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 book the date, you also need to add the departmental representative as an administrator of your booking, as this doesn't happen automatically. Notify the department representative when it's done so that the representative can submit a registration of a thesis defence, read more about this further down on this page.

Instruction on how to book a date and add the departmental representative as an administrator

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 and add the departmental representative as an administrator of your booking.
3. Click on "Book and mail".
4. Inform the departmental representative that you have added him or her as an administrator of your booking.

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, opens in a new tab)
• Instructions to students and supervisors about the defence (PDF, 1,7 MB, opens in a new tab)
• Information regarding the assignment as a member of an examining committee or external reviewer at the Faculty of Science (PDF, 266 kB, opens in a new tab)
• Rules of procedure for arranging a doctoral thesis defence – in Swedish only, translation pending (PDF, 243 kB, opens in a new tab)
• Template for examining committee minutes (in Swedish) (PDF, 81 kB, opens in a new tab)

Degree

You apply for a degree certificate through an application form.

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