Evaluation of the doctoral thesis. Defence proceedings
The doctoral thesis will be evaluated during the defence proceedings, which will take place in a public session at any of the facilities of the University of Zaragoza or those centres and institutes collaborating with the Doctoral School or the Doctoral Programme. It may also be carried out remotely.
The panel will necessarily be constituted with the attendance of all its members. The secretary of the panel is the member in charge of the collection, custody and delivery of the documentation associated with the thesis defence act. However, in the act of constitution, for practical reasons, another of its members may be designated to carry out these functions. Once constituted, if there is any incident that prevents its normal development, the defence ceremony will be interrupted. If this incident cannot be resolved within the date set for the defence ceremony, it will be postponed by the president of the tribunal to a date that will be communicated by the secretary to the Doctoral School together with a report of the incident that occurred.
The defence of the thesis will consist of the presentation and defence by the doctoral candidate before the members of the tribunal of the research work carried out, explaining the methodology, the results and their discussion, and the conclusions, with special mention of their original contributions based on the presentation of the existing background. The presentation time will not exceed one hour unless the president deems it appropriate to extend the time limit.
At the end of the presentation, the members of the examining board will ask the doctoral candidate any questions they consider appropriate. Likewise, the doctors present at the event may do so at the time and in the manner indicated by the chair of the examining board. The doctoral candidate will have a turn to speak to respond for as long as the chair indicates.
The examining board will have the activities document (DAD) with the training activities carried out by the doctoral candidate. This will not give rise to a quantitative score, but it will constitute an instrument of qualitative evaluation that will complement the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.
After the presentation and the debate, the examining board will deliberate behind closed doors. Each member of the examining board will issue a report on the thesis and the defence. The overall grade will be awarded according to the following scale: not suitable, approved, notable and outstanding. Immediately afterwards, and in a public hearing, this will be made known to the doctoral student.
Each member of the examining board must complete the proposal form for the Special Prize, in accordance with the evaluation criteria for the Special Doctorate Prizes in the corresponding branch.
A mention cum laude will be awarded if the final grade is outstanding and there is unanimity in the secret vote that each member of the examining board must cast. The counting of these votes will take place in the administrative section of the Doctoral School.
Queries: tesis@unizar.es