Admission to candidacy (detailed instructions attached below;
in case of extension/proroga, the indicated deadlines may be extended accordingly)
The graduate school requires all students to be admitted to candidacy by the end of the third year. Students who have completed their course requirements with satisfactory grades, pass the qualifying seminars, and have submitted an acceptable dissertation final draft are recommended for admission to candidacy. The time line for admission to candidacy is the following:
- By end of June students and supervisors must propose the names of two readers (referees) for peer review of the thesis. The referees must be professors/staff researchers outside of Pavia University who had no involvement with the student’s research and who can be completely objective in his/her evaluation of the dissertation. The referees are approved by the Graduate School Board by mid-July.
- By September 15th students must submit a final draft of their dissertation which is sent, for peer review, to the two external referees. The reviewers should send a written report on the dissertation draft within about one month. The reports should comment on the suitability of the dissertation for admission to the final exam (dissertation defense). The report may contain criticism, remarks, requirements or suggestions for improving the thesis, which the student has to implement before submitting the final version of the thesis.
- In case of major problems, the referees may ask to postpone the final exam by a period of no more than 6 months. In this case, a new version of the thesis must be resubmitted to the referees after the extension period.
- By September 15th students must submit the following documents to the Graduate Registrar, Mrs. Anna Rita Mangia, and to the Coordinator – the documents must be submitted in electronic form via email containing a link to a google drive folder: