Digital ISP for doctoral students

Here you can find information on how to create a digital individual study plan as a doctoral student at the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Please note that this manual is for the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Updates

2026-02-02

"ISP-first assistant supervisor" in the Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology changes name to "ISP-signing assistant supervisor".

2025-09-24

The heading “Subject instance, end date” in the “Admitted to” panel under “Basic Information” has been removed. The date was merely a template date, calculated four years from the "Subject instance, start date". New ISP-versions started from September 24, 2025, onwards will therefore no longer include this heading.

Individual study plan (ISP)

In “Guidelines for Doctoral Studies at Uppsala University”, the conditions that apply to planning and implementation of doctoral studies at Uppsala University are described. Read through these before you start working on the individual study plan.

Note that the Faculty of Science and Technology has supplementary guidelines for doctoral education (based on Uppsala University's guidelines). The most essential aspects for ensuring that the individual study plan complies with these guidelines are highlighted in this manual.

Log in to Ladok for students

Log in to Ladok for students using your student account: Studentwebb
Click on "Individual Study Plan" in the right-hand menu on the start page.

Note: The ISP must have been initiated in Ladok by an administrator before you can access it in your Ladok. Contact the administration at your department if you cannot find your ISP in Ladok or if you want to start a new ISP-version to revise your ISP.

ISP workflow

Use the dropdown menu to fill in the content of the ISP, from "Basic Information" and onwards. The "Timeline" tab provides a summary of information filled in in other tabs.
"Completed work tasks" show what has been done and who has approved previous steps in the ISP.
"Current work task" is where the ISP is currently at and where signing and approval take place.
"Upcoming work tasks" lists the next steps in the ISP.
"Established versions" contains previous versions of the digital ISP that have been established in Ladok.

The individual study plans must be revised at least annually in collaboration between the doctoral student and the principal supervisor. The FUAP, or the assistant FUAP, ensures that the annual revision takes place. The revision shall be preceded by a meeting where the doctoral student’s progress in relation to the degree objectives and previous plan are followed up, as well as planning for further studies. If significant deviations from the previous plan are identified, this must be investigated, justified and documented. The study plan is then approved by the head of department. (Faculty guidelines).

Notifications

On the start page in Ladok for students, a notification indicates where the ISP currently is in the approval process. A new notification is created each time the ISP is moved forward (or backward) in the process in Ladok, for example, when approved or established. A notification email is also sent to the email address registered in Ladok for students.

A reminder that an ISP version needs to be established is sent out two months before the next expected establish date. The reminder appears on the start page in Ladok for students and is also sent as an email notification to the doctoral student and the main supervisor.

Fill in the ISP

The content of the ISP is entered in the tabs from "Basic Information" and onwards.

An individual study plan shall be drawn up for each doctoral student. This plan shall contain the undertakings made by the doctoral student and the higher education institution and a timetable for the doctoral student's study programme. The plan shall be adopted after consultation with the doctoral student and his or her supervisors (6 Chap. 29 § Higher Education Ordinance). The mutual rights and obligations existing between a department and a doctoral student as regards education are stated in the individual study plan.

Basic information

General syllabus (2)

The administrator enters information about the general syllabus.

Milestones in third cycle studies (3)

Select a milestone from the predefined list to plan the doctoral student's education, or choose "Optional text" to enter it manually.

The supervisor and doctoral student fill in this information together (that is if more milestones are to be added in comparison to the Admission documents).

Use the available milestones options as far as possible and avoid free text. The idea is to plan the doctoral student's education with a basic structure of timed activities. For milestones that have been completed or will be completed in the near future, fill in the date as well. The milestones can be changed as the doctoral education progresses.

Study activity and funding (SCB) (4)

Planned activities and funding are entered by the supervisor and doctoral student on a half-year basis.

Reported activities and funding are retrieved from Ladok.

There is no connection between planned and reported study activity and funding.

This pandel for planned activity does not replace the report of activity to your administrator. Your actual activity will be presented here in Ladok-ISP.

The study activity is related to personal work effort in the third cycle studies, where full-time (100%) corresponds to 40 hours/week on average during six months.

During audit, any planned activity reported as actual activity is removed.

The studies are to be planned so that the effective period of study is a maximum of 48 months for a doctoral degree and 24 months for a licentiate degree (UU guidlines)

Funding codes Faculty of Science and Technology.

Fundind codes used at the Faculty of Science and Technology:

DTJ = Employment as doctoral student at a higher education institution irrespective of how the post is funded (also with other institution than UU).

HTJ = Other form of employment (than a employment as doctoral student) that implies that doctoral education can be pursued within the epployment, e.g. Marie Cure doctoral student, employment as assistant with doctoral student duties, employment as adjunkt or administrative staff.

FTG = Industrial doctoral student, i.e. a doctoal student employed a company and pursues doctoral studies as part of this paid employment. [Employment withing the university financed by a company is not included here.

AUH = Other forms of employment outside the university that implies that doctoral studies can

be pursued, e.e. employees at public authorities, municipalities, schools and county councils or trade unions.

STP = Stipends (even from outside Sweden).

BSL = Allowance provided by Sida, for example sandwich-doctoral student.

Departmental duties (5)

A doctoral student´s departmental duties can be documented here.

Supervisor and decision-maker

In "New supervisor input," the principal supervisor specifies agreed supervisor input per calendar half year, such as the organization, percentage, or hours of supervision.

Use "Change information" to add a note if there is relevant information that does not fit within the supervisor input.

The supervisors are responsible for completing this section. Here the distribution of tasks between different supervisors are described, which according to Guidelines for Doctoral Studies at Teknat must be entered in the ISP.

Supervisor conversation

Select "Type of Meeting," fill in the date and participants.

At least one supervision meeting per year shall concern the doctoral student's progression in relation to the degree objectives, how the previous plan is followed and a planning for further studies. The conversation is documented as “Annual follow-up conversation”.

Thesis work

How the "Thesis work" tab is used depends on the respective department. Below are suggestions on what can be documented under each heading.

Ethical clearance must be obtained for the research conducted, as required by the Act concerning the Ethical Review of Research involving Humans (2003:460) (UU guide lines).

Summary (1)

Here, the preliminary title of the thesis and basic information about the thesis is entered and a research plan is uploaded (pdf).

At the faculty, the professor responsible for doctoral education (FUAP) is repsonsible for how to work with the panel "Thesis work". Below are examples.

Planning and follow-up (2)

In this section, planning and follow-up of activities related to the thesis work as a whole are entered, for example the work with the introductory chapter of a compilation thesis.

Part of thesis work (3)

Here, parts of the thesis work can be planned and followed up, such as an article in a compilation thesis or a chapter (select "Other") in a monograph. Each sub project will have its own page and a subheading named "Planning and follow-up," where more detailed follow-up can be done on a half-year basis.

Document for the various parts of "Thesis work" what have been completed in the previous year and plan head for the coming year.

Ethical considerations (4)

Any ethical considerations for 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.

If completed courses or other credit-bearing activities are missing in the ISP, contact the doctoral administration at you department.

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 certified results (1)

Certified results at the doctoral level in Ladok appear here in the ISP. The results need to be sorted under the appropriate headings (2, 3, 5, 6).

Mandatory courses (2)

Planned and completed mandatory courses are documented here.

When a planned course is completed, reported and sorted under this heading it can be removed from planned courses.

“Ethics of Technology and Science, part I” (2 credits) is an example of a mandatory course for all doctoral students at Teknat. There may also be mandatory courses for the subject/major according to its general study plan.

Elective courses (3)

Planned and completed elective courses are documented here.

When a planned course is completed, reported and sorted under this heading it can be removed from the planned courses. One example of an elective course is “University pedagogical education" which should be included for doctoral students who perform teaching. Teacher training for higher education, lasting 5 weeks, is equivalent to 7.5 credits at the Faculty, and may be included in the doctoral programme. Basic Swedish language training for doctoral students who do not have Swedish as their first language may be a credit-bearing course element or take place within the framework of the doctoral student’s departmental duties.

Credit transfer / Credited education (4)

Courses completed at other higher education institutions can be credited, and these credits are displayed here.

Conferences (5) and Seminars and other activities (6)

Planned and completed conferences, seminars, and other credit-bearing activities are documented here.

Non credit-bearing activities (7)

Planned and completed conferences, seminars, and other activities that do not earn credits in the doctoral education are documented here.

Non-credit bearing activities included for example, activities to fulfill the degree goals.

Learning outcomes

In the "Note" field for each learning outcome, activities that contribute to achieving the goal can be entered. A learning outcome is marked as completed when it is achieved.

The individual study plan shall include planning and monitoring of studies based on the degree objectives in the HE Ordinance.

There can be several activities that need to be fullfilled in order to achive the goal.

Timeplan

The timeplan automatically summarizes the information entered in the other tabs of the ISP. The purpose is to provide reviewers and decision-makers with an overview of the doctoral student's planning for the future. No new information is entered in this tab.

Make sure to fill in the panels so the ISP is formulated so as to give a good description of the expected thesis work, including monitorable/interim goals with set dates for achieving them towards the expected date of defence.

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.

Here, the doctoral student and supervisor write a follow-up of the past year, separately, and comment on what has been good and what can be improved.

If there are SIGNIFICANT DEVIATIONS from previous study plan that require the attention of the Head of Department, they must be clearly presented here.

Approving the ISP

Return to the “Work flow” tab when all information is entered in the ISP. By clicking the "Approve version of the ISP", the ISP is forwarded to the supervisor in the next step. If it is a revision of the ISP, a brief description of what has been revised should be written in the message field. Once the ISP is approved by the doctoral student in Ladok, it enters the decision phase and is locked for editing. An automatic notification in Ladok and an email notification will be sent to the supervisor who will review and approve the ISP in the next step of the ISP process in Ladok.

The signature process at the faculty is: Doctoral student –> first assistant supervisor –> principal supervisor -> decision maker (FUAP or head of department).

A first individual study plan shall be established at least three months after the doctoral student has started the education.