8. SUPERVISORS, DISSERTATION READERS, DOCTORAL COMMITTEE, EXAMINATION COMMITTEE AND DOCTORAL PROGRAM COUNCIL

8.1. The Doctoral Program Council:

The Board of EGS appoints the Doctoral Program Council (DPC). The DPC responds to all questions connected to the Doctoral Program at EGS. The DPC decides about the admission of a doctoral student, as well as the examination and graduation procedure. The DPC also has to approve the supervisor (First Reader), Second Reader, other members of the Doctoral Committee and the Examination Committee.

The DPC consists of 5 members. The members are recommended by the Deans of EGS, approved by the Provost and elected by the Board of Trustees. Three members must have had supervisor status in other accredited doctoral programs. All of them must have a terminal degree and teaching experience in higher education. They are elected for 4 years. Reelection is possible. Decisions are made by a simple majority.

8.2. The Doctoral Committee:

A Doctoral Committee (DC) serves the student as an advisory board during Phase II.

The DC consists of a supervisor and one or two members. The DC has at least three members including the student. The supervisor is responsible for the advising and is the academic Chair of the committee, while the student convenes the meetings.

8.3. Supervisors:

Supervisors are faculty members of EGS who have experience as supervisor in other accredited Doctoral Programs or have a terminal degree and extensive experience as faculty members in accredited Graduate Schools and in Doctoral Committees.

8.4. Dissertation Readers:

The supervisor is also the First Reader of the dissertation. The Second Reader must meet the same criteria as a supervisor. Second Readers may be from a faculty other than EGS.

The supervisor or doctoral student may request a Third Reader who may be a professional who does not meet the criteria of a supervisor but has expertise in the field of study. The supervisor, after consultation with the doctoral student, makes a recommendation for the one or two additional readers. The Doctoral Program Council must approve the readers.

8.5. Evaluation and Acceptance of the Dissertation for the Doctoral

Examination:
The Dissertation Readers give a written evaluation of the dissertation and a grade:

• very good
• good
• satisfactory
• unsatisfactory

If the dissertation is of exceptional quality, it may be evaluated with "summa cum laude".
A dissertation is accepted if all evaluations are at least satisfactory.

The Doctoral Program Council will intervene if one reader (not the supervisor) has judged the dissertation to be unsatisfactory. If the dispute cannot be resolved after such an intervention, the council will follow the suggestions of the supervisor for another reader and then form an average of all submitted grades.

The dissertation may also be returned to the candidate for revisions if all readers agree to such a procedure. The suggestions for the revision, however, must be concise and clear. If two readers have judged the dissertation to be unsatisfactory, the dissertation will be rejected and the examination cannot be taken.

8.6. The Examination Committee:

For each doctoral examination, an Examination Committee (EC) will be elected. The EC consists of the readers and an additional member approved by the Dean of the Doctoral Program. The doctoral candidate may submit suggestions for the additional member. The Doctoral Program Council (DPC) will, whenever possible, follow the suggestions and make the final decision. The DPC will also designate one of the readers as the Chair; usually it will be the supervisor. The Examination Committee will be responsible for the Defense Meeting and will evaluate the outcome. The EC will make the final decision on the grade, taking the readers' evaluations of the dissertation into account. The decision of the EC is final and will be presented to the Doctoral Program Council for referral of the degree to the Rector of EGS.

8.7. The Defense:

The Chairperson of the DPC will announce to the candidate the date of the defense after the dissertation is accepted. The date is determined in consultation with the candidate. The defense must focus on the dissertation and the questions that arise from dissertation-related research. The defense session will start with a short presentation by the candidate that introduces the dissertation research, content and results.

The defense is convened by the Chairperson of the Examination Committee, who also designates the taker of the minutes. The session will normally not last longer than two hours, and the presentation by the candidate must be within a time-frame of 20 minutes.
The defense is public.

8.8. Examination Results:

The Examination Committee will decide the outcome immediately after the defense in a non-public meeting. The EC will also decide the final qualification. Compared to the defense, the evaluation of the dissertation will have double weight in determining the final qualification.
The defense must be judged to be satisfactory at least. The defense may be repeated if the grade is unsatisfactory and must happen, at the earliest, within three months and, at the latest, by two years after the first attempt. A third attempt is not possible.

The EC will announce the result to the Doctoral Program Council for approval. The Rector will then send a letter of completion to the candidate that includes the final grade.

8.9. Publication of the Dissertation:

The dissertation must be available to the public. To confirm this, the candidate will deliver two bound copies of the dissertation to EGS free of charge. In addition the candidate has to demonstrate that an abstract (approved by the Senior Advisor) has been sent to the relevant publications database. The student must provide EGS with the International Library Code to show that this was done. The abstract must also be uploaded by the candidate to the EGS database.

EGS keeps dissertations on record at EGS. In order to have a student’s thesis on record he or she must submit the thesis (in addition to the 2 printed hard copies) on a burned CDROM. EGS will only accept your thesis-file in Microsoft Word format, either WinWord 95 (or higher) for Windows or MacWord 5 (or higher) for Mac. Students should submit the thesis in a single file. Students may choose between a minimal "text version" only or a "complete version including scans of pictures". Students also may include their address on the title page and offer a complete illustrated thesis for sale or loan.

EGS plans to store the electronic dissertation file in a dissertation database, which will be accessible to the public. For copyright reasons students will have to give EGS permission to do that. The dissertation should include the following: “I hereby give EGS the right to send the Dissertation file on CD-ROM to people who are interested in my thesis and to download it on the EGS home page.”

8.10. Conferral of the Ph. D. Degree:

After the conditions under 8.9., Publication, are met, the degree will be conferred by the Rector.

The doctoral diploma will show the degree title and the evaluation. It will be signed and sealed by EGS.