Thesis and defence

Possible doctoral thesis formats

Monographic
Cumulative

The Thesis supervision committee (CET: comité d’encadrement de thèse) may decide on the format of your thesis in line with the requirements of your Doctoral School, so please ensure that you have clarity on this as early on as possible in your journey with us.

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Full-time doctoral candidates

The thesis defence must take place after at least 36 months but no more than 52 months.
The thesis must be submitted at the end of the study period
- No more than 48 months

Part-time doctoral candidates

(only possible for self-funded doctoral candidates)

The thesis defence must take place after 36 months but no more than 100 months.
The thesis must be submitted at the end of the study period
- No more than 96 months (8 years)

At your final Thesis Supervision Committee meeting, the committee decides whether your research project and the material you have submitted (which should be approximately 90% of the final work, excluding the bibliography) are ready and a thesis defence can be scheduled. They will also verify whether you have acquired the necessary 20 ECTS during your doctoral studies. Sometimes you will be authorised to defend your thesis but will be asked to make some changes. You will be given the date and time for your defence within three months of the final committee meeting.

The Doctoral School administrator or group secretary (depending on the doctoral programme) then organises the defence in conjunction with the supervisor and the chair of the Thesis Committee.

Defence

The defence is public unless specifically authorised to be held behind closed doors.

Please note that the guidelines below are only a suggestion. Differences may apply, particularly for doctoral candidates with joint supervision/cotutelle.

You will present your work for about 30 minutes and there will then be a Q&A session with the Thesis Committee members. It is customary practice to let the external members start. Each committee member will present their comments and questions for about 10-15 minutes.

You should reply directly to the questions and remarks by each member of the committee (about 10 minutes). At the end of the defence, the committee meets in private to decide whether to award the doctorate, with or without corrections. Any corrections must be made within three months of the thesis defence. They must be sent to the chair of the Thesis Committee and the supervisor. At the end of the defence, the committee signs the defence reports, and the chair of the committee produces a further report on the defence; the reports are sent to the Office of Doctoral Studies within 30 days of the defence.

Upon receipt of the defence reports, the Office of Doctoral Studies will instruct you on the final administrative steps you will need to take:

Filling in the final cover page
Uploading the bibliographical data to ORBi^lu
Signing either the approval or refusal to publish
Submitting a soft and hard copy of your thesis

A certificate of achievement is delivered upon completion of these steps.

More information

The University can print up to 12 hard copies of your thesis, free of charge.

For students who have an employment contract with the University of Luxembourg, a ticket can be created via the Service Portal
to request printing and binding (Reprography – New request – Uni.lu Service Portal). You will need to go to the Service
Portal and select Facilities > Reprography.

If you are a self-funded student, please contact the Office of Doctoral Studies or your local Doctoral School administrator to submit the request on your behalf.

If you defend your thesis between 1 January and 30 September, you will receive your diploma at the graduation ceremony in December of the same year.
If your defence takes place between 1 October and 31 December, you will receive your diploma at the graduation ceremony in December of the following year, as long as you have completed the final administrative procedures.
If you cannot attend the graduation ceremony, your diploma will be available afterwards.