On september 2nd, ph.d. student Emil S. Rasmussen from our group is having his so-called qualifying exam - the equivalent of defending a master thesis for ph.d. students on the "4+4 programme".
The danish "4+4 ph.d. programme" combines the master and ph.d. programmes such that the student will be working on the ph.d.-project for 4 years (instead of 3), but at the same time does not make a separate master project. After the second year in the 4+4 programme, the student has this qualifying exam, which then grants the master grade instead of an ordinary master defense.
Currently all ph.d. students in our group is in a 4+4 programme.