The grounds for disqualification defined in the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003, sections 27–28) must be taken into account when appointing the preliminary examiners and opponents. In addition, the following must be observed:

A preliminary examiner or opponent may not be a co-author of any of the articles related to the dissertation.

The preliminary examiner or opponent may not have acted in close cooperation or had joint scientific publications or research projects with the supervisors or the doctoral researcher in the last three years.

A person who is otherwise disqualified must not be appointed as a preliminary examiner or opponent. According to section 28(7) of the Administrative Procedure Act, a public official is disqualified if “confidence in his or her impartiality is endangered for another particular reason”. In cases that are open for interpretation, an additional clarification must be submitted to the Dean on the matter.

The more detailed disqualification guideline of the University of Eastern Finland is available on Heimo.