In reference to Birger's note, I was not commenting on the examination process (in the quoted line), but rather referring to the tendency of universities to hire back their recently-graduated Ph.Ds.
In one way, this is quite understandable for small countries with languages only spoken there (i.e. Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Finland, Israel, etc.). However, this creates problems as well as it tends to reify certain ideas within the research community at the school, leading to a "school of thought" in the pejorative sense. That's what I meant by "hire their own."
In the sorts of countries I mentioned, there is no easy fix. But clearly, it puts an added impetus to ensure that the education and review processes are well-informed by cooperative relations with other universities.
_________________
Derek B. Miller
Boston and Oslo
Int'l phone: +1 617 440 4409
email: [log in to unmask]
On Nov 28, 2012, at 8:33 AM, Birger Sevaldson wrote:
> Derek wrote: "in Europe, it is FAR more common for schools to "hire their own""
>
> In Norway the University Law prescribes a committee with two external examiners and one internal acting in an admin role though this one also needs to have a PhD. The committee must be aprooved by the research board of the school and the examiners can't be involved in the research and can't be too close to the candidate. In addition at our place (The Oslo School of Architecture and Design) we need to have an external reader before the examiner committee starts its work. This reader needs also to be aprooved by the research board. The recommondations of the reader are crucial and the committe for the dissertation is only appointed by the research committee after the candidate has responded to the readers comments. The committee first decides if the candidate is allowed to go forward to a defence of the thesis or if more work is needed. The latter decission happend quite often.
> The final defence is public and is often jam packed. The defence is devided into three parts, a trial lecture on a given theme that is given by the committee three weeks before the defence, a short presentation of the thesis and the defence discussion that can go on for hours. The whole thing lasts a whole day.
>
> In scandinavia the systems vary but i think all countries do have external examiners and public defenses and i know Finland practices also a reader system but here the reader decides if the thesis is good to go for the defence.
>
>
> Birger Sevaldson (PhD, MNIL)
> Professor at Institute of Design
> Oslo School of Architecture and Design
> Norway
> www.birger-sevaldson.no
> www.systemsorienteddesign.net
> www.ocean-designresearch.net
> ________________________________________
> Fra: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] på vegne av CAMERON TONKINWISE [[log in to unmask]]
> Sendt: 27. november 2012 18:49
> Til: [log in to unmask]
> Emne: Re: External Examination of US PhDs
>
> Thanks for the feedback so far.
>
> For clarification, I understand that most US PhDs allow if not encourage
> externals on the Advisory Committee. I am specifically interested in
> situations in design and related areas where the final assessment of
> the dissertation requires someone to read and evaluate the disser-
> ration who has not encountered the research or the researcher
> throughout the process of the production of the research - so an
> external final examiner rather than an external advisor from the
> beginning.
>
> Cameron
>
>
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