When the opponent and custos have been appointed and date, time, and language of the defence confirmed, the Doctoral Programme will send an official invitation to the opponent. The Doctoral Programme also sends instructions for the opponent regarding the examination of the thesis. The opponent is requested to submit their statement by email within two weeks from the date of the public defence either to the custos or directly to the Doctoral Programme. The guidelines of the Schools can be found via the links below:

• ARTS
• BIZ
• ELEC
• ENG
• SCI

The Doctoral Programme will not send the thesis pdf to the opponent (that is student's responsibility). Please read more about the distribution of electronical and printed thesis here.

After the defence, the Doctoral Programme Committee will evaluate the thesis. You can find more information about the approval process here. 

The Doctoral Programme Committee appoints the supervising professor as the custos of the public defence. Another professor of the School with a doctoral degree in the same research field may also serve as the custos. The custos has the responsibilities listed below. 

• Custos is responsible for hosting the opponent(s) during their visit. It is good to inform the opponent about the schedules well in advance. Custos of the defence should agree together with the opponent(s) on travel arrangements for their stay in Finland. The secretarial services of the department handle all the bookings and offer their assistance by request from the custos. Please note that doctoral student should not be in contact with the opponent(s) before the defence, except for sending the thesis in a pdf form to them.
• The custos is supervising that the public defence follows the guidelines of Aalto University and is responsible for instructing the opponent(s) on practicalities of the defence. In ARTS, the custos should ensure that the opponent(s) are familiar with the grading scale used and the principles of grading to be observed.
• In online or hybrid defences, the custos is responsible for instructing the audience during the defence. Custos should inform the guests to mute their microphones and keep their webcams closed unless they wish to ask a question regarding the doctoral work at the time allocated for comments. Student and custos should agree in advance how to proceed if there are any technical problems during the defence. It is recommended to have at hand an appointed person for fetching help if needed.
• The custos ensures that the statement of the opponent is made according to the guidelines of the School and that it is submitted to the Doctoral Programme within two (2) weeks from the date of the defence (or preferably at latest three (3) days before the next meeting of the Committee).
• In ARTS, custos must also submit their own report to the Committee covering  the defence proceedings (e.g. the start and end times, number of persons in the audience).

The secretarial services of the department handle all the bookings and offer their assistance by request from the custos. Note that for opponents based in Finland the travel arrangements and bookings are typically made directly by the opponent or by opponent's home institution, and travel expenses will be refunded afterwards. Department also pays the reimbursement for the opponents. Some departments also offer help for the doctoral student with the practical arrangements. 

The School is responsible for publishing the defence event page online at Aalto.fi. Your responsibilty is to submit the public defence announcement, which is added to the event. 

Public defence announcement and public display of thesis (aalto.fi)Discuss with the custos if it is worthwhile to advertise your thesis and the defence outside the Aalto community. You can prepare a press release for this purpose (possible targets: STT, Tekniikka & Talous, science journals, etc.).

Send the final PDF version of the doctoral thesis to the opponent as soon as it is ready. You should not be in contact with the opponent regarding the thesis in any other way before the defence.

The Doctoral Programme will inform you how the printed version of the thesis is delivered to the opponent and other parties. Some departments also offer help with the distribution of the printed thesis. Please see also the detailed instructions of your own School via:Distribution of thesis (aalto.fi)

Sal och inbjudningar

• Reservera en sal och en förberedelselokal eller se till att en sal är reserverad för disputationen (vanlig tid för reservationen är 10.00–16.00 så att tiden räcker till för förberedelser). Be om hjälp av din institution eller ansvarsprofessor.
• Kontrollera i god tid att tekniken fungerar i salen. Kontakta byggnadens entrétjänster om du behöver hjälp. Du kan också boka hjälp av IT-tjänsterna på adressen  servicedesk@aalto.fi (gör bokningen flera dagar i förtid).
• Kom på förhand överens med kustosen om hur ni gör om det uppstår tekniska problem. Det lönar sig att ha en utnämnd stödperson på plats som vid behov kan gå efter hjälp.
• Du kan bjuda in vem du vill till disputationen, till exempel andra experter inom området, förhandsgranskare, din handledare, din familj osv.
• Din högskola ser till att meddelandet om disputationen publiceras på aalto.fi.
• Salskyltar: Beroende på byggnad kan du antingen skicka en skylt i storlek A4 till entrétjänsterna (XX:s disputation, datum, sal) som de ställer upp utanför salen eller så kan du skicka samma uppgifter för att visas på byggnadens bildskärmar (Ekonominaukio 1).

Om doktoranden vill bjuda på förfriskningar ska hen ordna det själv och stå för kostnaderna. Catering kan beställas från byggnadens studentrestaurang.

Institutionen betalar opponentens arvode och vid behov hens rese- och uppehållskostnader.

Doktoranden betalar kostnaderna för karonkan.

• Kontakta IT-tjänsterna på adressen servicedesk@aalto.fi flera dagar innan din disputation och kom överens om IT-stöd på förhand.
• Observera att du ska ha en stödperson utöver dig själv och din kustos som håller koll på Zoom under din disputation. IT-tjänsterna kan i regel bara hjälpa innan disputationen och i början av den, de är inte tillgängliga under hela disputationen i Zoom. Du kan till exempel be en medstuderande hjälpa dig.
• Läs IT-tjänsternas anvisningar för disputationer via Zoom och snabbanvisningar för Zoom
• Skicka Zoom-länken till ditt doktorandprogram så snabbt som möjligt, minst 15 dagar innan disputationen.
• Kustosen ansvarar för att anvisa publiken under disputationen. Kustosen ska uppmana deltagarna att hålla sina mikrofoner och kameror avstängda under hela disputationen om de inte ber om ordet under tiden som har reserverats för det.