Become a Doctoral Student

Eligibility

At the Faculty of Law, applicants are regarded as eligible if they have:

• either, in Sweden, gained a Bachelor or Master of Laws degree, or completed the Law Programme
• or, in Sweden or abroad, acquired knowledge corresponding to what people with the above qualifications may be expected to possess.

Further eligibility requirements that apply for postgraduate studies are stated in the Higher Education Ordinance, local guidelines at Uppsala University and the General Study Plan pdf, 369 kB. for the doctoral studies.

Application and admission

The Faculty regularly advertises doctoral student positions. Vacancies can be found on the Human Resources Department’s central advertisement page.

Such salaried positions are held for a period corresponding to four years’ full-time postgraduate education. The studentship may include employment at the Department of Law in the form of teaching, and the position is then extended by a corresponding period of time. A studentship at the Department can also be funded by an external funder outside the Department.

Students may also be admitted to education at postgraduate level with other forms of funding than salaried positions at the Department. This often means that grants for funding the studies are awarded by a foundation, public agency or other research funder. For a student to be admitted with a form of study funding other than from a salaried position, the higher education institution concerned must deem that the student’s funding can be secured for the entire period of study.

When applying to our doctoral programme a project description and required certificates and grades need to be submitted. In order to be admitted, the applicant also needs a letter of recommendation or indication of at least one reference person. A letter from a potential supervisor should not be attached to the application, such letters are obtained during the admission process for prioritised project descriptions. For detailed information, see the respective advertisement.

An evaluation committee specifically set up for this purpose will evaluate the applications and make recommendations regarding applicants to be be called in for an interview. Only applicants whose projects have a potential supervisor at the Department of Law by the time of the interview or shortly thereafter will be offered a position as a doctoral student.

Decisions on admissions are made by the Research Committee at the Faculty of Law, and decisions on employment are made by the Head of Department.

Documents and forms for doctoral student applications

Supervision of doctoral students

At least two supervisors should be appointed for each doctoral student, one of whom should be the main supervisor with overall responsibility for the education, including the thesis work. One of these supervisors must be employed at the university. The main supervisor must have at least associate professor competence and at least one of the supervisors must have completed supervisor training.

Doctoral students are entitled to supervision during their education unless the Vice-Chancellor decides otherwise on the basis of the Higher Education Ordinance.