This article reports on a study of the quality assessment of doctoral dissertations, and asks whether examiner characteristics influence assessment of research quality in PhD dissertations. Utilising a multi-dimensional concept of quality of PhD dissertations, we look at differences in assessment of research quality, and particularly test whether prior relationship to supervisor, examiners' assessment experience and the regional affiliation of examiners influence assessment, also controlling for academic fields and type of higher education institutions. The data are drawn from a survey to foreign members of thesis evaluation committees that served in the year 2010 at the Norwegian universities. The sample consisted of 1159 foreign committee members, representing a response rate of 79%. The results indicate that the regional affiliation and previous experience of committee members influence quality assessment significantly, but that the relationship to supervisor(s) was of little importance.