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PhD Handbook

PhD Handbook

Handbook for you who want to become or are already a PhD candidate at USN.

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Step 1/3 Startup Step 2/3 Progress Step 3/3 Finishing Jump to keyboard_arrow_down close

Start of the PhD education

The PhD handbook is specifically developed for you as a PhD candidate in one of our doctoral programmes and is intended to be a tool to achieve the best possible doctoral journey, from admission to defence.

The PhD handbook is based on national and local laws and regulations, statutes, guidelines, and our own quality system that covers all parts of a doctoral education, whether you are employed as a research fellow or admitted to a doctoral programme with external funding.

Links to the PhD regulations, guidelines and other resources for you as a PhD candidate are gathered at the bottom of the PhD handbook, under start-up, progress and completion.

 

The PhD journey

How to become a PhD candidate

All PhD candidates, whether you are employed internally or externally, are responsible for applying for admission to the PhD programme within the given deadline, normally no later than three months after employment/start. The requirements for the application are described in §2-2 of the PhD regulations.

In cooperation with your main supervisor, you shall prepare a complete project description, a plan for the training component (30 ECTS) and indicate any plans for stays abroad/researcher mobility during the education.

If you are aware from the start that you will have special needs for academic and material resources to carry out your research project, provide the necessary documentation in the application form.

You are obliged to apply for necessary permissions to use research data and ensure that academic and research ethical guidelines are followed.

You should familiarise yourself with laws, rules and guidelines regarding the use and storage of research data, ICT regulations and export control regulations where applicable · You should familiarise yourself with research ethics guidelines, the Health Research Act and privacy considerations where relevant.

The admission is formalised by entering into an agreement between the faculty and the candidate. The PhD agreement is described in § 2-6 of the PhD regulations.

Programme committee

Doctoral education is one of the university's most important tasks, and we have high ambitions for the PhD education at USN. Our goal is for you to have a successful and quality-assured doctoral journey at USN. The faculties are responsible for their PhD programmes, and each programme has its own programme committee with the committee chair as the highest authority. The programme committee handles all matters concerning admission, implementation and completion of your doctoral education. All matters involving changes must be handled by the committee. It is your duty to adhere to the specified deadlines in connection with applications for changes such as subjects or supervisory teams, as well as deadlines for submitting progress reports, mid-term reports and the thesis. As a PhD candidate, you will be in contact with your local PhD coordinator, head of department, personnel/HR and department head, etc.

Training component

The training component in the PhD programmes at USN consists of a total of 30 ECTS.

The different faculties may require mandatory PhD courses beyond those common to all, for their respective PhD programmes. You can find the various programme pages below, where you will find more information about each PhD programme at USN, within:

 

Resources