A PhD comprises 240 credits, which corresponds to four years of full-time study. It is possible to transfer credits from certain Master’s courses or the equivalent – this is considered on a case-by-case basis. For a doctorate, you must have passed the courses that form part of the programme and the doctoral thesis. The thesis is defended orally at a public event.

Booking a date for a thesis defence

Doctoral students are to book a date for their thesis defence. Make the booking as soon as possible after your individual study plan has been followed up and it has been confirmed that it is time for the thesis defence. When you have made the booking, the departmental representative or head of department is to submit a registration of a thesis defence, read more about this in the section below.

Instructions for booking a date for a thesis defence

1. Log in to the thesis defence system – lth.se
   State your Lucat ID (do not add "@lu.se" to the user name).
2. Fill in all the fields in the booking form.
3. Click on "Book and mail".

Submit a registration of a thesis defence

Registrations of a thesis defence are submitted by a departmental representative or head of department at the latest eight weeks before the planned date for the thesis defence (please note that summer and winter breaks are not counted as part of the eight-week period).

Submit a registration of a thesis defence

Regulations and forms

• Guidelines for faculty opponents and examination committee members (PDF, 77 kB, new window)
• Instructions to students and supervisors about the defence (PDF, 1,7 MB, new window)
• Regulations on notification of a public defence, examining committee and faculty examiner (in Swedish) (PDF, 683 kB, new window)
• Template for examining committee minutes (in Swedish) (PDF, 81 kB, new window)

Degree

You apply for a degree certificate through an application form.

Download the application form for degree certificate – lunduniversity.lu.se