The presentations take place twice a year, depending on the date of the PhD student's enrolment.
At the presentation, the PhD student is expected to present his/her project and to demonstrate progress and quality of the research project and an ability to present research. The PhD student will present in front of his/her supervisors (preferably both, but at least one of them has to be present) and two appointed opponents. The department faculty, including fellow PhD students, will also be invited.
The duration of the presentation as such is max. 15 min. (make sure NOT to exceed this time limit). Two relevant members of the BTECH staff will act as opponents (max. 10 minutes each); in other cases, i.e. if a project is outside the expertise of the BTECH staff, other AU faculty members may be called to act as opponents. Alternatively, PhD students may be called to present at other departments/sections. In exceptional cases, external experts may also be called upon. The remaining time (10 minutes) is left for questions and comments from the rest of the BTECH faculty attending the presentation.
The supervisors are not to interfere in the presentation or the dialogue afterwards, unless critical supplementary information is needed.
After the presentation, the opponents will discuss and conclude regarding the progress of the PhD student, the ability to publish research and to present research. One major task of the opponents is to assess if it is possible for the PhD student to finish on time. However, the main responsibility for estimating if the dissertation can be expected to be delivered on time lies with the supervisor(s).
In the possible event that the opponents have some concerns after the first year presentation, the opponents will meet with the supervisors. The latter will have the opportunity to provide supplementary information before the final evaluation report is made.
In order to ensure that important recommendations and/or suggestions for improvement are implemented, the PhD field committee may decide to ask the PhD student to make a supplementary presentation (approximately after 6 months).
For the presentation, the PhD student is asked to hand in a short report (no more than 6-8 pages) at least 10 working days prior to the presentation. During the first year presentation, the PhD student is supposed to give a status of the thesis work, choice of theory and research design, collected (or planned) data and (if possible) preliminary results.
The report should also be an update of the PhD project description and should be added to the PhD plan (also part of the evaluation report which has to be made after the second semester), addressing a thorough update of the key elements outlined in the BSS internal guidelines ‘Rules and regulations for the PhD programme’, section 8.2. The PhD student must send the final report to Sven Kunisch, his/her supervisors and the appointed opponents (cc/ the BTECH PhD administration) at least 10 working days prior to the presentation.
Slides must be distributed two working days ahead of the presentation. In the event that you should have a published/ready-to-publish paper, you are welcome to forward that as well.
After the presentation and assessment have been concluded, one of the PhD field committee members does the final editing before handing in the report on the PhD student’s progress to the head of the Graduate School of Business and Social Sciences. The PhD student and his/her supervisors will of course be informed of what is written about the PhD student’s progress.
Before the presentation
The PhD student must forward a 6-8 page report 10 working days before the presentation, and slides must be distributed two working days ahead of the presentation.
The PhD student must send the final report and slides to Sven Kunisch, his/her supervisors and the appointed opponents (cc/ the local PhD administration: Christina Nørgaard Kuhr).
At the presentation
After the presentation
The opponents convene, and one of the PhD field committee members prepare an assessment on the basis of the opponents' notes.