Martine Kox received her degree certificate last Friday in her own backyard. Her supervisor went to deliver the document to her personally by bike (and wore gloves, like a good citizen). Right before that, she had defended her thesis in front of her laptop at home.

Microbiologist Martine Kox had imagined her PhD defence to be different. Instead of standing behind the lectern of the university Aula, she was sitting in her home office in front of her laptop last Friday. The Examination Board didn’t take its seat in the corona – what’s in a name – but asked their questions via Zoom.

Kox was one of the first researchers who defend their thesis online. The university offers that possibility after cancelling all big gatherings from the 12th of March, as one of the corona measures (see text frame).

Bahama’s

‘It was a special experience,’ says the young doctor a few days after via Skype. The only people who were physically in the Aula, were Mark Huijbregts – the professor who chaired the defence as Chairman of the Council of Deans – and the beadle. The last also took care of the technical organisation.

Almost all other ‘attendees’ were at home on their computers, just like Kox. ‘One opponent was in his living room in Groningen, but there were also professors who joined from Wenen and Norwich. My supervisor, Mike Jetten (Professor of Microbiology, red.) wore his academic dress in front of his laptop. And I was wearing the outfit I had already picked out for this occasion.’

It gave the academic ceremony a bit of cachet, is what she’s trying to say. Just like the photograph of the Aula that was on the background of the Zoom meeting. Kox herself decided to use a background of mosses – her research subject. Laughing: ‘But I could have also picked out a beach at the Bahama’s, it was very tempting.’

Facebook live stream

Of course she had been considering to suspend her defense, like many other colleagues are doing at the moment. ‘You look forward to the ceremony in the Aula. The atmosphere around it – like the beadle and her mace – adds a lot too, especially for friends and family. For them, it’s a moment of pride, a lot of them almost never experience something like this.’

The realisation that the crisis could take a while convinced her to go for the stripped-down, online version. There’s a possibility the measures will be less strict in a few months, but it could easily take another year before the Aula can be filled with people again. And having a public defence party for 150 people? Same story. ‘Maybe it’ll never return to the way it was.’

Date

In that case, it’d be better to just get it over and done with, the microbiologist reasoned. ‘Besides, it’s difficult enough to find a date that suits everyone.’ The public followed the defense via a Facebook livestream thanks to a GoPro camera on a tripod in Kox’ home office.

The online nature of the ceremony also lead to some funny moments, the microbiologist says, like when after an hour, the beadle popped up in the image and said ‘hora est’ really loudly, to finish the defense. ‘She scared the daylight out of everyone: in the Aula you see the beadle coming in the corner of your eye. And after that, I was kicked out of the Zoom meeting, because the Doctoral Examination Board was going to discuss it ‘behind closed doors’. For a moment, I was afraid I couldn’t get back into the meeting anymore, haha.’

After all, there were a few things ‘normal’, like the handing over of the certificate. Mike Jetten came to bring it to her house, after him and Mark Huijbregts signed the certificate. ‘They took a nice picture of us, wearing gloves and reaching out our arms. Exactly 1,5 metres.’

Online promotions optional

The Radboud University gives PhD students the opportunity to defend their thesis online ,if they want to. According to Jacqueline Berns, employee of the Beadle’s Office, which organises PhD defences and inaugural lectures, there have been three requests until now. Whoever wants to wait until the corona crisis is over, get’s a date assigned in the fall. ‘As yet, there’s enough space in the calendar.’

Other universities, like Leiden, have suspended all PhD defences, but Radboud University wants to keep the option to defend open with the online version. Berns: ‘Sometimes it can be essential to receive the certificate in time, regarding a future job.’

Technically, not everything is up to standard, she says, but it’s improving. ‘Now the public can’t log in on Zoom, but we’re going to look into ways to follow the defense another way, like through a separate live stream.’ The university is also speaking to the Ministry to discuss how to ensure the public character of the online ceremonies. By law, a PhD defense has to be public.

Inaugural lectures are not held online and are all moved to a later date. An online inaugural lecture is more difficult to organise than a PhD defense, because the amount of guests, says Berns, and is also less urgent than a PhD defence.