The first step of the graduation phase of the PhD programme is to book the defence date. Promotors and chairgroup secretaries can book this date in Hora Finita (for the manual, click here).

The expected available time slots are posted on www.aula.wur.nl and the time slots are opened on the first working day of each month 6 months in advance.

After the defence date is booked, the PhD candidate submits the draft manuscript, authorship statement and propositions in Hora Finita (manual). This version of the manuscript must contain:

• Table of Contents
• General Introduction (no co-authors, chapter should be written by the candidate alone)
• All Chapters (clearly stating all (co)authors)
• General Discussion/synthesis (no co-authors, chapter should be written by the candidate alone)
• List of References
• English Summary

The promotor then has to approve the manuscript, compose an assessment committee and request approval for the assessment committee. The deadline for submission and approval by the supervisor(s) is 15 weeks before the defence date.

PhD candidates: Please check whether you receive an e-mail from Hora Finita conforming that your thesis has been approved by your supervisor(s)! If not, your thesis is not sent out to the opponents.

Once the draft thesis is approved, the PhD candidate submits the cover (back, spine and front) and title pages in Hora Finita (manual) for approval by the Doctoral Service Centre.

On the spine and front, no text other than the title, author and year of publication is allowed. On the back, no text or barcode is allowed. Images are allowed on the back, spine and front. Logos are only allowed in the case of a joint degree. An example can be found in appendix 3 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations.

The title pages must follow the design format from appendix 3 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations. Pay attention to the different ways that affiliations have to be displayed: the affiliation of WUR promotors and co-promotors consists of their basic organisational unit (chair group or business unit) plus Wageningen University & Research. The other members (the opponents) are listed with their organisation affiliation only. If the city where the institution is located is not mentioned in the name of the institution, it must be mentioned. Affiliations outside the Netherlands must also include the name of the country. E.g.

Dr John Doe, Radboud University, Nijmegen

Dr Jane Doe, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

After approval of the manuscript, cover and title pages the thesis can be printed. DOI can be applied for at the library via this link: https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/doi. 15 printed copies need to be handed in to the office Doctoral Service Centre 2 weeks before the ceremony date.

PhD theses of WU are printed by www.proefschriftmaken.nl. This amount includes copies for the opponents and the copy for the Library. Chair groups have to compensate the printing costs for this required number of copies to a maximum of €1250 euro.

You will receive practical information with regard to the laymans speech, parking, livestreams, photography and the organisation of a reception, lunch or dinner after the defence from the Graduation office. Children younger than 5 years are not allowed to be present in the Auditorium during the defence. Parents are kindly requested to arrange a babysitter of family member to attend to the child(ren).

All promotions, graduation ceremonies, inaugurations, and farewell speeches will be livestreamed via Yuja and published by Wageningen University & Research. The livestream link will become available five minutes before the start of the defence under the header ‘Events’. Please find more information and instructions here.