Postgraduate training

The Swedish term for the doctoral programme is forskarutbildning, which literally means ‘researcher training’. We understand that research does not necessarily end with a completed PhD, and for this reason the objective is not just to produce a doctoral thesis and a specific contribution to knowledge, but to actively prepare the candidate for a continued professional life in the research community.

The Department is spread over two locations, in Engelska Parken in Uppsala and on Campus Gotland in Visby; we have doktorands physically located in both places. The completion of a doctorate should take four years of full-time study (longer, part-time options are also available). The practical end result will comprise a thesis in the form of either a monograph or a compilation of peer-reviewed papers with an introductory essay. In addition to a thesis, the programme includes a number of courses, which together take up about one year of the entire research training period. These courses broaden the knowledge of the doctoral students and can to some extent be customised to the future needs of the doctoral student. The university also offers pedagogical courses for a possible future academic career. Additional, thematic courses are occasionally also available outside the University (for example in the Dialogues with the Past series) and which count towards the doctoral degree.

To support this work, each doktorand has a main and secondary supervisor, and sometimes an external advisor if necessary for very specialist expertise. They help to find a path through the years of study, and will also provide mentoring for the future. Together with the supervisors, every doktorand prepares an Individual Study Plan (ISP), with annual updates, setting out clear goals and mapping out the structure of the thesis work; these are serious, formal documents that are regularly monitored, and we expect our doktorands to adhere to the commitments that they represent. An ISP constitutes an agreement and is part of the career development during the study period.

We have a lively seminar environment, with many weekly series dedicated to a subject or theme. Regular and active participation is a requirement of our doctoral programme. The seminars combine presentations by our own doktorands, each of whom is expected to give a talk once a year, as well as by other departmental staff and invited guests. In addition, there are often seminars linked to research projects, as well as opportunities to attend one-off lectures by visiting scholars. The department also has several cross-cutting research groups and doktorands are encouraged to join one or more of these. All these seminars are characterised by mature and constructive exchanges of views - a ‘high ceiling’ for debate, as the Swedish phrase has it - and are intended to support the work of our doktorands while also honing their critical skills. As a doktorand at Uppsala University, you are part of an intellectual community, sharing ideas and mutually supportive.

It is important to understand that - unlike in many countries - being a doktorand with us is literally a job, with a regular salary and other social benefits. Doctoral researchers are therefore not regarded as ‘senior students’ but as members of staff, albeit under training. This provides many benefits, but like any job, also carries with it clear responsibilities both for employer (the Department) and employee (the doktorand).

Every full-time doktorand is offered a four-year employment contract, the length of time that a PhD should take to complete. In addition, and after discussion with their supervisors, doktorands may have occasional opportunities for work for the Department (e.g., teaching, positions of trust in boards or committees, or administration of seminar series). This ‘extra’ work can be interspersed with the regular thesis research, which is formally prolonged (by no more than a year in total) to compensate for the time spent on other duties.

The demands of family life are no barriers to doing a PhD with us: many of our doctoral scholars have children, and - after six months of doctoral employment - everyone has access to the full systems of parental support and the general social benefits offered by the Swedish state.

Each doctoral researcher is provided with a workspace and computer, most often in a room shared with one or two others. Doktorands have the same access to printers, libraries, labs and computing facilities as any other staff member. Every doktorand is provided with a travel allowance and the Department (and University at large) also has a number of funds to which postgraduates can apply for additional support if necessary. We also encourage doktorands to present at international conferences and generally to extend the range of their academic experience.

The doktorands have their own representatives on all the relevant panels and committees at both departmental and faculty level. There is also an internal forum specifically for doktorands to discuss issues of relevance to them, and to agree on points that can then be taken to the director of studies, supervisors’ collegium, to management or the board. One result of this work is a Doctoral Handbook which is a guide to our four doctoral programmes and most of the university rules that are relevant.

Unlike the system in many countries, it is important to note that in Sweden we do not accept direct, unsolicited doctoral applications. Instead, there are three main points of admittance to our doctoral programmes.

At irregular intervals, the Department advertises doctoral positions (Sw. doktorandtjänster), financed by Faculty money which provide a full wage for four years. These positions are offered specifically in one of our four doctoral programmes (Archaeology, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Conservation, and Egyptology), but the detailed topic of the research is open. Because of the economic commitment from the department, these positions are rare and competition is fierce. The positions are advertised on the University's website under Vacancies. To avoid having to regularly monitor the site, you can subscribe to job adverts for doctoral students. The application procedure is the same as for other academic posts.

There are also a few doctoral scholarships from private foundations, such as the Berit Wallenberg Foundation, which are usually announced once a year. The Department invites students with a second cycle degree in one of our disciplines to apply for such scholarships hosted by the Department. The Department co-funds such scholarships in order to offer the same employment conditions to all doctoral students. This means that an Admissions Committee of the Department first scrutinises applications to foundations and the Head of Department writes a letter of intent that the applicant can attach to the foundation together with his/her application. If the Foundation approves the application, and after approval by the Faculty, the applicant is admitted to the doctoral programme. All questions about applications to foundations can be answered by the Director of third-cycle (doctoral) studies.

A third pathway to a PhD is offered by research projects awarded to the institution's staff by the major national and international research funders such as the Swedish Research Council or FORMAS. Sometimes these projects include doctoral positions to cover specific elements within the project. Finally, there are also doctoral positions linked to EU education programmes, such as the Marie Skłodowska Curie Doctoral Network. Such positions are usually also openly advertised on Vacancies and applied for in competition with others, as above.

All the above funding models provide for salary costs and living expenses only; in Sweden there are no tuition fees for citizens of the Nordic countries and the EU. For applicants from outside these areas, different rules apply. For any of the above options, practical details on how to apply will be given in the relevant advertisements.