Prospective PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences?
On these pages you will find the information you need if you want to become a PhD candidate.
Main content
Do you have a master’s degree, and want to pursue your research interest even further? Are you motivated, ambitious and analytical? Do you like varied work with the chance of doing research, dissemination and teaching?
PhD education gives you the possibility of working in academia and doing in-depth research on the field of your interest.
The PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences is internationally oriented, and we recruit PhD candidates from all over the world to our exciting research environments in the discipline’s sociology, political science, economics, information sciences, media sciences, social anthropology, system dynamics and geography.
What does it mean to complete a PhD degree?
The PhD education is organised in programmes with a stipulated length of three years' full-time study.
The most important part of the PhD training is an independent research project completed under active supervision.
The PhD degree is awarded on the basis of:
- An approved academic thesis
- An approved completion of the training component, alternatively another approved disciplinary training or competence
- An approved trial lecture on an assigned topic, and
- An approved public defence of the thesis
As a PhD candidate you get to immerse yourself in a field of interest. Additionally, you get training in the disciplinary context, methods and theories that provide a disciplinary breadth and depth in their field, and that also contextualises the discipline within a broader framework. The PhD training includes practice in the dissemination of academic work to colleagues, students and the general public.
In order to get admitted to the PhD programme you need funding. That means either salary from a PhD fellowship position or salary from another employment position.
As a PhD candidate you will work with other passionate candidates and researchers, and you will be able to travel abroad and establish a network. A PhD degree is a good start, whether you would like a career in or outside of academia.
