Doctoral Programme in Fine Arts: Pre-eximination guidelines
How the pre-examination process goes at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Approved by the Board of the Academy of Fine Arts on 31/8/2021. These guidelines are in force from 1/9/2021.
A one-year transition period is allowed for students who have initiated the pre-examination process before these guidelines entered into force. Other students will proceed with the pre-examination process in accordance with the new guidelines.
Pre-examination guidelines
These guidelines are to be followed in the pre-examination of the Doctor of Fine Arts thesis and its individual components. The structure of the thesis is described in the introduction to the Guidelines for Doctoral Studies. These guidelines are primarily intended to be consulted by the doctoral student, but they also include descriptions of the roles of the supervisor, the pre-examiners, and the Preexamination Board in the pre-examination process. The duties of the pre-examiner are described in the Pre-examination Board’s Rules of Procedure, while the duties of the supervisor are discussed in more detail in the Supervisor’s Guidelines. Instructions concerning the examination of the thesis (after the thesis has been pre-examined) are described in a separate document.
Pre-examination process
The goal of the pre-examination process in the Doctoral Programme in Fine Arts is to guarantee that the doctoral thesis meets the required quality standards from artistic and research point of view.
The pre-examination process consists of two stages. In the first stage, the components which the doctoral student plans to include in the thesis are pre-examined. This part of the pre-examination will primarily take place when the components are presented in public. The Pre-examination Board will approve the individual components as part of the doctoral thesis. In the second stage, the doctoral thesis will be pre-examined in its entirety. This pre-examination takes place when all the individual components of the thesis have been completed.
The roles and duties of the Pre-examination Board
The Pre-examination Board is responsible for the pre-examination of the doctoral theses in fine arts and of all the individual thesis components. The Pre-examination Board consists of six members, who are experts in fine arts. No more than three of the six Board members can be affiliated to the Academy of Fine Arts at the same time. The Pre-examination Board serves a four-year term, and it is appointed by the Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts.
After the Pre-examination Board has learned about the contents of the doctoral student’s research proposal in sufficient detail, they will discuss the proposal with the student’s supervisor in charge. Based on this consultation, the Pre-examination Board will appoint two pre-examiners for the doctoral thesis. As a principle, the same people should serve as pre-examiners for the entire duration of the doctoral thesis project. If this is not possible, the Pre-examination Board has the authority to appoint a new pre-examiner for one of the thesis components. The Pre-examination Board may also appoint an additional pre-examiner to pre-examine the doctoral thesis in its entirety. This external pre-examiner may also later be the examiner of the doctoral thesis, if necessary [see Pre-examination Board’s Rules of Procedure]. Potential grounds for the disqualification of a pre-examiner are discussed in the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003, 27§-30§). The doctoral student has a right to submit an objection concerning the selected pre-examiners. If the doctoral student submits an objection, the Preexamination board will discuss the issue in their next meeting, or if the matter is urgent, through another channel.
The roles and duties of the supervisors
The supervisor in charge is the person primarily responsible for supporting the doctoral student when they are planning to submit one of the components of the doctoral thesis for pre-examination. The supervisor in charge will also determine when the thesis, or one of its components, is ready for preexamination. The pre-examination process will not be initiated without the approval of the supervisor in charge. The supervisor in charge will notify the secretary of the Pre-examination Board of their approval by e-mail.
The work of the supervisor in charge is supported by the Supervision Team. The Head of the Doctoral Programme appoints the supervisor in charge from the personnel of the doctoral programme, as well as an external supervisor, to supervise every thesis project. In addition to the supervisor in charge and the external supervisor, it is possible to employ the services of an external expert to provide comments on a specific component of the thesis project. These people comprise the Supervision Team, whose work is coordinated by the supervisor in charge. In general, both the supervisor in charge and the external supervisor are required to hold a doctoral degree. This requirement does not apply to external experts, however.
When it comes to the pre-examination of the individual components of the thesis, the supervisor in charge is responsible for supporting the doctoral student in the compilation of all the materials required in the pre-examination process, and to discuss the feedback provided in the pre-examiner’s reports with them. The supervisor in charge must also inform the other members of the Supervision Team of the different stages of the pre-examination process.
Before the doctoral thesis is pre-examined in its entirety, the supervisor in charge will go through the whole thesis and ask the other members of the Supervision Team for their comments. When the supervisor in charge estimates that the thesis is ready to be submitted for pre-examination, they will suggest to the Head of the Doctoral Programme that the thesis should be allowed to be pre-examined.
The roles and duties of the doctoral student
The doctoral student is responsible for informing the supervisor in charge about the current progress of the thesis, and they must also consult the supervisor in charge about the proper way to prepare an individual thesis component prior to submitting it for pre-examination. It is also the doctoral student’s responsibility to submit the materials that are intended to be pre-examined for pre-examination in accordance with the instructions included in these guidelines.
The pre-examination procedure
Depending on the structure of the doctoral thesis, the thesis can be pre-examined either as a single piece of work or one component at a time. The benefit of dividing the pre-examination process according to thesis components is that the pre-examiners will have an opportunity to examine the artistic component of the doctoral thesis during its public presentation. In general, the pre-examiners are offered the possibility to travel to see the component which they are required to pre-examine. If the pre-examined component is presented publicly outside of Finland or in a location that is hard to reach, the pre-examination will be based on the documentation or an exposition of the work, or by making use of a reconstruction of the work set up in the premises of the Academy of Fine Arts. In a case like this, the Head of the Doctoral Programme will approve the pre-examination method after consulting with the supervisor in charge. All materials submitted for pre-examination must be part of the planned doctoral thesis.
The pre-examination is based on the written reports of the appointed pre-examiners of the doctoral thesis. However, the Pre-examination Board will also conduct a thorough review of all the thesis components.
If the Pre-examination Board decides that the pre-examined component should be rejected, the doctoral student is entitled to withdraw the materials from the pre-examination process. In this case, the pre-examination of the pre-examined component will be interrupted, and the documents pertaining to the pre-examination will not be submitted to the examiners of the doctoral thesis, which is the customary procedure when the doctoral thesis or one of its components are accepted by the Preexamination Board. The doctoral student has a right to submit a request for rectification in response to the pre-examiner’s report. The request must be submitted to the secretary of the Pre-examination Board no later than 7 days from the date of the delivery of the pre-examiner’s report. When the thesis is examined, all requests for rectification will be submitted to the examiners of the doctoral thesis together with the pre-examiner’s reports.
Stages of the pre-examination process and related deadlines
In general, approximately four months should be reserved for the pre-examination process of a single thesis component. The same schedule applies to the second stage of the pre-examination process, where the doctoral thesis is pre-examined in its entirety. The four-month period starts with the submission of the thesis, or a thesis component, and ends with the Pre-examination Board’s decision concerning the pre-examined work. The doctoral student should also allocate enough time for the planning of the pre-examination process.
The first stage of the pre-examination process: the pre-examination of individual thesis components
1) Planning for the pre-examination
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student when they are planning to submit their work for pre-examination. The time required for the planning process depends on the nature of the student’s work. The doctoral student must inform the supervisor in charge of any projected pre-examinations as early as possible. The supervisor in charge must be allowed enough time, at least one week, to become up to date with the current stage of the thesis project.
2) Compiling the materials for the pre-examination
The doctoral student is responsible for compiling all the materials that are to be pre-examined. The time required for this process depends on the nature of the pre-examined work. The doctoral student should not underestimate the amount of work at this stage; rather, they should start preparatory work in good time instead of waiting until the last minute when they are expected to set up the exhibition.
3) Uploading the materials to be pre-examined to the Research Catalogue platform
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student when they upload the materials that will be pre-examined to the Research Catalogue platform. The doctoral student is responsible for uploading all the materials that are to be pre-examined onto an exposition on the RC platform, where the materials should be carefully arranged or documented. The supervisor in charge helps the doctoral student arrange the materials in a meaningful way and provides comments on the documentation strategy adopted by the doctoral student. It is essential that the pre-examined materials are clearly identified. When the pre-examined materials have been uploaded to the RC platform, the doctoral student will copy the share link generated by the RC platform and paste it into the pre-examination form. The use of the RC platform requires that the doctoral student has registered for a personal RC account, which they have already done when the Research Catalogue database was introduced either as part of the compulsory orientation period at the start of the doctoral studies or in another RC training event.
4) Submitting the materials for pre-examination
The doctoral student is responsible for submitting all the necessary materials for pre-examination. They will compile all the materials required for pre-examination (see section 6.1) and send them to the secretary of the Pre-examination Board.
5) Pre-examination
The pre-examiners are given 3 months to complete the pre-examination. The three-month period starts when the materials are submitted for pre-examination and ends with the issuing of the pre-examiner’s report. The secretary of the Pre-examination Board will send the pre-examiner’s reports to the doctoral student no later than 10 days prior to the meeting of the Pre-examination Board.
6) Analysis of the pre-examiner’s reports and the potential request for rectification
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student in the analysis of the pre-examiner’s reports and the writing of a possible request for rectification if the student decides to submit one. The doctoral student has a right to submit a request for rectification in response to the pre-examiner’s reports. This request must be submitted within one week (7 days) to the secretary of the Pre-examination Board. The Pre-examination Board will then process the request together with all the other materials pertaining to the pre-examination. If a pre-examiner or several pre-examiners recommend that the preexamined component should be rejected, the doctoral student has a right to inform the Board of their intention to withdraw the materials submitted for pre-examination in the request for rectification. The pre-examination process of the pre-examined materials will consequently be interrupted. The component withdrawn from the pre-examination process may later be resubmitted for preexamination in accordance with the guidelines concerning the pre-examination process.
7) Meeting of the Pre-examination Board
The meeting procedure is described in the Pre-examination Board’s Rules of Procedure.
8) Decision on the pre-examination
The Pre-examination Board’s decision concerning the pre-examined component is recorded in an attachment to the meeting minutes. The pre-examiners’ written reports are appended to the decision. The Board is not allowed to make a conditional decision on the approval of the pre-examined work, but the decision may include critical comments, which the doctoral student should take into consideration when they make the final revisions to the doctoral thesis. The Pre-examination Board cannot reject a pre-examined component if all the pre-examiners recommend in their reports that the work should be accepted. The Board’s decision on the pre-examination is final and cannot be appealed.
The second stage of the pre-examination process: the pre-examination of the doctoral thesis
1) Planning for the second stage of the pre-examination
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student when they are planning to submit the doctoral thesis for pre-examination. The time required for the planning process depends on the nature of the work, but the supervisor in charge must be allowed at least one month to become up to date with the final version of the doctoral thesis.
2) Compiling the materials for pre-examination
The doctoral student is responsible for compiling all the materials that are to be pre-examined. The time required for this process depends on the nature of the pre-examined work. The doctoral student should not underestimate the amount of work that may be required at this stage, and they should not postpone the compilation process until shortly before the submission deadline. All the required materials should be compiled well in advance.
3) Confirming the authorship of the text
The supervisor in charge helps the doctoral student confirm that they are the original author of the doctoral dissertation. The supervisor in charge will give permission to the doctoral student to run the manuscript through a plagiarism detection software (Turnitin). The doctoral student will then revise the text according to the Turnitin report and consult, if necessary, with the supervisor in charge in this process. Once all necessary revisions have been made, the supervisor in charge approves the similarity report produced by the Turnitin software, and the similarity report is then appended to the materials submitted to the Pre-examination Board. Only the written/verbal component of the manuscript is checked for authorship. The manuscript must be run through the software as a text file.
4) Uploading the materials to the Research Catalogue platform for pre-examination
The doctoral student is responsible for uploading all the materials that are to be pre-examined onto the RC platform. The materials are uploaded onto an exposition which the student has prepared for this purpose. The exposition draws together all the pre-examined components that make up the final thesis. The RC documentations of the components that have already been pre-examined can either be directly linked to the doctoral thesis or included in an amended form.
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student in the appropriate structuring of the thesis and provides comments on the documentation strategy chosen by the doctoral student. When the structure of the thesis has been finalised in the Research Catalogue, the doctoral student will copy the share link generated by the platform and paste it into the pre-examination form. The doctoral student will also mark down the planned publication format of the thesis into the pre-examination form. Some common alternatives include: a) the thesis will be produced as an exposition on the RC platform, b) the thesis includes a component that consists of a PDF file and a documentation compiled onto the RC, c) the thesis is composed of a printed book, its PDF version, and an RC attachment. Other formats can also be considered if the supervisor in charge is in favour of their use. However, the doctoral thesis must be published either in PDF format or as an RC exposition. It is recommended that the student provides links to the documentations of the pre-examined components in the final publication.
5) Requesting permission for submitting the doctoral thesis for pre-examination
When the entire doctoral thesis, including all its components, is ready to be pre-examined, the supervisor in charge requests that the Head of the Doctoral Programme give permission to initiate the pre-examination process of the doctoral thesis. The Head of the Doctoral Programme is given one month to familiarise themselves with the thesis and to ensure that the doctoral student will correct any substantial shortcomings that may remain, after which permission to submit the thesis for preexamination is granted. The thesis does not need to be checked again for plagiarism at this stage. After the student has been given permission to submit their doctoral thesis for pre-examination, the pre-examination process can begin.
6) Submitting the thesis for pre-examination
The doctoral student compiles all the materials required for pre-examination (see 6.1.) and sends them to the secretary of the Pre-examination Board.
7) Pre-examination
The pre-examiners are given a total of three months to complete their reports. The time starts when the student submits their thesis for pre-examination and ends with the issuing of the pre-examiner’s reports in writing. The pre-examiner must send the pre-examiner’s report to the secretary of the Preexamination Board no later than 14 days prior to the meeting of Pre-examination Board. The secretary will then send the pre-examiner’s reports to the doctoral student no later than 10 days prior to the meeting of the Pre-examination Board.
8) Analysis of the pre-examiner’s reports and a potential request for rectification
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student in the analysis of the pre-examiner’s reports and the writing of a request for rectification, if the student wishes to submit one. The doctoral student has a right to submit a request for rectification in response to the pre-examiner’s reports. This request must be submitted within one week (7 days) to the secretary of the Pre-examination Board. The Preexamination Board will then process the request together with the other materials pertaining to the pre-examination. If a pre-examiner or several pre-examiners recommend that the pre-examined component should be rejected, the doctoral student has a right to inform the Board of their intention to withdraw the materials submitted for pre-examination in the request for rectification. The preexamination process of the pre-examined materials will consequently be interrupted. An improved version of the thesis may later be submitted for pre-examination in accordance with the guidelines concerning the pre-examination process.
9) Meeting of the Pre-examination Board
The meetings of the Pre-examination Board are described in the Pre-examination Board’s Rules of Procedure.
10) Decision on the pre-examination
The Pre-examination Board’s decision will be recorded in a separate attachment, and the preexaminers’ written reports will be appended to it. The Pre-examination Board is not allowed to make a conditional decision on the approval of the pre-examined thesis, but any critical comments included in the decision should be taken into consideration by the doctoral student when they make the final revisions to the doctoral thesis. The Pre-examination Board cannot reject a thesis if all the preexaminers recommend that the thesis should be accepted for public examination in their reports. The Board’s decision on the pre-examination cannot be appealed.
The pre-examiner’s reports of the different components of the thesis, as well as the complete doctoral thesis, will be sent to the examiners of the doctoral thesis together with all the other materials pertaining to the examination. All this material will be used to support decision-making in the examination of the thesis. The pre-examiner’s reports will become public documents once the doctoral student has received their doctoral degree.
Submitting the thesis for pre-examination
The supervisor in charge supports the doctoral student when they are planning to submit their thesis for pre-examination and authorises them to submit individual thesis components for pre-examination. When the complete doctoral thesis is submitted for pre-examination, the doctoral student must also be authorised to initiate the pre-examination process by the Head of the Doctoral Programme. The doctoral student will send the materials that are to be pre-examined to the secretary of the Preexamination Board.
Pre-examination package
The collection of the materials to be submitted for pre-examination are referred to as the “preexamination package”.
When the individual components of the doctoral thesis are pre-examined, the pre-examination package should include the following:
1) Pre-examination form
The pre-examination form includes detailed information about the component submitted for preexamination. The form also provides a list of all the documents that are part of the pre-examination package. Furthermore, the form includes the share link that provides access to the pre-examination materials on the Research Catalogue platform.
2) Research proposal
The research proposal is an essential part of the pre-examination package. It is particularly important when individual components of the thesis are pre-examined because it allows the pre-examiner to evaluate the role of the pre-examined component in the doctoral research project. It is recommended that the doctoral student should revise the relevant parts of their research proposal each time they submit a new component for pre-examination. Alternatively, they can provide an account of any changes made to the research proposal during the research project in a separate document.
3) Linking paper
A linking paper is a brief, clearly articulated account of the role of the pre-examined component in the doctoral thesis. The linking paper should also include all the practical information relevant to the preexamination process, such as important dates, times, and addresses.
4) Documentation of an individual component of the thesis to be pre-examined
The pre-examined component can be an individual work, an exhibition, or a curated event. The doctoral student must include documentation of the pre-examined component in the pre-examination package. At a minimum, this documentation should include a recording that is uploaded to the RC platform, which the Pre-examination Board can consult when discussing the pre-examined component in their meeting. However, it is recommended that the doctoral student should already devise an appropriate documentation strategy that is well in line with the nature of the pre-examined component when they start preparing the pre-examination package. They can then make use of this strategy in the final thesis as well. This way, the compilation of the pre-examined materials onto the RC platform may also facilitate the planning of the entire doctoral thesis.
5) Other potential materials
The pre-examination package should also include all supplementary materials relevant to the understanding of the pre-examined component. The supplementary materials should be clearly marked as such, and their number should remain reasonable.
In the second stage, the pre-examination package should include the following materials:
1) Pre-examination form
The pre-examination form includes detailed information of the doctoral thesis submitted for preexamination and each of its components. The form also provides a list of all the documents included in the pre-examination package. Furthermore, the form includes the share link that provides access to the pre-examination materials on the Research Catalogue platform.
2) Research proposal
The research proposal is an essential part of the pre-examination package. However, when the doctoral thesis is submitted for pre-examination in its entirety, the role of the research proposal is purely formal, and the doctoral student should not spend any time on its revision at this point.
3) Linking paper
The linking paper submitted with the pre-examined thesis provides a clearly articulated account of the structure of the pre-examined thesis and lists all the thesis components that have already been preexamined. The linking paper should also include all the practical information relevant to the preexamination process and the publication format planned for the doctoral thesis. If the form and the contents of the thesis are essentially intertwined in the publication format (e.g., an exposition), the material submitted for pre-examination must provide a reasonable representation of the final format. If the thesis is planned to be published in the form of a traditional book, for example, it is advisable to keep the text separate from the images, to number each image, and to mark down their intended places in the manuscript.
4) The pre-examined doctoral thesis
In the second pre-examination stage, the thesis is submitted for pre-examination in its entirety. This is done on the RC platform following the same procedure as with the individual thesis components. The components that have already been pre-examined are now supplemented with their final documentations or performances that have been developed into expositions. They will not be preexamined individually at this stage. Rather, each component is evaluated as part of a unified whole, which becomes defined by a script that draws all the components together.
5) Confirming the authorship of the text
In the second stage, a Turnitin report signed by the supervisor in charge is included as part of the preexamination package. The report is produced by following the procedure described in section “The second stage of the pre-examination process: the pre-examination of the doctoral thesis”
Pre-eximination form
Declaration of the submission of a thesis or an artistic production part into pre-examination.