The notification - or spikning, as it is termed in Swedish (meaning quite literally "nailing") - of the date of the defence of a doctoral disertation is an old tradition within the world of academia. The purpose of the notification is to inform the public three weeks in advance of the upcoming defence so that everyone can be party to the research. Nowadays, the notifications of upcoming doctoral defences are made digitally and are accessible online: the literal spikning is purely ceremonial.
A few years back, Dalarna University acquired the rights to award doctoral degrees within the field of Health and Welfare with Specialisation in Evidence-Based Practice. Katarina Grim will now be the first doctoral student to defend her dissertation within this field. The title of her dissertation is "Legitimizing the knowledge of mental health service users in shared decision-making: Promoting participation through a web-based decision support tool".
The spikning took place on Monday, August 26 at the Campus Falun library. The actual defence will take place on September 13.