Defending your thesis at the Department of Global Public Health

1. Prepare your application

Three months (twelve weeks) or more prior to your dissertation, you should prepare your application:

• Contact your administrator for doctoral education and inform him/her know about the date of the defence and that you are about to start with the defence application process. The administrator will make sure that there are no other events planned that date.
• Book a venue with your research group administrator or Vijaylakshmi Prabhu on the chosen date for your defence. 
  For defences held via Zoom: For defences held via Zoom, the doctoral administration will put you in contact with the technical support.
• Opponent and members of the examination board: your main supervisor establishes contact with the opponent and members of the examination board to make sure they are available at the date for your defence.
• Create an account with the printing house to access the template for the kappa. The kappa does not need to be finalized until the examination board has previewed the constituent papers.  Please note that the text will be checked to ensure that there is no plagiarism.
• LADOK: check that the course requirements are fulfilled in accordance with the General syllabus to which you are admitted.

An additional six weeks is recommended for monograph theses during defence semester, (see monograph theses) . 

Learn more about the application for a thesis defence.

2. Send your application to the doctoral education administration

Send the application form with your and your supervisors' signature to the administrator of doctoral education at least one week before the submission to the Dissertation Committee.

The administrator will make an initial review and handle the signature of the Director of Doctoral Studies and of the Head of Department. When signed and reviewed, the administrator will e-mail you back the application. 

Find the latest version of the application form "Form 9 - Application public defence" .

Find dates for the Dissertation Committee, meeting dates and deadlines

3. Submit your application to the Dissertation Committee

Submit your reviewed and signed application to the Dissertation Committee at disputation@ki.se. A few days after their meeting, the Dissertation Committee will send you and your supervisors an e-mail notification of the decision, which can be that your application has been either approved, postponed pending complementary material or clarifications, or rejected. Find more information about the Dissertation Committee's decision.

Inform the administrator of the doctoral education about the decision from the Dissertation Committee. He/She must also be informed in case of any changes in an approved application.

4. Nailing and distribution

The act of making a thesis public is called “nailing”. The purpose of nailing is to give people a chance to read your thesis in advance so that they might pose relevant questions during your public defence.

Find more information about nailing and distribution at KI.

We arrange an informal nailing ceremony at the department, after the formal nailing at the library. This can be done in between a few weeks before until to a few days before the actual defence.

Please contact your research group administrator or Vijaylakshmi Prabhu for more information about arranging the informal nailing ceremony at the department. 

If you are interested to have your photograph and thesis cover framed and displayed at the department, please contact Vijaylakshmi Prabhu once your defence date has been finalised. The photograph is usually taken just before the defence and the department will cover the cost.

5. Announcing your thesis defence

Contact  info.gph@ki.se  about your defence thesis so it will be announced at the department level and put in the KI calendar, as soon as the electronic version of your thesis is available in the KI Open Archive database.

The thesis defence will also be advertised on the digital screen at the entrance of Widerström building, around two weeks prior to the defence.

Contact - doctoral education administration