The guidelines have been established to ensure good quality, equal treatment and safeguarding of the doctoral candidate when using digital solutions during the doctoral examination.

Norsk versjon: Doktorgradsprøve og digitale løsninger

The PhD regulations (in Norwegian) form the basis for the guidelines, and the content of the regulations is not reproduced in the guidelines. The guidelines apply to both PhD candidates and dr.philos.

The faculties may have their own supplementary guidelines for the use of digital solutions and for the completion of the doctoral examination.

By doctoral examination is meant a test lecture (prøveforelesning), or other examination on a given subject, and public defense (disputation).

The doctoral exam can be completed locally and/or using digital tools. Local or semi-digital doctoral exams are recommended, while fully digital doctoral exams can be completed if it is in the best interests of the implementation. The faculty decides the form of the implementation.

Presence on campus using digital solutions

The candidate and internal member / administrator of the committee shall normally be physically present on campus when completing the doctoral examination with digital solutions. This makes it easier to take care of the candidate's needs before, during and after the doctoral examination. External members of the assessment committee are encouraged to attend physically but can participate digitally if deemed appropriate.

The main supervisor is encouraged to be physically present on the day of the dissertation.

Routines / requirements for digital doctoral exams

A digital stream of the disputations must be publicly available in accordance with the regulations §19-2 (PhD) (in Norwegian) and §11 (dr.philos), and be made known in the announcement of the doctoral exam.

Admission and storage of doctoral dissertations

In general, it is not recommended to publish recordings of the dissertation after the doctoral dissertation. Recordings of a trial lecture can be published if appropriate.

Normally, audio or video recording of a trial lecture shall not be submitted before the actual doctoral examination. However, if the facilitation of a trial lecture requires recordings in advance, the recording must be delivered within the given number of days for preparation (10 days).

If it is necessary to make audio or video recordings of the doctoral dissertation and publish it after the dissertation, the person who publishes the content (NTNU or the candidate himself) must take responsibility for this being done in accordance with the Privacy Ordinance (GDPR) and the Copyright Act, see NTNU's routines for consent in connection with photo-video-audio.

The guidelines have been decided by the vice-rector following a recommendation from vice deans research 22.04.2022.