PhD Degrees

Thesis

Discussion of the Doctoral Thesis

The PhD degree is awarded upon passing the final exam, consisting in the discussion of the doctoral thesis.
International cooperation agreements (e.g. joint-research PhD thesis) may provide for specific procedures for obtaining the degree and for the composition of the commission.

Step 1: admission of the Thesis to discussion

To be admitted to the final exam, thesis must be evaluated by two external reviewers identified by the Teaching Board of the PhD programme.

The evaluators express, within 30 days, an analytical written judgment on the thesis and propose the admission to the discussion or not, for a period not exceeding 6 months if significant additions or corrections are necessary.

After this period, thesis will in any case admitted to discussion, accompanied by a new written opinion of such evaluators, written after the corrections or additions that may have occurred.

Step 2: discussion of the Thesis

The Commission for final exam is composed up of 3 members, 2 of which do not belong to Ca' Foscari and a maximum of one member belonging to the subjects participating in the PhD in associated form. In any case, the Commission has at least 2 members of academic origin. The Commission can be integrated by no more than two experts selected from public and private research organizations and recognized research institutions. Supervisors and co-supervisors cannot be members of the Commission.

The date and place of the discussion are communicated to the PhD students with a minimum notice of 20 days.

At the end of the discussion, the thesis, with motivated written collegial judgment, is approved or rejected. The Commission, with unanimous vote, has the faculty to attribute the praise in the presence of results of particular scientific importance.

Exam Final Deadlines

From January 1st, 2023, the paper delivery of the thesis is no longer expected.

If during your PhD you requested a interruption of various kinds and/or a Covid-19 extension, contact the secretariat of your PhD program or the Postgraduate Office for more information on the corresponding session.

The interested PhD students are those enrolled in the cycle 37 (three-year long),  cycle 37 (three-year long) PON and cycle 36 (four-year long).

There are 3 sessions of final exam.

file pdf Schedule of exam sessions 2024/25 48 KB

Final exam request: how to apply

Contacts
Postgraduate Administration

When to apply

You can apply to admission for the final exam only within the deadlines indicated.

In order to submit the application for the final exam, it is also necessary to be up-to-date with the payment of university fees and contributions.

How to apply for final thesis exam

Doctoral students must apply for their final thesis exam online within the deadlines indicated.
This is done by accessing your Reserved area on the University website and clicking on: Student Services - ESSE3 > Degree > Degree exam.
Before applying to your final thesis exam, you must be up-to-date with your student fees;

It is mandatory to insert an abstract of the thesis in both Italian and English.
Having completed the online procedure, students must pay two € 16.00 stamp duties in the “Pagamenti” section ("Payment"), using a Visa or MasterCard prepaid or credit card.

Apply to admission for the final exam [ITA]

Evaluation by referees: upload thesis

Contacts
ARic - Ufficio Dottorato di Ricerca - PhD Office

How to prepare thesis files

File of the thesis uploaded must be in PDF format and its size should not be larger than 10 MB, similar to the size required for the final thesis file, which must be submitted to the similarities verification software. Find helpful tips on how to create a PDF file and instructions to eventually compress it on the Thesis upload, anti-plagiarism and formatting webpage.
ATTENTION: the title of the file of the thesis must not contain accents and/or apostrophes. Otherwise an error screen will appear informing you that the file has not been loaded into the application.
Together with the thesis, the PhD student will have to upload a report on activities of the PhD Programme and on publications, preferably prepared according to the downloadable format annexed to this web page.

file rtf Report on activities 6 MB

How to upload thesis

By the indicated deadline,you will have to proceed with the upload of the thesis to the appropriate software by logging in with his credentials (registration number and password combination).

Together with the thesis, you will have to upload a report on activities of the PhD Programme and on publications, preferably prepared according to the downloadable format annexed to this web page.

By deadline, both files can be uploaded / modified.
It is also required, at this stage, to upload your own publications in ARCA catalogue [ITA], following the warnings posted.

At the conclusion of the evaluation procedure, the student will receive an email automatically sent which will inform him if he is admitted or not the final discussion.

In case of admission, the student must proceed with the upload of the final thesis in the Reserved Area reserved as indicated above.

Upload thesis for evaluation