The expert committee will be comprised of at least three members. The composition of the committee should normally be decided at the time of submission of the doctoral thesis.
The evaluation committee will normally be comprised so that:
-both genders are represented;
-at least one of the members is not affiliated with the institution;
-at least one of the members is not employed in his/her main position at a Norwegian institution;
-all the members hold a doctoral degree or equivalent expertise;
-the majority of the committee members are external.
If these criteria are not met, an explanation must be provided.
The ability of the members to serve in an impartial manner must be assessed - see attached guide and template for mail to potential members.
The evaluation committee is to be chaired by one internal member who is considered to be a fully participating member of the committee. The committee’s external members write their own independent evaluations and submit these to the committee’s chair. It is the chair’s responsibility to administer the committee’s work and to compile the external members’ evaluations into a single evaluation report. If the chair has additional comments, these may be incorporated into the report. The evaluation must conclude whether the doctoral thesis is worthy of a public defence and be approved by the committee members.
To ensure that the period from submission to public defence is not protracted, the chair should contact the other committee members as soon as the thesis is received and set a tentative date for the public defence. The chair should also decide in conjunction with the other committee members who will act as the first and second opponent.