Manual for examiners
In this manual you can learn how to manage a digital Individual Study Plan (ISP) as an examiner at the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy.
Please note that this information applies to the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy and not to other disciplinary domains at Uppsala University.
Updates
2025-04-12
Under the heading "Admitted to" in the "Basic Information" tab, the doctoral student and supervisor can now enter information about "Higher education institution resources". Previously, this panel was locked to the ISP administrator.
2025-03-12
- New heading - "Higher education institution resources", in the tab "Basic information" under "Admitted to".
2025-02-26
- New tab - "Overview and reflections" provides an overview of key parts of the doctoral student's individual study plan.
- Download PDF - now you can choose to download all information in an ISP or just information from some of the tabs.
Please note that the above updates include more manuals than just this one. Some updates may therefore apply to instructions you cannot find on this page.
Access to ISP in Ladok
To gain access to ISP in Ladok, you need a user account at Uppsala University and the appropriate permissions for ISP in Ladok. If you do not have this, please contact the department where your doctoral student is registered.
Log in to Ladok
My doctoral students (ISP)
On the Ladok start page, there is a tab called “My Doctoral Students (ISP)”. This tab contains a list of doctoral students that you are the principal supervisor, reviewer, or decision-maker for and that you are linked to in Ladok (1). (If this tab is missing, contact the administration at the department where your doctoral student is registered).
Click on the doctoral student's personal identification number to access their ISP. The link serves as a shortcut to your doctoral student, even when you do not have a current work task in their ISP.
As examiner, you are only involved in the annual review of the ISP.
- For annual reviews without major revisions, the examiner acts as the decision-maker and establishes the ISP
- For annual follow-up with major revisions, the examiner forwards the ISP to the head of doctoral studies after review
Notifications
Ladok has an automatic notification function for the digital ISP. When an ISP reaches a step in the workflow where you have a task to perform (write, approve, confirm), a notification appears in the "My Doctoral Students" tab (2), and a notification email is sent to the email address registered for you in Ladok.
In the notification in Ladok (2), you can see your current work task, and by clicking the blue link, you will be transferred directly to the doctoral student’s ISP.
The doctoral student’s ISP in Ladok
When you enter the doctoral student’s ISP, you will land on the "Workflow" tab. On this page, you approve/establish the ISP after editing or reviewing it, or you can send it back to the doctoral student if corrections are needed.
- The content of the ISP is filled in under the tabs from "Basic Information" and down. The "Timeplan" provides a summary of the information entered in the other tabs.
- "Completed work tasks" show previous steps in the ISP.
- "Current work task" tells you where the ISP is currently at, this is also where you sign and approve the ISP.
- "Upcoming work tasks" contain the coming steps in the ISP.
- "Established versions" store previous versions of the digital ISP that have been established in Ladok.
The annual follow-up is carried out by the doctoral student and supervisor in consultation with the examiner. As examiner, you must review the documentation in the ISP. It is primarily the sections “Supervisor discussion”, “Thesis work” and “Overview and reflections” that are relevant to the annual follow-up.
Reviewing the content of the ISP
In the "Workflow" tab, in “Current work task” you find a description of your work task (6). Enter the tabs "Timeplan" and "Overview and reflections" to get useful overviews of the doctoral student’s planned education and progression.
A description of the task and instructions on what to review can be found under the heading “Current task” in Ladok .
Approving or establishing the ISP
After reviewing the ISP your task is to approve, establish or send the ISP back to the doctoral student for revision.
- Click on one of the blue boxes under the heading "Current work task."
If you choose to approve/establish the version, that means you are signing the ISP, and it will be forwarded to the next step in the ISP workflow
Annual follow-up
The annual follow-up is carried out by the doctoral student and supervisor in consultation with the examiner. As examiner, you must review the documentation in the ISP.
Once the annual follow-up has been completed, the principal supervisor approves the study plan, which is then forwarded to you as examiner. The principal supervisor must inform you if the ISP is unchanged and can be approved by the you, or if the ISP contains significant revisions that must first be approved by the you and then forwarded to the head of doctoral studies. The information can be found under “Completed work tasks” in the “Message” column.
If the follow-up looks good and no major revisions have been made, you should determine the ISP (“Determine annual follow-up (no significant revision)”).
If the follow-up looks good and major revisions have been made, the ISP should be approved and forwarded to the head of doctoral studies (“Approve annual follow-up. Send to head of doctoral studies.”).
If you do not approve the follow-up due to deficiencies in the documentation, send it back to the doctoral student (and supervisor). You must then write a comment on what action is needed in the message box that appears when the ISP is sent on in the system.
In case of any problems that cannot be solved in this configuration, it is important that you contact the head of doctoral studies for further handling.
Tabs of particular relevance for examiners
Supervisor conversation
Select "Type of Meeting," fill in the date and participants.
Supervisor conversations concerning the research project are marked as “Annual follow-up meeting” and documented in “Note”.
Annual follow-up
At least once a year, the ISP must be followed up and, if necessary, revised. The annual follow-up is carried out by the doctoral student and supervisor in consultation with the examiner, and documented as “Annual follow-up meeting”.
In “Note”, the doctoral student and supervisor should evaluate and document how the collaboration has worked over the past year. What has worked well? What has not worked? Any suggestions for changes? Other comments.
See also ‘Overview and reflection’ regarding annual follow-up.
Thesis work
How to use the tab "Thesis Work" is determined by each department. Below, different possibilities are described.
Summary (1)
Here, the preliminary title of the thesis and basic information about it are documented, and the research plan is uploaded (PDF).
The information entered on the “Thesis work” tab can serve as a basis for the annual follow-up.
Planning and follow-up (2)
In this panel, planning and follow-up of activities related to the thesis work can be documented, for example the design of the introductory chapter of a compilation thesis.
Part of thesis work (3)
Here, parts of the thesis work can be planned and followed up. This could include an article in a compilation thesis or a chapter (select "Other") in a monograph.
Each subproject gets a separate page and a subheading, "Planning and follow-up," where more detailed follow-up can take place per calendar half year.
Document for the various parts of "Thesis work" what have been completed in the previous year and plan head for the coming year.
Ethical conditions (4)
Any ethical conditions regarding the thesis work can be uploaded here.
Courses and conferences
Courses, conferences, and other credit-bearing activities at the doctoral level are reported in Ladok and when certified they are automatically transferred to the doctoral student's ISP under the heading "Unsorted certified results" (yellow rows). The activities are then sorted under the appropriate headings further down.
Reported results at the doctoral level before 2018, which are found under "Other results" in the doctoral student's overview in Ladok, are not automatically transferred to the doctoral student's ISP.
Unsorted certifed results (1)
Certified results at the doctoral level in Ladok are automatically transferred to Ladok ISP and appear under this heading. The results then need to be sorted under the appropriate headings (2, 3, 5, 6).
Once a planned course has been completed, reported and sorted, it should be removed from the planned courses list.
Mandatory courses (2)
Here planned and completed mandatory courses are documented.
Elective courses (3)
Here planned and completed elective courses are documented.
Credit transfer / Credited education (4)
Credited education is automatically transferred from Ladok to here.
Conferences (5) and Seminars and other activities (6)
Under these headings are planned and completed credit-bearing conferences, seminars and other activities.
Non-credit-bearing activities (7)
Planned and completed non-bearing activities in third cycle education can be documented here.
Timeplan
In the timeplan the information entered in the other tabs in the ISP is summarized to give reviewers and decision-makers an overview of the doctoral student´s plans forward. No new information is entered in this tab.
Under Timeplan you can also see an overview back in time.
Overview and reflections
This page provides an overview of key parts of the doctoral student's individual study plan per calendar half-year.
Planned activities are indicated in parentheses. If both planned and completed activities exist for the same half-year, the completed activity is shown first, followed by the planned one in parentheses.
100% study activity corresponds to one calendar half year of full-time studies, which means that four years of full-time studies gives a total of 800% study activity.
In reflections, the supervisor and the doctoral student can reflect on the student's progression at different stages of the doctoral education. This may include discussions on achieved milestones, identification of potential obstacles, and planning of future steps.
During the annual follow-up, the doctoral student and supervisor should briefly summarise the past year and comment on future planning. Deviations from the planned work should also be documented here. In case of significant deviations, the ISP must be revised.
The annual follow-up is carried out in consultation with you as examiner. You must review the documentation in the ISP.
See also ‘Supervisor conversation’ regarding annual follow-up.