Defense act

The PhD defense is a public act which should not exceed 150 minutes of duration:

• Before discussing the thesis, the candidate has up to 20 minutes to present his PhD research;
• The interventions of the two main arguers and the remaining jury members during the public discussion cannot exceed, together, 70 minutes;
• The candidate has the same time to reply as the duration of the jury members' interventions.

PhD defense classification

The final classification is qualitatively expressed with the designations "Recusado", "Aprovado com distinção" and "Aprovado com distinção e louvor" (i.e. "Refused", "Approved with distinction" and "Approved with distinction and honor").

The Scientific Counsil of the Faculty of Sciences determined that the following correspondence:

• "Aprovado com distinção" = 16 or 17 values (out of 20)
• "Aprovado com distinção e louvor" = 18, 19 or 20 values (out of 20)