PhD graduation procedure

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The general principles governing the Ph.D. final examination are established in

Art. 8.10 and following of the Regolamento recante modalità di accreditamento delle sedi e dei corsi di dottorato e criteri per la istituzione dei corsi di dottorato da parte degli enti accreditati


Art. 25 of the SISSA Statute


Art. 16 of the Regolamento dei Corsi di PhD della SISSA (English translation to be updated!!!!)


Ph.D. Students must defend its research work in front of an Examination Committee formed by at least 6 members of which at least two external examiners (not necessary those who reviewed the Thesis, they will sent their report, see next paragraph). The Students' Supervisor should propose the names of the External Referees to the Teaching Board (Collegio dei Docenti) in due time; the date of the defense will be agreed according to the availability of the Examination Committee members.


The Thesis (which must contain an abstract) must be sent as a pdf file to two External Referees and to the Students' Secretariat at least one month before the defense (timing may differ; check exact rules of your Ph.D. course). Please let us know if you or your Supervisor would prefer us to send the Thesis to the External Referees. At least 7-10 days before the Defense, the External Referees will then send back (to the Students' Supervisor and to the Students' Secretariat) a detailed report on the thesis that should clearly state whether the thesis can be defended on the expected date. They can also suggest corrections/improvements. The expected report is 2 pages long underlining Thesis scientific qualities and highlighting its originality. The Referee must sign it and write it on his/her institutional letterhead.

A report on the Students' activities and the scientific articles, published during the Ph.D. course, must be sent to the Students' Secretariat.

The candidate has to submit the following form to the Students' Secretariat: Ph.D. request. Please pay the revenue stamp (marca da bollo) by PagoPA. Instructions for payments with PagoPA.


At least two days before the defense a pdf file of the thesis must be uploaded on the SISSA Digital Library

- Regulations in English

- Regulations in Italian

- How to do it


This version of the Thesis will be distributed to the members of the Examination Committee possibly one week before the examination date.

SISSA diploma

The Thesis can be approved, approved cum laude, or rejected. In the last case, the defense can be repeated only once.


Hard copies of the Thesis

You can ask for a maximum of 5 hard binded copies of the Thesis to "150 hours" students (badge@sissa.it) at least 3 days before the day you will need.


Cover for the Thesis

You can find an not editable pdf at the following link (this is an editable pdf). At this page of MAMA website, you can find a .docx and a .tex templates.


Certificates and Diploma

Certificates in English can be downloaded from ESSE3 webpage. If you need any not-standard certificate or if you do not remember your username and password for ESSE3 portal, write to Students' Secretariat (phd@sissa.it).

To apply for the diploma you have to fill in this form and submit it to the Students' Secretariat (phd@sissa.it) and to protocollo@sissa.it.

Both the "Final Examination Form" and the "Diploma Form" MUST be sent to protocollo@sissa.it and to phd@sissa.it as a pdf file together with a copy of the payment of the revenue stamp (marca da bollo) by PagoPA.Instructions for payments with PagoPA.

Defense of PhD thesis and postponement

In case it is necessary to request a postponement to discuss the thesis after the natural deadline of the PhD, please fill out the appropriate form. If you wish to modify the initial request to have your Defense before or after the initially requested postponement, kindly communicate the change through the same form to the Student Secretariat.