New format
Goal
The intermediate evaluations are organized by each PhD student who has been working on the project for 2-3 semesters, but not later than 18 months after the reception of LNDS acceptance letter. The goal is to evaluate the first part of the thesis project. Eventually, the thesis committee could make suggestions about the continuation of the project and the publications.
If the midterm evaluation is insufficient, a second meeting will be scheduled with the student, the thesis director and the members of the thesis committee.
Format
The exam normally lasts around 2 hours, for details check the section “Oral presentation” below.
The intermediate evaluation is based on:
• the report provided by the doctoral student,
• the oral presentation of the PhD student,
• understanding of the field of research (literature, methodology, importance of the work, limits, etc.),
• the originality and the advance of the experimental work,
• the projects formulated for the continuation of the thesis work.
In addition, the thesis committee asserts on the potential for publication of the results in the form of original articles in international journals with editorial policy, and makes recommendations thereon.
At the end of the exam and after deliberation, the thesis committee issues its conclusions, recommendations and other remarks in an ad hoc document signed by the parties involved and transmitted by the president of the thesis committee to the LNDS.
Reports
At least one month before the exam, both the student and the thesis director are asked to submit a report by e-mail to the LNDS coordinator, using the official forms:
Link to thesis director's report
The student's report should describe how the thesis project has started and how it will develop in the next 1-2 years. The thesis project description (max 10 pages plus references) is organized as follow:
- Aim of the project: 0.5 to 1 page
- Background: 2 to 3 pages
- Already published results (if applicable) and on-going work: 2 to 5 pages
- Perspectives and timeline for completion and defense: 1 to 1.5 pages
- References
The thesis director's report should describe the progress of the student, both academically and project-related, and the state of the student's publications.
Both the student and the thesis director can report any minor or major problems and describe in detail what these problems are. Yet, there will also be the possibility to discuss problems with the thesis committee during the exam session in private (see section “Oral presentation” below).
The reports and presentation should be in English.
Oral presentation
The presentation of the student should not last more than 30 minutes, and elaborate on the thesis project, i.e. its potential subprojects. Then they will discuss with the thesis committee members who will ask questions about the research plan, results obtained, the next steps in the project, and the state of publication(s). Questions touching on topics other than the thesis will be asked in order to evaluate basic knowledge of the student in the various fields of neuroscience. Moreover, including a timeline towards thesis completion is always a good idea to show the feasibility of the plans given the time constraints of the thesis duration.
Note: The LN doctoral school expects students to be able to discuss multidisciplinary neuroscience research with colleagues coming from different research backgrounds.
Before the thesis committee deliberates, the doctoral student and the supervisor are heard separately by the committee.
The exam will be held in the presence of the personalized thesis committee of the PhD candidate (see section below for details).
