Planning Your Studies

General curriculum

Universities and university colleges that may award the doctoral degree decide themselves on the subjects in which doctoral education is to be organised.

BTH currently has nine active subjects at doctoral level that doctoral students are admitted to. For each subject in which doctoral education is organised, there must be a general syllabus. The general syllabus serves as a framework for the subject and must contain, among other things, a description of the content and structure of the program and what is required for admission to the programme.

Attached to each general syllabus are the degree objectives for the doctoral and licentiate degrees in accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance's degree regulations. The degree objectives must be met when the third-cycle degree is awarded.

The objectives describe the knowledge, skills and abilities that the doctoral student should have achieved by the time of the degree. It is the responsibility of each individual doctoral student to read the general study plan for their subject. The general syllabus sets out the course requirements and the objectives to be achieved for the degree in the subject.

Individual study plan

Each doctoral student must have an individual study plan (ISP), which is a work plan for the entire course of study.

After an application for admission to doctoral studies has been approved, the doctoral student must draw up an ISP together with the main supervisor and examiner.

The plan shall contain the university's and the doctoral student's commitments and serves as a support for both the doctoral student and the supervisor in the ongoing work with the doctoral education. The individual study plan can also be seen as a tool where the doctoral student's goals and achieved results are concretized on the way to the current degree.

The studies must be continuously monitored by the supervisors. The individual study plan must therefore be updated at least once a year.

In addition to the doctoral student, examiner and supervisor, a senior reviewer (chosen from outside the department) must also participate in the ISP follow-up. During the meeting, the doctoral student's study results are discussed, and the timetable is reviewed and revised. It should be clearly stated when the program is planned to be completed.

In the ISP, the doctoral student must report the estimated date for the end of the training period and possibly inform about the planned application for an extension. It is important to revise the ISP based on changes in, for example, the rate of study and to state reasons for changes to the stated date for the end of the study period. The revised ISP is submitted to the registrar and approved by the dean of the faculty concerned.