Public discussion and examination

Public discussion and examination

At the degree project seminar, the author's work is presented and the opponent poses questions. Below are instructions for the opponent.

Notification of interest

You register interest in serving as an opponent by notifying the degree project coordinator when you want to do so, the easiest way is by e-mail.

Primarily, you are to serve as an opponent within the same field as that of your own degree project, but your examiner can approve that you publicly discuss and examine a report in another subject, if this work is in an adjacent field.

Please feel free to indicate a preference for a particular degree project if you know that it is up for presentation. However, you can never serve as an opponent for a degree project from the same supervision group. You should thus register for a specific occasion and ensure that you are free at that time. Sometimes there are many people who want to serve as an opponent; there may be a queue. You must therefore plan to serve as an opponent well before you plan to do your own presentation. The degree projects that will be presented on the upcoming date are listed under

• Current degree project seminars in MID
• Current degree project seminars in Computer Science
• Current seminars, including degree projects, in Speech and Music Communication

Assignment of degree projects to publicly discuss and examine

The degree project coordinator will subsequently assign an opponent(s) to the degree projects that will be presented. With few exceptions, it is one opponent per degree project. The degree project coordinator will try to assign you a degree project to publicly discuss and examine that lies within the same field as your own. You will be notified via e-mail regarding which degree project you have been assigned.

The degree project coordinator will also instruct you on how to access the report.

You must confirm that you really intend to serve as an opponent within a time frame specified by the degree project coordinator. Without a clear confirmation from you, the assignment will be given to someone else.

Sometimes there are many who wish to serve as an opponent and, in that case, there is a risk that there will be some who are not assigned degree projects to discuss and examine on the occasion they requested. These individuals will be informed of this via e-mail.

You must plan to serve as an opponent well before you plan to do your own presentation. If you do not get to serve as an opponent on the occasion you requested, you must once more register your interest for another scheduled date. Otherwise the degree project coordinator will not be aware of your availability.

Priority

If, despite making attempts in advance, you do not succeed in securing a position as opponent, and you are approved by the supervisor and examiner to give your own presentation (or have already given your presentation), you may receive a priority position as opponent. If you wish to receive priority, you must

• Contact the degree project coordinator and say that you wish to be given priority before the opponent positions are assigned for the week during which you want to serve!
• Be prepared to promptly answer yes or no to an offer of an opponent position.

Written opposition

Read the report carefully and critically. Write comments in the report. Fill out the opponent record, which you can download in pdf format or Word format below.

• Opponent record in Word format
• Opponent record in pdf format

Then send the completed record (as a pdf file) by e-mail, no later than 15:00 on the day before the presentation takes place, to the following people (e-mail addresses of KTH employees are found under “Sök anställda” on the KTH homepage):

• The degree project coordinator
• The author's supervisor
• The author's examiner

The student who has written the degree project will also receive the record, but not until after the presentation.

Oral opposition

At the presentation, it is the opponent's role to stimulate a constructive discussion that clarifies the degree project's content, strengths and weaknesses.

You should therefore focus on asking open questions that allow the presenter room to clarify elements that have been unclear in the report and/or presentation.

The opponent must also be active in the discussion, which means that it is normally required to have follow-up questions and/or comments in response to the presenter's answers, not only separate questions without context.

Consider the following:

• the time for the discussion and examination is limited (approximately 10 minutes) and it is therefore important to focus on the most important elements;
• the discussion and examination should be interesting to other audience members so that the discussion is also relevant for those who have not read the report;
• detailed comments and a general judgment of the degree project are submitted in the written opposition and therefore do not need to be repeated verbally;
• the opposition is assessed by the examiner and must be well prepared and executed in order to pass: you must show that you have immersed yourself in the work in order to identify weaknesses and strengths, and that you have the ability to, orally and in writing, discuss another project in a qualified manner.