Doctoral student
Being a doctoral (third-cycle) student involves both studies and thesis work. The studies can be, for example, courses, seminars, conferences or literature studies. In your thesis work, you will:
- Plan research projects
- Design experiments or data collections
- Collect data
- Process and interpret data
- Summarise results and discussions in different types of publications and presentations
Finally, you will present your work in a licentiate or doctoral thesis.
For all doctoral students, there must be a general and an individual study plan, and during the studies, we make annual follow-ups of the individual study plan.
Entry requirements for doctoral studies
Admission conditions and eligibility for admittance as a doctoral student are mainly regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance.
To be admitted to doctoral studies, you must:
- Meet the general entry requirements and any special entry requirements that the university may have stipulated
- Be deemed to have the ability in other respects necessary to benefit from the studies
“General entry requirements for doctoral studies include
- a degree at the master’s level;
- at least 240 credits awarded, of which at least 60 are at the master’s level (including a degree project worth at least 15 credits); or
- essentially equivalent knowledge acquired in some other way, in or outside of Sweden.”
The specific entry requirements for doctoral studies in medical and pharmaceutical sciences at the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy are:
- English 6
- Education in a field relevant to the subject
Apply for admission to doctoral studies
You apply for admission to doctoral studies using an online form. Complete the form with the support of your principal supervisor.
More information and instructions for the form
Apply for admission to doctoral studies
Admission procedures:
2. Apply for admission to doctoral studies
The Research Training Committee (KUF) must receive your application 12 days before its meeting. Dates for the KUF meetings are available in the Disciplinary Domain calendar under “Områdesgemensamma nämnder och kommittéer”.
Please note that each department has a doctoral studies group (FUG) that reviews all doctoral applications before they are submitted to the KUF. The meetings of the departments’ FUGs align with the KUF meetings. Therefore, check your FUGs’ meeting dates to ensure your application is received in time.
Your completed application forms the basis for your individual study plan (ISP).
3. Admission
You are admitted with a preliminary ISP based on your application.
4. Revise your ISP
Once admitted, you and your supervisors should jointly revise your ISP, including the research plan. Please note that an activity plan for the entire duration of the doctoral studies must be included.
To report revisions, there are two relevant forms on Forms and templates under the heading “Follow-up of doctoral studies”.
You must finalise your preliminary ISP within 6 net months after admission.
Work environment
The Research Training Committee (KUF) has, in consultation with the medical and pharmaceutical doctoral student councils, drawn up an action programme for doctoral students with psychosocial or physically related work problems.
The action programme should be seen as a support, primarily for doctoral students and supervisors, and the hope is that serious work problems can be avoided as far as possible.
The supervisor has a responsibility, but it can be difficult for many doctoral students to talk to their supervisor about problems that are not directly relaated to the research project. Every doctoral student has a network of people to whom they can turn to discuss different types of concerns and problems.
Below is a list of some contact persons:
- The head of doctoral studies or director of doctoral studies at your department
- The director of doctoral studies
- at the Faculty of Pharmacy: Professor Ulf Göransson
- at the Faculty of Medicine, clinical specialisation: Professor Peter Stålberg
- at the Faculty of Medicine, preclinical specialisation: Per Jemth
- for doctoral courses: Sebastian Barg
- The head of your department
- The members of the KUF
- The chair of the Medical Doctoral Student Council or the chair of the Pharmaceutical Doctoral Student Council
- The Student Health Service (if you do not have employment as a doctoral student)
- Uppsala University’s occupational health service (if you are employed as a doctoral student)
- The doctoral student ombudsman (currently the same as the student ombudsman at Uppsala Student Union)
- Your occupational health service (if you have another principal than the University)
In general, you and your supervisor should turn to people on the list whom you trust and who are familiar with the conditions of doctoral studies at your department so that the problems can be solved quickly and constructively.
For problems related to the physical work environment, that is, premises and technical solutions etc., you should primarily contact your supervisor, head of department, campus administration or the coordinators for students with disabilities at Uppsala University.
At the annual follow-up, you and your supervisor should review the progress of the studies and the thesis work, but also address work environment-related issues.