PhLic and PhD requirements

Degrees and Requirements

The student must decide at the time of admission, or later, to take either the degree of Licentiate, or the degree of Doctor, or both.

Licentiate Degree

The degree of Licentiate requires courses of 60 hp credits. Credits may be transferred from advanced level, see below under PhD Degree. The thesis – accounting for 60 hp credits - should show that the student has the ability to use scientific methods and to present problems and results precisely and adequately.

PhD Degree

The degree of PhD requires courses of 90 hp credits.  In total, a maximum of 60 hp credits can be transferred from advanced level courses (of which 15 hp credits can be scientific methodology courses) provided that the courses have not been used as entry requirements. The licentiate thesis may, by acceptance of the principal advisor, be partly or fully included in the PhD thesis. A PhD thesis is based on independent research and should document the student's ability to systematically tackle a scientific problem. The quality of the thesis should reach the quality for publication in international, well-established scientific journals, or contributions to well recognised conferences. The thesis should preferably be a collection of scientific papers, where also papers with the student as co-author may be included. It must, however, be explicitly stated what parts of the work have been done by the student. The thesis may also be a traditional monography.

Course Requirements

The course part of the credits for PhD must include the following mandatory courses:

• Philosophy of science, 7,5 hp credits
• Qualitative and quantitative research methods, 7,5 hp credits
• Scientific communication and research methodology, 7,5 hp credits

For Licentiate, two out of the three are mandatory.

There are also basic course requirements to ensure that all students, regardless of background, reach a minimum level of knowledge in the main areas of computer and systems sciences.  For students enrolled after March 8, 2011,  the need for supplementary courses will be evaluated by the director of postgraduate studies.  For both licentiate and PhD degrees it is mandatory that all of the assigned supplementary courses are completed and credited in the program. The supplementary courses are normally basic level courses. For these courses, only half of the course credits (hp) can be credited in the program.

• Supplementary course/s (individually assigned)

Special requirements for Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV)

To ensure that students with licentiate and PhD degrees in Computer and Systems Sciences have basic knowledge in all of the five main areas of computer and systems sciences - systems development, data and information management, human-computer-interaction, programming and information/IT-security - the need for supplementary courses will be evaluated individually upon admission. Director of postgraduate studies informs the supervisor and student about necessary supplementary courses to be included in the individual study plan (corresponding to 7.5 hp per area).

Special requirements for Man-Machine-Interaction (MMI)

For students with other academic backgrounds than computer and systems sciences a supplementary course is required for both licentiate and PhD degree in Man-Machine-Interaction:

- Supplementary Course in Computer and Systems Sciences, 15 hp

Even for students with backgrounds in computer and systems sciences it can be necessary to supplement previous education.  Director of postgraduate studies assesses the needs upon admission and informs the main supervisor and student about the current supplementary course/s to be included in the individual study plan. The required supplementary courses may not exceed 15 hp.

Remaining courses may be selected from the course program at DSV, or from other departments and universities. However, in order to be able to include the course credits in the course requirements for the licentiate or PhD degree, or to use the credits as qualification of progress, the course must conform to the individual study plan, agreed by and signed by the principal advisor.