Completion of your PhD

The PhD degree is conferred upon on the basis of:

• Approved academic thesis
• Approved required coursework (minimum 30 ECTS)
• Approved trial lecture of a given topic
• Approved defence of the thesis in a public defence

The information on this web page applies to all PhD candidates except candidates at the PhD programme Veterinary Science who will comply with routines and information described ont their own web pages.

Step by step description of submission, assessment and doctoral degree examination

• Step 1. Prior to thesis submission, all elements included in the required coursework must be successfully completed and approved by the faculty. 
• Step 2. You must within agreed deadline submit the thesis to the faculty and apply for evaluation.
• Step 3. The faculty, by the Dean, appoints an evaluation committee based on the proposal of the main supervisor.
• Step 4. The evaluation committee will evaluate the thesis.
• Step 5. Once the thesis is approved for defence, it can be sent to printing 
• Step 6. The approved thesis must be made publicly available before the public defence
• Step 7. Lastly is the doctoral degree examination consisting of the trial lecture and the public defence

When finished with step 1-7

Step 8. Conferring the degree and issuing a diploma is taken care of by the Research and Innovation Department as soon as the defense is over

Step 9. The Doctoral degree ceremony is held once a year and you will receive an invitation

• Step 1. Approval of the completed required coursework

  Prior to thesis submission, all elements included in the required coursework must be successfully completed and approved by the faculty. Transcript of records/ diplomas from external education (i.e. coursework conducted outside NMBU), must be submitted for approval and registration, to the faculty PhD Coordinator.

  Results from courses completed at NMBU are registered on an ongoing basis. If the completed academic coursework differs from the approved Education Plan, the PhD candidate must fill in and submit the form NMBU 3.2 Application for approval of completed coursework.
• Step 2. Submission and application for evaluation of the thesis

  You must within agreed deadline submit the thesis to the faculty and apply for evaluation. 

  See the PhD regulations section 10 for the thesis requirements.

  Prior to submission you have to order a set of prescribed numbers for the thesis; "ISBN-nr, ISSN-nr og Thesis number". Do this by sending an e-mail to biblioteket@nmbu.no at the NMBU Library. The Thesis number must be allocated for the year of the public defence.

  You must submit the following to the faculty:

  • a) NMBU 4.2 Submission form, with a confirmation from the main supervisor recommending the thesis to be evaluated.
  • b) An electronic version of the thesis in PDF-format. This electronic version will be archived by the faculty, and it will also be sent to the evaluation committee.

  The following documents must be attached, if relevant:

  • c) If any of the courses/activities you have completed has not been approved by the faculty, you must describe these courses/activities into the form NMBU 3.2 Application for approval of completed coursework (see step 1).
  • d) NMBU 4.3 Co-authorship declarations for all co-authored manuscripts/ articles included in an article-based thesis.
  • e) If you submit a "joint thesis" you must attach a statement from the main supervisor to clarify which parts of the thesis constitute the candidate’s own contribution in a joint work (a joint work is defined as one thesis with several candidates as co-authors).
  • f) Documentation that the necessary authorisations have been obtained.

  More on co-authorship declarations

  When submitting a thesis involving several co-authors, the form NMBU 4.3 Co-authorship declaration must accompany the submission, i.e. one form for each co-authored manuscript/ article forming part of the thesis. The statement should describe your own and the other individual co-author's independent contribution to the research work and the manuscript/ article in question. Each individual co-author must sign or otherwise confirm in writing that he/she agrees with the content.

  You (the PhD candidate) are responsible for obtaining such co-authorship declarations. You may combine several identical, signed/confirmed declarations into one document per manuscript/article when you deliver the co-author declarations to the faculty.

• Step 3. Appointment of an Evaluation Committee

  The Faculty has the responsibility to appoint an evaluation committee to evaluate the thesis, the trial lecture, and the public defence of the thesis.

  The requirements are described in the PhD regulations section 13. 

  Your main supervisor must prior to the submission put forward a reasoned proposal for the composition of the evaluation committee, using form NMBU 4.1 Proposal for evaluation committee. You must be notified of the proposal, and you have the opportunity to comment this in writing no later than five working days after being informed. The faculty then considers your comments and makes a decision on whether or not the appointment should be changed.

• Step 4. Evaluation of the thesis

  After submission, the thesis will be forwarded to the evaluation committee, who first read through it and evaluate it individually, and then jointly.

  Doctoral theses submitted at NMBU must be assessed according to NMBU's PhD regulations, and the faculties' guidelines for the assessment of theses. There are also national guidelines for the assessment of Norwegian doctoral theses and doctoral candidates, which ensure that PhD candidates at Norwegian universities are assessed "in the same way" (without this preventing discipline- and subject-specific characteristics and standards from being taken into account). These guidelines are also always made known to the evaluation committee members.

  NMBU Guidelines for evaluation of the thesis

  The NMBU faculties have developed individual guidelines for evaluation of the thesis. Links to guidlines from your faculty:

  • Faculty of Biosciences (BIOVIT)
  • School of Economics and Business (HH)
  • Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Sciences (KBM)
  • Faculty of Landscape and Society (LANDSAM)
  • Faculty of Science and Techology (REALTEK)
  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (VET)

  The recommendation from the evaluation committee

  No later than 25 working days before the planned date of the public defence, the evaluation committee must submit its recommendation to the faculty using the form NMBU 4.4 Assessment of the thesis. 

  The joint reasoned recommendation must clearly state whether the thesis should be:

  • a) Approved for public defence
  • b) Not approved for public defence in its present form, but minor revisions, within a deadline of maximum 3 months work given by the faculty, should be permitted before the final recommendation is made. The evaluation committee must within six (6) weeks from the receipt iof the revised thesis present their final decision.
  • c) Rejected, i.e. not approved for public defence. In this case fundamental changes are necessary. The thesis may be reworked and resubmitted only once after minimum 6 months.

  The faculty decides on the basis of the evaluation committee's recommendation and the PhD regulations section 15. You will be informed immediately of the result of the assessment and what happens next.

• Step 5. The thesis is finished, what now?

  Press release

  NMBU wish to make the work known to a broader audience than the university itself. As soon as the thesis is approved by the evaluation committee, the PhD candidate can download and fill in the press release form and submit it to the correct contact person listed in the form.

  The Faculty's PhD Advisor(s) or communication resource will be able to prepare an article for the internet ahead of the public defence. Some advice on how to present the work to give a glimpse of the achievements and what has been done is given in the press release form.

  You may apply for errata before

  A thesis that is approved for public defence is ready to be printed. It must be printed exactly as it was approved, with one exception:

  You may apply once to the Faculty for permission to correct formal errors (errata) in the approved thesis to be made public. Use the form NMBU 4.6 Errata and make an errata list, showing the corrections you wish to make to the thesis.

  The deadline for application to correct formal errors is five working days after having received the evaluation committee’s recommendation.

  You will receive a response from the faculty, and if not all corrections have been approved, you can only make the changes that have been approved.

  The faculty will inform the evaluation committee about the approved errata.

  Allowed corrections of the following formal errors

  • Spelling and language mistakes that make the text linguistically incorrect
  • Punctuation and reference errors 
  • Page layout, text format etc.

  Not allowed corrections

  • Specify or change the meaning of the text
  • Make changes to the content of tables
  • Change version or change status in manuscripts/ articles in your PhD thesis. For example, an article with the status "in press" cannot be exchanged with a journal's printed version, and change status to "published" prior to printing.

  Printing the thesis

  You (the PhD candidate) order the printing by sending an email to a printer company with the purchase order form attached (from the guidelines in "Printing the thesis"). Purchase order number ("Ressursnummer") must be given when ordering for further processing. Send the form by e-mail to the printer company.

  The printer company has the correct NMBU official templates and design for the thesis cover. The printers will produce the number of theses set by you and will send an electronic PDF-version of the thesis, as it will be printed, to you.

  If the thesis is to be printed in Norwegian, or if you are to hold a public defence for the Dr. Philos. degree, you must make this clear to the printers so that they choose the correct template.

  Printed copies will be distributed by the printer company to the National Library of Norway (3 copies) and to the University Library (1 copy). The 4 copies will be taken from the total number of copies ordered.

  Compulsory deliveries to the faculty, for filing

  • Deliver a PDF-verson of the printed final version to the faculty, the version includes the cover.
  • 1 copy (or more) of the completed printed thesis. The number of copies will be agreed upon between you and the faculty.
  • Proof of upload to NMBU Brage of the final print version (in PDF). A description of how to upload is to be found below.
• Step 6. Publicising the thesis

  The printed thesis must be publicly available two weeks before the public defence (cf. section 17 in the PhD regulations).

  No restrictions may be placed on the doctoral thesis to avoid making it publicly available, except for a previously agreed postponement of the public release date.

  An external party is not entitled to demand that the whole or parts of the PhD thesis be exempt from public access (cf. section 6.1 in the PhD regulations).

  Those who wish to see the thesis before the defense must contact the faculty or the library at NMBU.

  Upload and make the thesis electronically available in NMBU Brage

  All PhD theses must be published electronically through Brage - NMBU's institutional archive. The purpose of Brage is to make research results created at NMBU available. Accessibility in Brage makes the research results generated by the PhD candidate more visible for the research environments nationally and internationally. The thesis is stored in Brage and will always be accessible through a permanent URL.

  Making the thesis electronically available in NMBU Brage will consist of the following three steps:

  1. You upload the printers PDF version of the thesis in NMBU Brage before the public defence. The candidate may at this point have opportunity to delay electronic publicising by two (2) years from the date of the public defence.
  2. Once the public defence is approved, the University Library/ NMBU Brage will assess the uploaded version of the thesis. The University Library will always consider the PhD candidate requirements, and also to those limitations that the publisher has set for the articles.
  3. The thesis will be electronically available on internet at the given time set by you (the PhD candidate) during the upload. The thesis will not be available before this specific date.

  Description of how to upload the printed thesis file - click on this link.

  Contact the University Library for more information at brage@nmbu.no.

  Archiving and accessibility of research data

  The research data on which the thesis is based must comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and be as open as possible and as closed as necessary (cf. NMBU Guidelines for Research Data Management).

  NMBU Open Research Data or corresponding research data archives must be used for archiving and to make research data accessible.

• Step 7. The Doctoral examination, trial lecture and defence

  When your thesis has been approved and published you are ready for the doctoral degree examination. The doctoral degree examination consists of two parts: The trial lecture and The public defence. This can either take place on one and the same day, or be conducted on two separate occasions. Here, the faculties have slightly different rules, all of which are within the common framework of NMBU, the PhD regulations.

  The faculty will make an announcement for the trial lecture and the public defence. If you have not done this already, you must at the latest 14 days ahead of the public defence, fill in and deliver the press release form to the correct recipient from the list in the form so that your work can have correct announcement.

  The trial lecture

  After the thesis has been submitted and before the public defence, you must give a trial lecture on a specified topic. This is an independent part of the doctoral exam. The purpose of the trial lecture is to test your ability to acquire knowledge over and above the topic of the thesis, and the ability to convey this knowledge in a lecture setting. The lecture should last for 45 minutes. The academic level of the lecture must be suited to master's degree students or students in the final phase of a five-year programme of professional study. Ask your main supervisor if you are unsure what this means.

  The title of the trial lecture is to be decided by the evaluation committee and communicated to you 10 working days before the lecture takes place. The topic of the lecture should not be directly linked to the specific topic of the thesis. The trial lecture must be held in English or Norwegian unless another language is approved.

  The Faculty decides when the trial lecture will take place. It can be held in connection with (the day before or on the same day as) the public defence or earlier. If the trial lecture is held in connection with the public defence, the evaluation committee assesses the trial lecture (see below). If a trial lecture is held earlier, the Faculty appoints a separate committee to evaluate the trial lecture, and this committee assesses the trial lecture by using NMBU 4.5a Evaluation of the trial lecture (Word document). 

  The public defence

  The public defence is to be a scholarly discussion between the opponents and the PhD candidate on the formulation of research questions, the methodological, empirical and theoretical basis of the thesis, and the documentation and form of presentation. Particular emphasis should be placed on testing the tenability of important conclusions drawn by the PhD candidate in the thesis. The questions the opponents choose to pursue need not be limited to those discussed in the committee’s statement on the thesis. After both opponents have concluded their questioning and the PhD candidate have been given the opportunity to defend the thesis, members of the audience must be given the opportunity to comment ex auditorio.

  If the trial lecture is not held in connection with the public defence, the evaluation committee assesses only the public defence, by using NMBU 4.5b Evaluation of the public defence (Word document). 

  If the trial lecture is held in the connection with the public defence, the evaluation committee assesses both the trial lecture and public defence, by using NMBU 4.5c Evaluation of the trial lecture and public defence (Word document).
• Step 8. Certficate / Diploma

  Once the academic training, thesis, trial lecture and public defence of the thesis have been approved, the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) will be conferred upon the PhD candidate by the Rector. PhD Certificates / Diplomas are issued on an ongoing basis, and will provide information about the PhD programme, study option, title of the thesis, topic of the trial lecture, courses included in the approved academic training, names of the supervisors and of the members of the evaluation committee. There are several persons involved in the document issue, hence it will take a few days to complete.

  Digital Certificate/ Diploma
  The NMBU Doctors whom we assume will be able on long term basis, to access the Norwegian Diploma Registry using the electronic ID-portal (MinID, BankID on mobile, BankID, Buypass or Commfides), will be awarded with a digitally signed and secured PhD certificate/ Diploma and Diploma Supplement. 

  The digital Diploma and Diploma Supplement can be found and shared through the Norwegian Diploma Registry (Vitnemålsportalen).

  Paper Diploma and Diploma Supplement
  Doctors who won’t be able on long term basis, to continue accessing the Norwegian Diploma Registry using the electronic ID-portal, will receive physically signed paper originals of the PhD degree documents.

  NMBU will as a rule, issue paper certificate/ Diploma and Diploma Supplement to Doctors with non-Norwegian Nationality whom we also, from information retrieved, know will be situated in a country different from Norway. The same goes for persons who are to use their education abroad, in countries where a digital signature is not approved.

• Step 9. The doctoral degree ceremony - a celebration of what you have achieved

  A Doctoral Degree Ceremony is conducted yearly in September for PhD candidates who have graduated the recent academic year.

  This year, the event will take place on 20 September 2024. The two-hour ceremony is open to the public. A formal banquet dinner follows for the Doctors and invited guests. Invitation to the ceremony will be sent to the involved parties by e-mail.

  Alf Bjørseths Inspiration Award

  Announcement of the winner of the Alf Bjørseth Inspiration Award is a part of the yearly NMBU Doctoral Degree Ceremony.