In the Arts Study Programme, a composer's demonstration of proficiency contains one Composition Concert, and, depending on the style and compositional technique of the Candidate, one or two other artistic entities of approximately the same size as the Composition Concert, as well as a Thesis. The scope of the Thesis should be equal to approximately one sixth of the demonstration of proficiency (i.e. at least ca. 25-30 ECTS credits).
The Thesis must be meaningfully connected to the educational, artistic and scholarly objectives of the doctoral project; from the point of view of its contents, structure and language, the Thesis must constitute an organic whole. The subject of the Thesis may be closely connected to the Artistic Demonstration (either to all compositions or to a selection of them), in which case the connection must be clearly stated and described. If the Thesis does not discuss the compositions included in the Artistic Demonstration, the Candidate must include in the Thesis a short description of the Artistic Demonstration, together with the concert programs and dates.
The Thesis does not have to adhere to the conventions of a traditional scholarly publication if it is possible to give it a form that seems to serve better the objectives of the project and the objectives of doctoral-level artistic education. A Thesis that constitutes a part of a Demonstration of Proficiency cannot be realized, however, without a sufficient amount of text describing the theme and objectives of the project, the target audience being the community of artists and scholars. A typical amount of text could be somewhere between 40-100 pages, or 25,000 ± 9,000 words (excluding appendices, figures, multimedia components, etc.)
The purpose of the Examination is to establish whether the manuscript submitted as the Thesis fulfils the formal requirements. In his/her statement, the Examiner should pay attention to at least the following aspects:
The theme and objectives of the manuscript
The context
Selection, justification and use of the chosen methods and approaches
The manuscript as a whole in terms of:
Besides the above-mentioned aspects, the Candidate’s ability to defend his/her Thesis in the Public Examination is also to be taken into consideration.
If there is more than one Examiner, each of them can write a statement of his/her own; or, the Examiners can prepare a common statement that all of them approve.
The Examination Statement(s) should clearly state whether the Thesis is approved as a part of the demonstration of proficiency or not; the approval cannot be conditional. A finalized statement must also contain a proposal for a grade (see instructions below).
Information concerning the proposed grade is conveyed to the Chair of the Grade Committee (who is also the Chair of the Public Examination).
The finalized statement(s) is/are to be addressed to the Academy Board´s Division for Doctoral Education and Research and delivered to the presenting official in the office of the doctoral school.
The grade for a Thesis can be either “approved” or “non-approved”. Moreover, in case of an exceptionally high-level thesis, the grade “passed with distinction” can be granted. The grade “passed with distinction” provides that the Thesis is creditable with regard to all evaluation criteria, and, furthermore, it must demonstrate exceptional skill with respect to one central criterion. The highest grade also provides that the Candidate defended his/her thesis at the Public Examination in an excellent manner. If there are two examiners, granting the grade “passed with distinction” requires that the examiners be unanimous in their proposal.
A separate Grade Committee will propose a grade for the demonstration of proficiency, to be presented to the Academy Board´s Division for Doctoral Education and Research. The Grade Committee will base its proposition on the Final Statement on the entire Artistic Demonstration (the composition concert and performances of other works, as well as potential recordings and/or scores) and Thesis, on the provisional grade suggested by the Artistic Committee and on the manner in which the Candidate defends his/her project in the public examination. The final grade is then determined by the Academy Board´s Division for Doctoral Education and Research.based on the suggestion of the Grade Committee.
The grade for the demonstration of proficiency can be either “approved” or “non- approved”. Moreover, in case of an exceptionally high-level demonstration of proficiency, the grade “passed with distinction” can be granted. The latter grade is possible only if proposed by both the Artistic Committee and the Thesis Examiner(s).
The Grade Committee convenes immediately after the public examination of the demonstration of proficiency. The Grade Committee consists of the Chair of the public examination, the Chair of the Artistic Committee, and the Thesis Examiner. If there is more than one Thesis Examiner, the one participating in the public examination will also be a member of the Grade Committee. The Chair of the public examination is also the Chair of the Grade Committee. The Chair is not entitled to vote.