Master and Doctorate Defense Procedures and Forms

The Master and Doctorate defense process is the conclusion of the student's trajectory in the course.
All documents and data provided during the process below must be checked carefully by the student and supervisor.
The deadlines must be met so that everything happens normally and that any unforeseen events can be remedied until the defense is carried out and its subsequent approval.

Read the script below carefully. Most initial procedures depend on students and mentors. Following the guidelines will allow the entire process to proceed more efficiently.

Before requesting a defense:

  • The student must have fulfilled all the requirements of the Graduate Program;
  • Any existing coorientations must be duly registered in the SIGA system - some coorientation requests depend on analysis and approval by the IC Graduate Committee (CPG) and on administrative procedures that demand time, making it impossible to register the coorientation if not requested. in advance.
  • The student must request a complete verification of his academic situation: send e-mail to sec-pos (@) ic.unicamp.br informing his full name (without abbreviations), RA, and the course, requesting the verification of his situation academic to check the mandatory requirements, in accordance with the Graduate Regulations;
  • Doctoral students must complete the Publication Form, print and deliver to the Graduate Secretariat duly signed (by the student and the supervisor). Together with the delivery of the form, the student must send the PDFs of the articles cited by e-mail to the secretary.
  • Students presenting their work at alternative format must complete the Alternative Format Form, print and deliver to the Graduate Secretariat duly signed (by the student and the supervisor). Together with the delivery of the form, the student must send the PDFs of the published or submitted articles that are part of the work and the authorizations of the publishers in the case of published articles. If you already have a first version of the dissertation or thesis, you should also send it for analysis.
  • Submit Original Writing Verification Report (http://www.sbu.unicamp.br/sbu/cra/escrita_original/) according to the guidelines of the CPG Normative Instruction 01/2021  accompanied by the form which must be completed and signed by the advisor and the student. The verification tool used must be applied to a version of the text that contains a substantial part of the work, excluding the bibliography. Through the signed form, advisor and student undertake to maintain the required levels of similarity in subsequent revisions and especially in the final version. OBSs: 1) We recommend that the option of not store the submitted file in the turnitin database. 2) Prof. advisor has access to the tool and can grant access to the student to submit the report. 3) There is also an access that can be done directly by the student in the aforementioned link.
  • Unicamp Research Data Repository (REDU)
    It will be mandatory to insert the DOI in SIGA for the metadata and deposit of digital data produced by theses and dissertations. This will be mandatory for all approvals de theses carried out from March 1, 2025 quality dissertations from 1 August 2025. If at the time of sending the final version for PRPG approval the DOI(s) (generated by REDU) are not included in SIGA, the system will block the forwarding of the thesis/dissertation. See details here.

When requesting a defense keep in mind:

  • Defense request deadlines:
Minimum application deadlineShould I request reclosing?
Master's degreeActive student45 daysNo
Disconnected student55 days Yes - process
Doctoral ProgramActive student55 daysNo
Disconnected student65 days Yes - process
  • Do not consider the end-of-year recess period for counting the deadline for delivering documents to the Post office.
  • The spreadsheet available in this link can help you estimate the minimum date for scheduling the defense.
  • Suggested Composition of the Examining Committee:
Master Examining CommitteeDoctoral Examining Committee
Advisor or Co-supervisor - President; Advisor or Co-supervisor - President;
1 full member internal to the IC; 2 full members internal to UNICAMP;
1 full member external to the Program and the IC; 2 full members outside the Program and UNICAMP;
1 alternate member internal to the IC and; 1 UNICAMP internal alternate member and;
1 alternate member external to the Program and the IC. 2 alternate members from outside the Program and UNICAMP.

 – Accredited or registered postdocs/professors/researchers/collaborators/temporary participants (e.g. co-supervisors) at the Institute or the Postgraduate Program of the Institute of Computing are considered internal members. Detailed information about the composition of the Defense Examining Committees and the understanding of their role as internal or external members can be found in Normative Instruction PRPG No. 01/2021.
- If there is a co-supervisor, he can only be a member of the Commission in the absence of the supervisor and he will chair it.
- IC's CPG clarifies that Examining Commissions composed exclusively of the supervisor's former students will not be approved.
- For more information on the composition of the Examining Committee, consult the General Regulations for Postgraduate Courses

  • Scheduling of the defense date and approval of the composition of the Examining Committee

The advisor is expected to make a first contact with those nominated for the Examining Committee, checking their availability to participate on the agreed day and time and checking which situation they fit into: external member or internal member.
To assist in this procedure, we provide the following templates that can be used to invite members: Invitation Templates.
As provided for in the General Regulations for Graduate Courses, the definition of the composition of the Examining Commissions must be approved by the IC Graduate Committee.
After approval by CPG, they will receive letters of invitation and external members will be consulted on the procedures for coming to Unicamp or participating in the defense by videoconference.

  • Resources to finance the arrival of external members (suspended during the pandemic)

If financial resources are available, the Graduate Program may pay for the arrival of 01 external member for Master's defenses and 02 external members for Doctorate's defenses (*). We emphasize that the IC also has infrastructure to enable participation in defense by videoconference.
Important: No financial assistance will be paid for participants coming from the Metropolitan Region of Campinas.

(*) OBS - For defenses scheduled from October / 2019, the financial support provided by CPG will be:

  • Doctorate: Up to two external members will be paid for.
  • Master's Degree: The use of videoconferencing is recommended, however CPG can support the arrival of an external member by paying a daily CAPES aid in the amount of R $ 320,00 (No airfare, hotel fees and expenses with ground transportation).
  • Face-to-face return of the defenses:

Until 30/04/2022, defenses must be carried out entirely from a distance due to the pandemic.

As of 01/05/2022, defenses must take place in person, but it is recommended that the Examining Committee be provided so that external members participate by videoconference (*), remembering that the proportion of internal and external members must be maintained required in the General Postgraduate Regiment (the suggestion of the Examining Committee at the beginning of the procedures meets this requirement).

CPG will not pay for the coming of external members to the defenses. Exceptional situations can be met upon request.

When requesting a defense at SIGA, if it is hybrid or fully remote, it will be necessary for the advisor to justify the need so that the defense does not occur in person.

For the case of hybrid defenses in which only members external to the Institution will participate by videoconference, the advisor can use the following text:

"Hybrid defense, with members external to the Institution participating remotely, as approved by the Institute's Graduate Commission (Opinion CPG 46/2022)"

In cases where the defense needs to be completely remote or an internal member of the Commission and/or student must participate remotely, it is necessary to consult the CPG in advance to obtain approval. In the request, as a justification, the approval of the CPG for that particular case may be presented.

  • Use of defense rooms

We recommend, in order of preference, the use of rooms 85 (IC2 Auditorium), IC3 Auditorium, room 53 (IC2 Meeting Room) and 351, 352 or 353 (IC3 Classrooms).
The room can be booked by the advisor via booking system or the student can request the secretary (sec-pos (@) ic.unicamp.br) via email.
If a videoconference system is to be used, it is better to start the order of preference with the IC3 Auditorium (not considering room 85).
 

Defense Request

1 - Obtain approval in the SIGA of the Declaration of Ethics.

  • Access  SIGA (Academic Management System) and request. The application must be approved by your advisor and validated by the Secretariat. Only after this procedure, the system will release the defense request.
  • Access the path “Academic Life” -> “View data from dissertations and theses”.

If in doubt, consult DAC Tutorial on the Ethics Committee Flow. (NOTE: This tutorial is adapted for the approval of the ethics statement in the delivery of enrollment documents and shows a different access path, but some screens can be useful)

NOTE - Students who are disconnected must wait for the restart to perform this step.

2 - Complete the Examination Committee Composition Analysis Form

  • Fill out the Examination Committee Composition Analysis Form
  • When submitting the form, you will receive a PDF by email with the answers provided. This file must be printed, signed by you and your supervisor and delivered to the Graduate Secretariat (signatures can be scanned if desired)

3 - Fill in the defense information in two environments:

  • 3.1 - Online form to generate the documents associated with the defense:
  • 3.2 - Fill out the electronic form at SIGA - Follow - Academic Management System> User Identification> Academic Life / School History> Dissertation / Theses

If in doubt, consult Tutorial Flow of Dissertations and Theses 

NOTE: The student must upload a PDF file with the text of the dissertation or thesis. This file will be sent in the invitation letter to the Examining Committee. If the file is not the final version, it is the responsibility of the advisor (or, at his/her discretion, the student) to send the dissertation or thesis file by email to the members of the Examining Committee.

Student needs to Save and Validate for the system to proceed with the defense. 

Up to the defense:

The members of the Examining Committee who will participate remotely will automatically receive guidance on the videoconference a few days before the defense. Ideally, videoconferencing should only be used by members outside Unicamp who will participate in the defense. People interested in attending the defense must go to the presentation room in person. However, if there is interest in sharing the videoconference link with other people, the student/supervisor should be aware that there will be no videoconference 'moderation' service during the defense and the task of approving guests should be the responsibility of the advisor or someone else indicated by him. More information can be obtained from the IC's IT sector.

After the defense:

Provide the Catalog Card 

The student must request the Catalog Sheet only after the defense minutes are available in the SIGA system. The request must be made via the web on the BIMECC website (Library of the IMECC), through the link: https://www.ime.unicamp.br/bimecc/ficha-catalografica (read the instructions carefully). The Catalog Sheet must be included in the final version of the dissertation/thesis.
For this request, the student will need a digital copy of the minutes of his defense. This copy (in PDF) can be obtained by the student in the SIGA system or will be sent by the secretariat as soon as all signatures are collected.

Final version

The student must upload to SIGA, within 60 days, without fail, after the defense of the dissertation / thesis.

Within 50 days the student must:
Write the work with the formatting according to the Unicamp standard. Check that the pages are in the correct order and that there are no phrases, figures or tables outside the margin. 
As soon as the final version of the Dissertation / Thesis is ready, you must send the PDF file to sec-pos (@) ic.unicamp.br to check the formatting.
When the Secretariat confirms that everything is correct, the student must upload it in SIGA until the 60 days mentioned above.

We ask special attention to those who have received scholarships, that they fulfill the specific requirements of acknowledgment and citation of the scholarship received. 

After the student sends the file, the Secretariat validates, the advisor validates and the process is completed within the IC. 

Afterwards there will be processing between PRPG, DAC and Library.

OBS -  Printed Dissertations / Theses
If you want printed copies, the student can contact Gráfica da Unicamp directly at dgagraor (@) unicamp.br asking for a quote and consulting the payment and collection method.

Homologation and Diploma

After the final version is validated by the advisor and made available to the PRPG for approval, if any corrections are needed, it may be returned to the student and / or secretary. 

When the approval is effective, a decision with electronic authentication will be generated, which will be stored in SIGA in the Documents section and will be sent to the student and advisor's email.

The Central Library will receive the dissertation / thesis approved to be made available in the digital collection.

When DAC generates the diploma, the student will receive an email. If you want a printed version, you must ask in person at DAC.