertation supervisor will agree with the opponent(s) about their availability for the task, and tentative date of the public examination.

The responsible (main) supervisor fills in form, after they have negotiated with the doctoral student and the main representative of the specialisation. The supervisor sends the form to the coordinator of the doctoral school via HelpJYU form , and the coordinator will ask the Head of the Doctoral Programme and the Dean to sign the decision.

Instructions for the opponent

After the dean has decided on the opponent(s), custos and the date of the public examination, the coordinator of the doctoral school will send the instructions directly to the opponent(s) (cc: responsible supervisor). The instructions for the opponents, including the evaluation criteria of the dissertations, are available in (pdf).

The doctoral student or the custos delivers the final dissertation to the opponent(s).

The custos will act as the contact person for the opponent regarding the practicalities of the visit. Instructions for the doctoral student and the custos about the are available in Uno.

In the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, the permission for public examination includes the decision on the permission, and on the time and place of the public examination. The opponent(s) and the custos are also appointed at this point, if these have not been appointed earlier, when nominating the preliminary examiners for the thesis. 

At its meeting on 19 January 2022, the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science transferred the appointment of the preliminary examiners, the opponents and the custos, as well as the date and venue of the public examination to the Dean for the period 19.1.2022-31.1.2026. In accordance with the division of labour, the Vice Dean for Education will decide on these matters from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2025.
 

NOMINATING THE OPPONENT(S) AND THE CUSTOS

1. The criteria for opponents

The Faculty of Mathematics and Science follows the general criteria and disqualification guidelines of the University (see the guidelines at the top of this webpage).
 

2. Custos

The custos must have an employment relationship with the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. Usually the responsible supervisor of the thesis acts as the custos. Please see the .
 

3. Communication with the opponent(s)

The supervisor discusses with the doctoral student about potential opponent or opponents, and asks for their consent to the role.

Note! In no case should the doctoral candidate be in any contact with the opponent(s). The supervisors and the coordinator of the doctoral school take care of all communication. The doctoral candidate must inform their supervisor if the opponent has been in contact with them during the examination process.
 

4.  Decision on the opponent(s) and the custos

The opponent(s) and the custos may be nominated when nominating the preliminary examiners for the thesis. It is also possible to name the opponent(s) and the custos when making the decision on the permission for the public examination. In the latter case:

• The student and the supervisor should fill in a form for nominating the pre-examiners (please fill in the applicable parts), and deliver the form to the Faculty Doctoral School (). Note: Please deliver the form only after the persons in question have given their agreement to the role. The supervisor should ask for the agreement.
• The doctoral school asks the Head of the Doctoral Programme to approve the nomination (in the Department of Biological and Environmental Science, approval from the principal professor is also needed).
• The Vice Dean for Education makes the final decision on the nomination when making the decision on the permission for the public examination (see below).

PERMISSION FOR PUBLIC EXAMINATION

1. Time and place of the public examination

The supervisor will agree on the date of the public examination with the doctoral student and the opponent(s). There should be at least one month from receiving the (positive) evaluations from the pre-examiners to the date of the public examination, so that the permission for a public examination, publication of the thesis, etc. can be arranged in time. It is good to have some leeway in the timetable to allow for possible delays and/or the need to revise the dissertation manuscript.

The public examination is usually organized at the premises of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥, starting at 12 PM. The coordinator of doctoral studies will book the lecture hall for the defence (). Note: Overlapping dissertation days within the department should be avoided.
 

2. Decision on the permission for public examination

Permission for the public examination is granted when both pre-examiners have given their positive statements. The Faculty Doctoral School will prepare the permission and the Dean or the Vice Dean will grant the permission.
 

3. Dissertation manuscript and instructions to the opponent

After the decision on the permission for public examination has been made, the coordinator of doctoral studies will send the official invitation and instructions to the appointed opponent(s). It is the duty of the supervisor (custos) to take care the opponent(s) receive the final version of the theis. The thesis should be sent to the opponent electronically at the latest when the doctoral student sends it for publication (i.e. no further changes will be made).

The printed book is usually handed to the opponent before the public examination. It is also possible to mail the book. The doctoral candidate takes care of possible mailing. The mailing can be requested from the university printing services or the book can be packed and mailed on the university’s expense by leaving it to the outgoing mail of the Faculty or to university’s registry office.

The department will pay the travel and accommodation expenses of the opponent(s). The doctoral school will give the opponent and the custos instructions on booking and reimbursing travel and accommodation.
 

SEE ALSO:

Organizing public examination

Publishing the dissertation

Approval and assessment of the doctoral dissertation