Pre-examination
Information for doctoral students on pre-examination, and finalising the thesis.
Pre-examination and graduation schedules over the summer 2026
Doctoral students who plan to start the pre-examination of their doctoral thesis, defend their thesis or graduate before September 2026 should check the schedules of their School’s Doctoral programme committee and the official graduation dates at Aalto University. Remember to enrol for 2026-2027 if you will not graduate by the end July 2026.
The meeting deadlines for the Doctoral programme committee (DPC) meetings in June have now passed and there are no meetings in July. The next meetings will be held in late August.
Check your School's DPC meeting dates
Your School's DPC decides about sending your doctoral thesis to pre-examination, granting you the permission for defence, the defence date and also about accepting your doctoral thesis, which must be done before you can graduate.
Overview of the process from pre-examination to public defence
During the summer it may take several weeks after your defence before you can officially graduate. If you wish to graduate by a certain date, take care to compare your School’s DPC dates against your defence date and official graduation dates.
If you will not officially graduate by 31.7.2026, you will need to enrol for the academic year 2026-2027. You cannot start your pre-examination process or defend your thesis if you haven't enrolled for the ongoing academic year. The academic year 2026-2027 starts on 1.8.2026.
More information
Preparing for the public defence
Instructions for planning and arranging public defences (for doctoral student and custos)
Publishing your doctoral thesis
Instructions for preparing your doctoral thesis for publication and printing, and information on archiving
Proceedings of the public defence day
Instructions for arranging the public defence (public examination of the doctoral thesis) and "karonkka" (post-doctoral party).
Steps toward graduation
Graduation instructions for doctoral students
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