Reader and Final seminar

Final Seminar

AHO requires the completion of a finishing seminar by each candidate. The finishing seminar focuses on supporting the academic quality of the work and provides a forum for discussing strategies around the thesis presentation. The format of the seminar is intended to be flexible to allow different approaches to finishing the thesis. It may either be used as a final check on a very advanced thesis document, or as a forum for finalising the strategy around the presentation of that document.

The finishing seminar requires an opponent to review a version of the final PhD thesis. Opponent appointments and the date of the final seminar must be ratified by the programme board.

The finishing seminar takes place between 9 and 3 months before the final thesis submission, at the discretion of the supervisor and candidate.

The submitted material should comprise at least 3/4 of the empirical work undertaken (regardless of research form) together with a literature review/environmental scan/contextualisation, a description of the methods issues in the thesis and a written formulation of the thesis proposed. 

The opponent provides a reading of the thesis in a seminar format together with a report on the state of the thesis concerning the checklist for the submitted thesis. This is provided to the candidate, supervisor and the programme board.
 
The finishing seminar budget should include funds both for reading the thesis and attending AHO either virtually or physically to discuss the work. The honorarium for reading the thesis, writing the report and participating in the seminar is NOK 6 000. No research administration funds are available for travel for mid-term seminars. 

Funding for the mid-term seminar is retained based on time set aside for the opponent. The honorarium is NOK 6 000. No research administration funds are available for travel for mid-term seminars.

Reader

Alternatively, a candidate can organize to have a reader instead of a final seminar. The reader must have a PhD and is appointed by the PhD program board based on a proposal from the doctoral candidate’s principal supervisor. The reader can be internal or external, but only external readers are given an honorarium.

The arrangement acts as an extra quality assurance, as well as providing the candidate with critical and constructive feedback on the dissertation before the final submission.
 
The reader is expected to submit a written report with specific advice on necessary changes and corrections. The closing remarks should conclude with a reasoned assessment of whether the dissertation is ready to be submitted for final evaluation or not. Overall, the report as a whole should be valuable for the candidate in the finishing stages of the dissertation.
 
The scope of a reader report will vary on the background of the character of the dissertation and the candidate’s individual needs. Normally the report will be a discussion of 3-5 A4 pages, where the following aspects are referred to:

• the dissertation’s original contribution to the research field
• the manner of working and the use of method
• the selection and handling of the empirical material
• theoretical insights and the level of reflection
• academic craft, including reference apparatus and language
• argumentation and structure
• overall quality (is it ready for final submission)

The finished reader report is to be sent to the principal supervisor and the candidate, with a copy to the Research Administration at AHO. The candidate and supervisor have two weeks to present a response to the report to the PhD program board. The reader report and the response from the candidate will be presented to the PhD program board for information and approval. In case of significant need for changes, the program board shall implement measures. 

The response should not be more than one A4 page, and state how they have received the report, which changes will be carried out in the dissertation and when one thinks that the thesis may be submitted to final adjudication.