Full- or part-time doctoral studies

Discuss the matter with your supervisor before you register for the new academic year. You and your supervisor should assess how actively you intend to pursue your doctoral studies in the coming academic year and should also take a moment to consider your activity in the past academic year.

When registering for the academic year, state whether you intend to pursue full- or part-time studies. The assessment of activity is based on a four-level scale: 0–25%, 26–50%, 51–75% and 76–100%. Doctoral students whose activity in doctoral studies is assessed as 76–100% are deemed to be full-time students. Students who estimate their activity as lower are considered part-time students.

The assessment applies only to students registered for attendance. If you register for non-attendance for a whole academic year or a term, you need not complete the assessment for these periods.

Are you unsure how to assess your activity? Don’t worry: the assessments are supposed to be indicative only, and do not commit you to anything. If your assessment turns out to be wildly inaccurate, the information will be corrected the next time you register for the academic year and are asked to assess your activity in the previous year.

The University needs information on full- and part-time studies to be able to plan its doctoral education. The assessment of activity does not affect an individual student’s right to study, and the University does not monitor whether the assessments prove correct.

Instead, by collecting information on the nature of doctoral studies, the University can monitor the workload of dissertation supervisors and better identify different student groups as well as their size and needs. The University has a high number of part-time doctoral students, and it is important that their opportunities to study and conduct research are also taken into account when the University develops the education and supervision offered to doctoral students.