Guidelines licentiate seminar

Date and time

The time and date for the licentiate seminar shall be planned by the principal supervisor in consultation with the doctoral student and the subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator (subject coordinator of Disability Science and Sport Science, specialisation coordinator within Medical Science).

Rules for the licentiate seminar

Applicable rules for the licentiate seminar can be found in the student handbook, “Regulations Handbook for Third-Cycle Courses and Study Programmes at Örebro University”.

Course requirements

For a licentiate seminar to be held, the student is first required to have received a passing grade on all compulsory courses.

Examiner

The principal supervisor will propose an examiner. This person must have the qualifications required for appointment as a docent or professor in addition to being a subject specialist. For more information, see section 12.3.1 in “Regulations Handbook for Third-Cycle Courses and Study Programmes at Örebro University”.

Arrangements should be made for a stand-in examiner.

The grade is determined by the examiner. For more information, see section 16.3 in “Regulations Handbook for Third-Cycle Courses and Study Programmes at Örebro University”.

Reviewer(s)

The principal supervisor will propose at least one reviewer. This person must have at least a doctoral degree. At least one reviewer must be based at another higher education institution.

Seminar leader

The seminar shall chaired by the subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator or a person appointed by him/her. The principal supervisor will discuss the arrangements together with the subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator.

Licentiate thesis preparation

.When preparing the licentiate thesis, there is a special template in Word that shall be used (please note however that it is specifically designed for the preparation of doctoral theses). The licentiate thesis should be written in English.

A licentiate thesis should contain two substudies with the doctoral student as the lead author of at least one of these. Usually, at least one substudy has been published or accepted for publication in refereed journals, but what is central to the examiner’s assessment of the thesis project is the doctoral student’s contribution and how this contribution corresponds to the intended learning outcomes. Systematic overview papers and meta-analyses/syntheses may be included in the thesis.

Journals

Journal(s) shall be contacted prior to the licentiate seminar to obtain permission to publish the paper and pictures/tables in the thesis (feel free to use this template for this purpose).

Plagiarism check

A plagiarism check shall be run on the introductory chapter. The doctoral student is responsible for sending the text to the plagiarism detection system Urkund, with assistance from a study and research administrator.

According to “Guidelines for plagiarism check of introductory chapters prior to the public defence of doctoral theses and licentiate seminar for the subject areas of medical science and disability science” (ORU 1.2.1-06334/2017) the doctoral student must send the introductory chapter excluding list of references (in the case of monographs, the entire thesis is checked for plagiarism) to the research study administrator three weeks prior to the doctoral/licentiate thesis is due to print, in accordance with the time plan drawn up by the doctoral student and printer’s. 

The specialisation coordinator/head of subject notifies the research study administrator of the result of the analysis. The administrator notifies the printer’s that printing can begin and informs the doctoral student and principal supervisor.

If the specialisation coordinator/head of subject is of the opinion that plagiarism may have occurred, they will contact the principal supervisor and the doctoral student without delay. The specialisation coordinator/head of subject will contact the printer’s to halt the printing of the doctoral/licentiate thesis.

Printing the licentiate thesis

Printing is to be done after the licentiate seminar and after a passing grade has been awarded for the thesis. The school meets the cost of two copies, one for archiving and one for the cabinet in which doctoral and licentiate theses are displayed. The cost of any further copies is met by the doctoral student (or supervisor).The doctoral student shall contact the Printing Office (Repro) at Örebro University concerning the printing and will at the same time submit the necessary details for invoicing and delivery arrangements. These details can be obtained from the study and research administrator.

Venues and refreshments

For room bookings for the seminar and for the examining body’s subsequent discussions, the principal supervisor is required to contact the study and research administrator well in advance. According to the “Guidelines on venues and refreshments in connection with doctoral programme activities” (ORU 1.2.1-01334/2017) shall activities carried out as part of the doctoral programmes take place on University premises.

The Study and Research Administrator may assist with the ordering of refreshments. According to the “Guidelines on venues and refreshments in connection with doctoral programme activities” (ORU 1.2.1-01334/2017) the school will order and meet the costs incurred for coffee and lunch for the examiner, supervisor and external reviewer. If the seminar takes place in the morning and a decision has been made before lunch, the doctoral student may also attend the lunch.

The doctoral student is responsible for organising and meeting any costs incurred for refreshments after the seminar.

Notification

After the examiner, reviewer(s) and seminar leader have agreed to take part, and no later than a month prior to the planned licentiate seminar, the principal supervisor shall send the “Proposal for and decision on public defence of licentiate thesis” together with supporting documentation by post or email (scanned in colour and signed using a blue-ink ballpoint pen) to the study and research administrator.

Supporting documents to be attached to the notification:

• brief summary of the licentiate thesis, in Swedish or English (approx. one A4 page)
• completed articles and manuscripts
• assessments concerning disqualification with respect to the examiner and reviewer(s) (for more information, see section 15.3.6 in “Regulations Handbook for Third-Cycle Courses and Study Programmes at Örebro University”)
• account by the principal supervisor of the doctoral student’s contributions, in the event of co-authored sub-studies or licentiate thesis
• transcript of results from LADOK (printed by the doctoral student in the student portal Studenttjänster)
• copies of ethical applications and permissions (excluding appendices to the applications). (If the ethical vetting application is written in a language other than Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or English, the document must be translated by an authorised translator.)
• account by the principal supervisor of the ethics permission in relation to the execution of the research project (medical science only)
• account of the reasons for any deviations from the guidelines.

The study and research administrator will forward the notification, together with the supporting documentation, to the subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator. The subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator will then forward the documents to the head of school.

Decision

The head of school will approve the time and venue for the seminar as well as the examiner, reviewer(s) and seminar leader. The decision will be passed on to the study and research administrator who will forward it to the examiner, reviewer(s) and seminar leader as well as to the doctoral student, all supervisors, the subject coordinator/specialisation coordinator and the director of studies for the doctoral programme in question.

Information to the reviewer(s), examiner and seminar leader

The study and research administrator will send a welcome letter and the decision via email to the reviewer(s), offering assistance when it comes to travel arrangements etc. The decision will also be forwarded to the seminar leader, all supervisors and the examiner. A transcript of results from LADOK, listing the doctoral student’s completed courses etc., will also be sent to the examiner.

Distribution of the licentiate thesis and other documents

The study and research administrator will send the licentiate thesis as a pdf via email to the reviewer(s), examiner and seminar leader. If applicable, the doctoral student distributes the licentiate thesis to other persons concerned. The study and research administrator sends copies of ethical applications and permissions to the examiner and reviewer(s). They must have the documents no later than 3 weeks prior to the planned seminar date.

Documentation

A few days before the seminar is due to take place, the study and research administrator puts together a folder containing a form for the assessment and other documentation and hands it over to the seminar leader in connection with the seminar. After the seminar, the seminar leader returns the folder with all the documents to the study and research administrator.

The seminar

The doctoral student introduces his/her work for approx. 30 minutes. This is followed by a discussion primarily with the reviewer(s) and examiner. The discussion is then extended to include all others present.

Language

The seminar shall be conducted in English or Swedish.

Duration

The duration of the seminar will be approximately 2 hours.

Documentation/assessment

The examiner shall provide a written assessment on a designated form, “Protokoll vid licentiatseminarium”.

Finance

The subject/specialisation will meet any costs for remuneration, travel and any accommodation for the reviewer(s). Under the university’s travel policy, the most appropriate and inexpensive mode of travel with regard to cost, time and environment shall be used.

Advertising

The seminar will be advertised on ORU’s and HV/MV’s online calendars and in accordance with any other requests of the subject/specialisation in question. The study and research administrators are responsible for the advertising.

Degree certificate

After an approved licentiate seminar, the doctoral student can apply for a degree. For more information, see the page to apply for a degree certificate. Note that the degree cannot be issued until a formal decision about “All courses completed for Research Education” has been made. If you have questions, please contact .