PhD ceremony and PhD diploma

You must upload the title page in Hora Finita at least 2 months before your PhD ceremony. The templates below can be used to desing your title page. After your title page has been approved by the PhD degree registration office, you can include the title page in the final version of your manuscript.

Please note

Wait to print your dissertation until the title page has been approved. So, upload your title page on time.

Templates of dissertation title page

You can download the title page template as a PDF:

• PhD degree
• Double PhD degree
• Joint Doctoral

Printed version

The printed version of your thesis (2 copies plus 2 copies of their propositions) can be

• handed in at the Library Support Desk (Broerstraat 4), or
• sent to our postal address:
  
  University of Groningen Library
  Dissertations department
  Postbus 559
  9700 AN Groningen

Electronic version

The electronic versions of the thesis and the propositions must be submitted via Hora Finita .

Why do I have to fill out a license agreement?

By completing the licence agreement, you grant the University of Groningen permission to publish the thesis via the UG Research Portal.

If you fully agree to the open access (non-exclusive publication) publication of your dissertation, you can skip points 1 through 3 and sign directly.

If material in your dissertation is not open access, your dissertation will be placed under a provisional embargo for one year. Under points 1 and 2 of the license agreement, you can indicate which applies:

Under point 1, indicate that the dissertation contains material that you intend to publish. These are often chapters of the dissertation with the status 'Submitted', 'In preparation', or 'Under review'.

Under point 2, indicate that the dissertation contains material that has already been published.

If you are publishing a commercial edition of the dissertation, please mention this in a note on the license agreement. You can upload the publisher's agreement as an attachment via Hora Finita.

Point 3 of the license agreement informs you that we initially place a one-year embargo on the complete thesis starting from the promotion date. This embargo expires automatically. If agreements with a publisher require an extension of this embargo after the first year, please email us at dissertations rug.nl.

Below you find a document with a summary of the protocol.

Protocol for the PhD ceremony

The PhD Regulations University of Groningen incorporate a number of statutory provisions conform the Higher Education and Research Act (in Dutch: WHW), and a number of conditions laid down by the PhD Board of the University of Groningen. Among other things, the PhD Regulations stipulate who will be allowed admission to the PhD programme and how the supervisors and co-supervisors are appointed, how the thesis shall come into being, and how the Assessment and PhD examining committee shall be composed.

The PhD regulations take effect as of 1 September, 2018 and replace the old regulations.

The most salient changes in comparison with the old PhD regulations are that:

• from now each PhD must be supervised by at least two formal supervisors, namely two full professors (promotores) or one full professor (promotor) and one co-supervisor (copromotor)
• the Graduate School Admissions Committee will make decisions regarding the admission of prospective students to a PhD programme
• a training and supervision plan must be drawn up by the PhD student and the supervisors before the PhD programme begins
• the PhD student will take an academic pledge at the PhD ceremony
• the PhD student will no longer be awarded a PhD degree by the Faculty, but by the University
• the PhD procedure is organised through a digital workflow (the application Hora Finita, information can be obtained from the Graduate Schools)
• the PhD student must deliver an electronic version of the thesis and the propositions
• the PhD student must submit his data with accompanying explanatory notes .

In the menu on the left you can find information about the PhD procedure, a description of the protocol during the PhD ceremony and a list of useful addresses.

The times of PhD ceremonies are as follows:

• 9.00 p.m.
• 11.00 a.m.
• 12.45 p.m.
• 2.30 p.m.
• 4.15 p.m.

You can reserve a date for a defense in Hora Finita by yourself. As soon as you have uploaded your thesis in Hora Finita, and your assessment committee have been intalled and invited, you will receive an email indicating that you can reserve your own defense date in Hora Finita.

More information: Instruction manual reservation defense date in Hora Finita

You can use the Promotion Request Form at My University to tell the Facilities Management Department if you would like to hold a reception after your ceremony. It is wise to reserve one of the reception rooms six weeks before your promotion date.

Attending the PhD defence ceremony

• The defence ceremony is open to the public.
• The defence ceremony will be held in the Aula, which has room to seat 320 people. Thirty seats will be reserved for the PhD candidate’s family. If this will not be enough, please contact the Porters’ Office. If it is not possible to hold the defence ceremony in the Aula, then it will be held in the Senate Room where there are 100 seats.
• Children under the age of 6 are not permitted to attend the defence ceremony.
• The Academiegebouw has a lift and wheelchair access through the side entrance.
• If desired, PhD candidates can request a parking space in the car park next to the Academy Building by sending an email to receptie.academie@rug.nl. Guests can park in the nearby Q-Park Ossenmarkt or Parkeergarage Forum car parks, which are approximately a 7-minute walk from the Academy Building.

Taping and photography facilities

• During the actual defence part of the ceremony, no photographs may be taken.

Dress code

It would be appreciated if your clothing reflects the value attached by the University to the defence ceremony.

Reception

At the end of the defence ceremony the Beadle, one of the Porters, will lead you to the reception room or to the exit if the reception is being held elsewhere.

Are you planning to use your diploma abroad? Then you may need to request an apostille.

More information can be found on the Legalising a Dutch document with an apostille on the Government of the Netherlands website.

The PhD diploma is only issued once. We cannot issue a new diploma if it’s lost or damaged.

However, we can provide a copy of the declaration. If you want to request a copy of the declaration, please send an email to promoveren rug.nl.

You can submit a verification request using the Request statement or submit verification request form.