Dissertation Defense, Swedish style

After 3 years with no one graduating, last Friday was the first of 3 consecutive Friday dissertation defenses at the department.  Like my arrival, the defenses were originally scheduled for January then delayed due to Omicron so they could be held in person.

The process of defending a dissertation varies remarkably across countries, at least based on my personal experiences in the US, the Netherlands, and the UK where I've seen 3 very different models.  Sweden is now a 4th model.

At Pitt, the committee consists of 3 departmental faculty and at least one outside member (often a faculty from another department at Pitt).  The candidate sends us a draft document at least two weeks in advance.  The student gives a public one hour presentation followed by an open question session, then there is a private QA with the committee.  After that the committee decides if the student passes, and usually the student is asked to make some writing and sometimes even new research revisions.  The whole thing takes about two hours.  The defenses are sadly not broadly attended.  When we were in person, I provided some sparkling beverage at the event's conclusion to celebrate.

Here in Sweden, the dissertation is written and printed/published as a monograph in advance.  So I guess no revisions are ever asked for after the defense.  In my earlier KTH blog entry, I included a picture from the library where the monographs for upcoming defenses are displayed.  The actual defense was very well attended by all of the students and the faculty in the department, as well as by colleagues from further away and even the student's family.  Monographs are also made available for people who want them.  For the actual defense, the student did not make any sort of presentation.  Instead, an "opponent" from another university gave a one hour presentation summarizing and evaluating the student's work.  Then, the opponent spent about 30 minutes questioning the student.  Then, a "grading committee" (or something like that term) of three faculty from additional universities in Portugal, the Netherlands, and Sweden took turns asking the student questions.  All of this took about 2.5 hours.  Note that the student's actual faculty advisor just sat quietly in the audience.  The seminar room was a former Red Cross Chapel and is quite beautiful.

We then went back to the department while the final proceedings happened in private.  Not too long after, we heard a cheer and the festivities started. First there was sparkling wine.  Next,  the student's photo was added to  a giant top hat with all the prior graduates and similarly added to a rogues gallery along the wall that you can see in the photo.  Then a flower bouquet was presented by  the department. Friends as well as the advisor provided additional gifts.  After about an hour of this some chips and snacks came out.  Finally a gong was rung and we all went to the classroom/seminar room which had been turned into a party room.   

The student had to provide the food for quite a large crowd.  This student provided pizza (a faculty at our table was complaining about the quality of the food at this party). Next week's student is asking for donations. After dinner there were some presentations by his fellow grad students as well as his advisor.  We left around 8:30, 6.5 hours after the defense actually started.

Unfortunately today I awoke to an email from the student that because he was celebrating by flying to the US on Sunday, he had to get a Covid test on Saturday.  And you can guess the rest.  I hope we didn't just attend a super spreader event.