I have finished and handed the final version of my PhD in Organizational Behavior to my university about two months ago. In that time my mentor and the four members of my defense committee approved it and I am waiting for my defense date to be scheduled.

However, about a week ago the head of administration of the university informed me that there is one more legal procedure that needs to be done before the defense date can be set. Apparently, the law for higher education concerning the process of acquiring a PhD states: once the final version has been submitted and approved, the student needs to write a 15 pages summary of the thesis. Then the summary needs to be sent to five educational institutions which have a department the corresponds with the topic of the thesis in this case business/management. These are mailed by regular post from my university to whichever I deem appropriate and the university waits for a month for a response. According to the administration head here, response is not needed, as long as in 1 month none of those institutions write back with proposed changes to the thesis, defense date can be set. His words: find me five institutions where you know a person that the summary can be addressed to, this is just a formality and rarely which institution writes back. However, if they write back with proposed amendments then your defense can't be schedules for another few months until you have changed those things, your mentor and committee approved it again and then that same institution approves it again. In other words he wants me to find institutions which will not prolong my defense date and would not respond or if they decide to, the response should be positive.

I honestly don't need much help apart from your willingness to accept the 15 pages summary sent to your university by mine and hopefully not find any changes to propose, so not write anything back for a month or if you decide to, write few sentences in a positive light.

Finding a random person to sent your summary to really isn't the point. Do you want a PhD on that basis, when maybe what you've written isn't good enough but you've passed anyway on a technicality?

Just look online and find people in your field and email them the document. You probably won't hear anything back anyway.

I agree with ToL. It sounds like it is just a procedure - so do it - and fingers crossed no amendments will be needed.

Yeah...you can check it online. But it won't work for you I think.