Assesing a PhD thesis in Copenhagen

I had  honor to serve as an assessor to Nana Svane's (University of Copenhagen) Ph.D. thesis last week. The assessor team consisted of 3 persons, one being the main or responsible assessor that would equal our custos, but this person cannot be the supervisor, as in our case the custos usually is. In addition, the assessor team consisted of 2 external evaluator (usually 1 national and 1 international), and we all 3 first pre-examined the thesis (in January), but also the difference to Finnish system was, that quite rarely the PhD candidate is asked to revise the thesis after this stage. Instead, he/she sees our comments and can prepare to them and response in his/her dissertation.

The public defence followed pretty much the same formula as with us, but the lectio precursoria lasted 45 min, while we have it only for ca. 15 min. All 3 assessors were also asking the questions, around 30 + min per each. The only thing that I wasn't prepared was that I was the main or first assessor. Luckily, I've got the information in the pre-dinner, one evening before! 😂 The pubic defence was also much more relaxed and not so formal as in Finland, so I really enjoyed. We had really nice and mature discussion with Nana, and all that I can say is that I'm very proud of the work that she has done and wish all the best for the future career! Also, congratulations to the scientific parents (=supervisors), Mie and Birger! 😀 After the defense, the only thing that differed again was the celebration, and not in a bad way, just different, but I enjoyed!