Doctoral education

Public defence at Aalto University

During the public examination of the doctoral thesis, or the defence, the doctoral student defends the results of their doctoral thesis against public criticism and answers questions presented by the opponent, who has been appointed to evaluate the thesis. The course of the public defense is supervised by a custos, who usually is the supervising professor of the doctoral student. The public defence is also a ceremonial occasion that follows the academic traditions of each field.

On this page you can find Aalto University's instructions for arranging public defences.

Doctoral hat floating above a speaker's podium with a microphone

Date and time of the defence

The doctoral student agrees the date of the defence with the opponent and the custos. The date and time of the defence are then confirmed by the Doctoral programme committee of the School. This can happen in the same meeting where the permission for defence is granted or later, depending on the School.

Customarily the defence begins at 12 noon sharp and takes approximately 2 hours. The audience must enter the hall by 12 noon, but the repondent, opponent and custos enter at 12:15 sharp.

Place of the defence

The public defence can take place

  1. at the premises of Aalto University
  2. remotely over an interactive online platform such as Zoom or Teams
  3. in hybrid form (both on campus & interactively online)

In case the defence is arranged remotely or in hybrid form, participation from all channels must be interactive (is must be possible for the participants to ask questions at the alloted time).

Language of the defence

Language of the public defence confirmed by the Doctoral Programme Committee and is customarily Finnish, Swedish or English, depending on the language of the thesis and the languages spoken by the doctoral student and the opponent.

Doctoral student generally gives the Lectio Praecursoria (max. 20 minutes) in the language of the public defence.

Defence arrangements and practicalities

The practical arrangements of the defence are the responsibility of the doctoral student. Some departments offer help with the arrangements.

Arrangements for public defence under COVID-19

The restrictions on the number of event participants are lifted as of 14 February 2022. However, when events are organised, taking account of health security still remains important.

Doctoral hats, 2016

Schools' protocols for the public defence and post-doctoral party

Each School has also their own specific instructions for the public defence and the post-doctoral party, which are academic events following the traditions of each field. These include e.g. protocol/proceedings of the defence, roles of the opponent and the custos, dress code and traditions related to the "karonkka", ie. post-doctoral party.

Next public defences

Doctoral hat floating above a speaker's podium with a microphone
Public defences

Public defence in Biotechnology, M.Sc. (Tech.) Robert Pylkkänen

Cellodextrin and β-D-1,3-glucan phosphorylases as biocatalysts for novel glucan structure synthesis (title of the thesis)
Einat Amir & Yossi Hasson, Basic Assumption, 2017. Still image from a video shown in the performance-experiment.
Public defences

Public defence in Art Education, MFA Einat Amir

Synthesizing Art and Science: A Collaborative Approach to Understanding Intergroup Relations and Contributing to Social Change (title of thesis)
Doctoral hat floating above a speaker's podium with a microphone
Public defences

Public defence in Information and Computer Science, M.Sc. Maia Malonzo

This thesis performed transcriptome and DNA methylation analyses to understand the mechanisms underlying stem cell regulation and two diseases, Alzheimer's disease and asthma, as well as proposed two methods for analyzing bisulfite sequencing data. We found biomarkers in the two diseases and karyotypically abnormal stem cells as well as found an important difference between mouse and human embryonic stem cells. We also show that the tools we developed improve accuracy in differential methylation inference.
Doctoral hat floating above a speaker's podium with a microphone
Public defences

Public defence in Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. Pauli Hiltunen

How to utilise low-temperature waste heat and return water of district heating networks in district heating production? (Title of the Thesis)

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