Preparing the defence

Deadline

The doctoral study programme must be completed before the composition of the doctoral jury (cf. General PhD Regulations, art. 25). You can complete your doctoral study programme when your file meets the minimum requirements of the doctoral study programme. 

Keep in mind that it can take up to 3 weeks to process your completion file, and make sure to contact the Antwerp Doctoral School on time.

Please note: the following faculties manage the doctoral study programme independently. Consult the administrative contact regarding the procedure:

• Faculty of Law;
• Faculty of Business and Economics;
• Institute of Development Policy.
  

When your completion file has been approved, you will receive an e-mail with a link to the exit survey. In this survey, we query you about your experiences during your PhD and where you potentially see room for improvement. By filling out this exit survey, you help us to make informed policy decisions and to further improve the PhD trajectory for your fellow PhD researchers.

Conditions for completing the doctoral study programme

To complete the doctoral study programme, certain minimum conditions need to be met:

• Activities worth at least 30 points (in total) need to be proven;
• In at least 4 categories of the competence profile, at least 1 point must be obtained;
• At a maximum, half of the total number of points can be obtained in 1 competence category;
• Your file meets all additional specific requirements as laid out in the faculty PhD regulations (e.g. mandatory courses, max. points per category, etc.);
• The compulsory training Mind the GAP was successfully completed and the participation certificate was delivered as proof (only applicable for PhD researchers that started their PhD in academic year 2022-2023 or later);
• Your completion file is in order (see below).

Submitting your completion file to the Antwerp Doctoral School

Email your complete file to DoctoralSchool@uantwerpen.be. 

Depending on the period in which you submitted the progress reports, the process differs:

• activities reported from academic year 2018-2019 onwards:

Download your activities overview in SisA via 'ePhD' > 'Doctoral training' > 'my doctoral training' > button 'Print' at the top. Email this PDF file to the Antwerp Doctoral School. These activities were approved and sufficient proof has been provided in SisA.

• activities reported in academic years 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2017-2018:

You need to provide proof for these activities. Download the Excel overview in SisA via 'ePhD' > 'Doctoral training' > 'manage activities' > button 'points until 17-18' and add a new column 'Proof number'. Assign a number to each of your supporting documents and put this number next to the corresponding activity in the activities overview.

• activities reported before academic year 2015-2016:

These activities were submitted on paper at the time. You need to provide proof for these activities. You can add (the scans of) these progress reports to your file; assign a number to each of your supporting documents and put this proof number next to the corresponding activity in the overview. In the Excel overview and the PDF overview (see SisA: 'ePhD' > 'Doctoral training' > 'my doctoral training' > button 'Print'), you will find the points for these older activities under 'gegevensoverdracht' (data transfer).

If your file does not comply with the conditions, it will not be accepted for review and you will be asked to modify it. In case additional proof needs to be provided, it must be very clear which supporting document belongs to which activity in your overview. The supporting documents must be submitted electronically via email (ZIP file), Dropbox, WeTransfer, etc.

Approval of completion

The Antwerp Doctoral School (ADS) will check your file within 3 weeks. Please keep this in mind when planning your defence!

If your file is approved, you will receive a confirmation via email with an overview of the approved activities (for which sufficient proof was available). The completion of your doctoral study programme is then indicated in SisA. When your doctoral study programme is completed, you can't add or report any activities anymore in SisA.

Good to know

After completing your doctoral study programme, you can still participate in courses and use the educational credit until the end of the academic year in which your public PhD defence takes place. You won't have to report on your doctoral study programme anymore. However, the progress report on your research is still due.

Upload at the latest when submitting the first draft thesis to the IPC the completed and signed confidentiality checklist (with an original (digital) signature of each supervisor) via the tile 'Requests' in SisA (New Request > PhD doctoral thesis > Submit confidentiality checklist). The PDF form will automatically be sent to the Valorisation Office and the faculty doctoral administration. As soon as the form is submitted, the milestone 'Arranging confidentiality' in ePhD will automatically be completed. As long as the confidentiality checklist is not submitted, it will be impossible to submit an application for the announcement of your public defence.

The confidentiality checklist determines if your thesis must be placed under a permanent embargo or not.

While submitting the confidentiality checklist, you will be asked to indicate if your thesis may only be consulted after signing a confidentiality agreement. If you answer yes to this question, then your thesis will automatically be placed under permanent embargo. If this needs to be changed later on (e.g. if a mistake was made), then the faculty doctoral administration can change this. 

In some cases, the permanent embargo may later no longer be needed, e.g. because the patent application has been published. In that case you can send an adapted confidentiality checklist via email to valorisatie@uantwerpen.be with the question to make your thesis open access available.

If there are other reasons - which are not the subject of the confidentiality checklist - why you do not wish to make your thesis immediately open access available, then you can opt for an embargo period of 1, 2 or 5 years when you submit the digital version of your thesis to the Library via SisA (see STEP 7).

Check the rules regarding the additional layout of a confidential PhD thesis (permanent embargo or embargo period of limited duration).

Send the appropriate number of copies of the draft thesis to the chair of the IPC. The chair is responsible for distributing the draft thesis among the other members of the IPC (see also the General PhD Regulations, art. 30 et seq.).

The IPC has a maximum of four weeks to issue a written recommendation to the PhD researcher with respect to the draft thesis. Depending on your faculty, an internal defence for the IPC is part of the evaluation (see below). Consult your faculty PhD regulations to see whether this is the case in your faculty or contact the faculty PhD administration.

If the individual PhD commission’s response is negative, it will inform the PhD researcher of its objections and remarks. If their recommendation is positive, the IPC may also formulate a limited number of suggestions for improving the draft thesis.

If your research is confidential, then normally the entire IPC has previously signed a declaration of confidentiality IPC (see submission progress report on the PhD research). If you are not sure whether this happened, or if it only recently became apparent that your research is confidential, then check whether this was taken care of before you send your draft thesis to the chair of your IPC. Not sure if your research is confidential? Check this together with your supervisor(s) and the Valorisation Office.

Potential internal defence

The internal defence is a presentation of the research on a technical level and is only accessible to the IPC. After a (short) presentation, a discussion about the research starts. This means that it is not a question-and-answer conversation like during the public defence.

In some faculties, instead of an internal defence, a pre-defence for the entire doctoral jury applies (see STEP 5). In other faculties, neither are applicable. Consult the faculty PhD regulations for more information or contact the faculty PhD administration.

The faculty determines the composition of the doctoral jury after having verified that you are enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Antwerp and have completed the doctoral study programme. 

Your faculty also takes care of the details of your defence (time, date, location). A number of conditions for the composition of the doctoral jury need to be met which you can find in the General PhD Regulations (art. 25 et seq.) and also in the faculty PhD regulations. Please get in touch with the administrative contact person in your faculty in case of questions regarding the composition of the jury.

If you defend your thesis at a different university than UAntwerp as a joint PhD, please make sure to check the provisions which were agreed upon in your individual joint PhD contract and the General PhD Regulations, art. 45.

When the individual PhD commission (IPC) consents to the submission of the thesis, the PhD researcher sends a sufficient number of copies of the draft of the PhD thesis, along with a written application to defend the thesis publicly, to the chair of the doctoral jury. You should also contact the administrative contact person of your faculty to obtain more information regarding the practical procedure in force. Unless stipulated otherwise by your faculty, you are required to provide one copy of your thesis for each jury member.

If you are doing a PhD in the Faculty of Science (doctor of Science), then remember to fill in the form Arranging the defence and send it to doctoratenwetenschappen@uantwerpen.be.

Get in touch with the administrative contact person in your faculty to find out more about the process.

The doctoral jury then has six weeks to decide whether you can go ahead with the public defence of your thesis. Depending on your faculty, a pre-defence for the doctoral jury is part of the evaluation (see below). Consult your faculty PhD regulations to see whether this is the case in your faculty or contact the faculty PhD administration. In most faculties a pre-defence is applicable.

If your research is confidential, then your supervisor(s), in consultation with the Valorisation Office, must contact the chair of your jury to take the necessary measures to maintain confidentiality. The entire jury must in that case sign a declaration of confidentiality doctoral jury. Check whether this has been taken care of before you send your draft thesis to the chair of your jury. Not sure if your research is confidential? Check this together with your supervisor(s) and the Valorisation Office. 

If you defend your thesis at a different university than UAntwerp as a joint PhD, please make sure to check the provisions which were agreed upon in your individual joint PhD contract and the General PhD Regulations, art. 45.

Potential pre-defence

The pre-defence is a presentation of the research on a technical level. The difference with the public defence is that the pre-defence is only accessible to the doctoral jury. After a (short) presentation, a discussion about the research starts. This means that it is not a question-and-answer conversation like during the public defence.

After the discussion the PhD candidate is asked to leave the room and the doctoral jury deliberates. They will immediately come to a decision at that point and will make it known:

• the thesis is accepted for the public defence without any amendments;
• the thesis is conditionally accepted for public defence with small amendments: in that case the supervisor follows up on the corrections;
• the thesis is conditionally accepted for public defence with big amendments: in this case the whole doctoral jury follows up on the corrections;
• very extensive amendments: after the thesis is adapted the doctoral jury will asses the thesis again and a second pre-defence will be scheduled.

In some faculties, instead of a pre-defence, an internal defence applies which is only accessible to the IPC (see STEP 3). In other faculties, neither are applicable. 

Consult the faculty PhD regulations for more information or contact the faculty PhD administration.

The public defence can take place no earlier than three weeks after the doctoral jury’s decision has been communicated to the Registrar’s Office by the PhD researcher. A date must be selected for the defence within six weeks of the communication of the jury’s decision. The public defence should take place within a reasonable time period. This period excludes the UAntwerp holiday periods listed in the academic calendar and any maternity or parental leave taken by the PhD researcher. No public defences can take place between 20 July and 20 August (cf. General PhD Regulations, art. 34 et seq.).

As soon as the date of your public defence is known, the following steps need to be taken care of:

• Announce the defence at least three weeks beforehand via your SisA Self-service account (see helpdesk for more information). Please note: when you announce your public PhD defence, a pop-up will appear asking you to confirm whether your thesis title and full name are correct. Make sure that you check these carefully, because this information will appear on your diploma and it is not possible to change it afterwards. 
• For all joint PhD researchers this announcement has to include a proof of enrolment (in English or Dutch) in the partner institution for the academic year in which the defence will take place, except for joint PhD's within Flanders.
• The announcement of your public defence will be published in the digital calendar of UAntwerp. You may need to provide an abstract of your doctoral thesis (in English and Dutch). Please follow the faculty guidelines.
• For the further organisation of your public defence (reservation of the room, invitations, reception, etc.), contact the administrative contact person of your faculty.
  

After the submission of the form, your enrolment in the academic year of the PhD defence will be verified. The Registrar's Office will also contact you to arrange the payment of the outstanding tuition fee for the academic year of your defence.  

Furthermore, your diploma file will be prepared, including the certificate for the doctoral study programme and the accompanying certificate supplement (except in case of an exemption from the doctoral study programme). The finalisation of your doctoral study programme is ratified by a certificate accompanied by a certificate supplement. The certificate and certificate supplement for the doctoral study programme are always obtained in combination with a PhD diploma. The supplement provides a general description of the competences (the seven categories of the competence profile). It is created for each PhD researcher individually (by name) and clearly states that you have successfully completed the doctoral study programme. You can download an overview of your specific activities via the SisA self-service (see STEP 1).

More info on the diploma file and the issuing of it can be found in After the defence.

Your doctoral thesis has to be submitted to the Library of the University of Antwerp (see procedure on the website of the Library). The digital version and one hard copy (paper version) need to be submitted in a timely manner to the Library. More hard copies may be needed for your faculty; make sure to check the guidelines for your faculty.

Please note: the digital version of the PhD thesis has to be submitted via a procedure in SisA. Consult the helpdesk for more information. Please be aware that this is the final version of your thesis. Check it closely for mistakes before you submit it.

​Practical questions about this should be discussed with the administrative contact of your faculty.

PhD thesis availability

UAntwerp has an open access policy regarding PhD theses, unless your thesis contains confidential information.

The confidentiality checklist (see STEP 2) determines if your thesis must be placed under a permanent embargo or not. This checklist must be submitted at the latest when you submit your thesis to your individual PhD commission.

In some cases, the permanent embargo may later no longer be needed, e.g. because the patent application has been published. In that case you can send an adapted confidentiality checklist via email to valorisatie@uantwerpen.be with the question to make your thesis open access available.

If there are other reasons - which are not the subject of the checklist - why you do not wish to make your thesis immediately open access available, then you can opt for an embargo period of 1, 2 or 5 years when you submit the final version of your thesis via SisA.

Please note that a confidential PhD thesis (permanent embargo or embargo of limited duration) requires additional layout.

DOI

The Library ensures that all UAntwerp PhD theses are assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). This assignment and uploading the metadata to Crossref is completely free for UAntwerp researchers. It is therefore no longer necessary to apply for an ISBN number. You can find more information on the Library's website.

It is time: the day of your public PhD defence has finally arrived! Everything has been prepared, the catering is ready and the audience members arrive ...

After the annoucement, the doctoral jury will enter the room in procession. Next, you are expected to give a presentation on your doctoral research. This is followed by a question-and-answer session. Afterwards, the doctoral jury will go to another room to deliberate. When they have reached a decision, they come back in and make their decision public. They will let you know whether you passed the doctoral examination (grades are not awarded for PhDs).

If the result is positive, then your supervisor wild hold a laudatio. You are also expected to say a word of thanks. Now the official part is over, and the reception can begin!

Congratulations, you have now obtained the degree of doctor!