Below is a brief introduction to what is required of supervisors supervising PhD students on the PhD programme in Social Sciences and Business. Any questions should be submitted to the PhD programme chair Torsten Kolind (tk.crf@psy.au.dk) or PhD partner Randi Groslier Bjælde (rgb@au.dk).
If you are enrolled in the Social Sciences and Business programme, you will be employed at one of the six departments or at the Centre for Educational Development. Thus, you may be employed as a PhD student at e.g. the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences and enrolled in the Social Sciences and Business Programme. In fact, your terms of employment can be even more complicated if you are employed at a research centre (e.g. the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy), which belongs under the Department of Political Science and Government, while being enrolled in the Social Sciences and Business programme. It may cause some problems, e.g. regarding where your teaching obligations should be carried out or which PhD environment you belong in and so on. You should discuss this with your supervisor. Practices may differ depending on which department or which research centre you are affiliated with.
All expenses for the PhD education are covered by the department, unless another agreement has been made (e.g. between department and centre or a company). PhD students in the Social Sciences and Business programme are therefore subject to the same terms and conditions as other students employed at the department with regard to travelling abroad, paying for conferences, PhD courses, expendable income etc. The department is also responsible for covering expenses in connection with printing the dissertation and conducting the PhD defence, and the department receives reimbursement from the graduate school following the PhD student’s successful completion of the programme. If other agreements have been made (e.g. between a centre and a department or a company), then the terms of this agreement apply.
Prior to enrolment, all PhD students must have appointed one principal supervisor and (at least) one co-supervisor. The principal supervisor must be employed at a department at BSS at the level of associate professor/senior researcher or professor. Co-supervisors may be employees at BSS or another institution/company at the level of (at least) assistant professor.
The supervisors offer academic supervision and guidance on the PhD project as well as supervision in connection with the student’s course participation, conference participation, stays abroad and teaching activities.
The prescribed amount of supervision offered is laid down by the supervisor’s department. Supervisors will however often spend more time than prescribed if the supervisor and PhD student enter into a research collaboration or joint authorship on scientific articles. To qualify for co-authorship, the supervisor must contribute substantially to the publication. It does not automatically follow from the supervisor relationship.
Provisions on student supervision can be found in the guidelines. Pursuant to the guidelines, the student’s PhD plan must include a description of mutual demands and expectations to the supervision process, including details of the method and frequency of supervision sessions. It may be a good idea to have frequent contact meetings, even though there are no specific assignments that require supervision. During plan evaluations, the principal supervisor and the PhD student confirm that the supervision process proceeds to the satisfaction of both parties (see below).
Pursuant to the PhD Order, the university must offer supervision to the PhD student to support the PhD student’s teaching activities. If the student’s teaching activities include examination, the supervision should also address this. The principal supervisor is responsible for the PhD student’s overall course of studies, and therefore it is his/her duty to make sure that proper supervision and guidance is provided. Pursuant to the guidelines, the supervisor should duly consider the PhD student’s need for advice and counselling, and should show interest and offer encouragement especially regarding the PhD student’s teaching obligations.
Pursuant to the PhD Order, the university must evaluate the PhD student’s progress continuously throughout the programme to assess whether he/she follows the PhD plan and to ensure that the student revises the PhD plan if necessary. The graduate school regulary conduct plan evaluations, sometimes supplemented with a meeting of the board of supervisors. The goal of this board of supervisors is through constructive discussion of the PhD student’s course of study in a wider context to increase the quality of the PhD projects and help the PhD students finish their projects within the scheduled time frame. The board of supervisors should also consider the quality of the supervision offered throughout the programme.
PhD students enrolled in the Social Sciences and Business programme may belong under the board of supervisors at the department where they are employed. If the PhD student is employed at one of BSS’ research centres (CRF, CFA, NCRR, or at CED), a board of supervisors can be established there. The PhD programme chair or another member of the PhD field committee participates together with the principal supervisor and a number of senior researchers.
The plan evaluations are conducted electronically via MyPhD. Both the principle supervisor and the PhD programme chair must approve the plan evaluation. Furthermore, at the end of the PhD education, the principle supervisor signs a statement to indicate tot he graduate school whether the PhD student has completed the PhD education satisfactorily. Submission of the dissertation should be reported to the principle supervisor and the department secretary one month in advance of the date of submission.
The rules for the appointment of the assessment committee are addressed in rules and regulations of the PhD education.
It is the responsibility of the principle supervisor to appoint a chair and two members of the assessment committee and to obtain consent from the committee members that they have agreed to take on the task. You may use a letter template for submitting an enquiry to a potential member of the assessment committee. The assessment committee proposal should then be submitted to the PhD programme chair/graduate school secretary. The proposal must be completed before the dissertation is submitted.
The assessment process is addressed in rules and regulations of the PhD education and in the guidelines for assessment committees, both can be found here.
Pursuant to section 11 of the PhD Order, the PhD dissertation should document the author’s ability to apply relevant scholarly methodology and to carry out research work meeting the international standards for PhD degrees within the field in question.
The PhD dissertation requirements are addressed in the rules and guidelines of the Phd programme.