PhD Programme in Natural Science

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With a PhD under your belt, you will be qualified to conduct research at an international level and to undertake work requiring a high degree of scientific understanding, analytical skills and knowledge of research ethics.

A PhD provides a foundation for a career as a researcher at universities, higher education institutions, research organisations, businesses or other sectors involved in research and development.

The qualification can also open up opportunities in management and administration within knowledge-based organisations, policy and analysis roles in public administration, teaching and communication, product development and international collaboration.

Overall, a PhD provides you with a broad and attractive range of skills that are relevant both nationally and in the international job market.

Admission to the PhD programmes requires that the candidate has at least 5 years of university education, comparable to 300 ECTS. This means:

• 3-year bachelor degree (180 ECTS) and 2-year master degree (120 ECTS)
• 5-year integrated master’s degree (300 ECTS)

Other educations that are evaluated to be of equal extent and length may qualify for admission.

In all cases, the master's degree must contain an independent master thesis.

Experience-based master's degree
Experience based master's degree of 120ECTS may be the basis for admission, but this presupposes that the master's thesis is of sufficiently high quality.

Applicants who have completed a Norwegian experience-based master's degree of 90 credits can qualify for admission at 30 credits extension of the master's degree as follow:

• Written thesis (individual work) with a scope of 30 credits with a final exam.
• A scientific article/manuscript that has either been published, accepted or submitted to a scientifically recognized journal. The work will be assessed by the DC.
• Ordinary subjects at master's degree level.

Evaluation and approval of foreign educations

Candidates with a foreign education will be subjected to an evaluation of whether the educational background is equivalent to higher Norwegian education. The faculty uses national guidelines according to Nokut's country database and the GSU-list. Applicants from certain countries will have to document additional higher education in order to be admitted. Depending on which country, one or two additional years of university education may be required, e.g. 4 years bachelor degree and 2 years master’s degree.

Applicants who have completed higher education abroad shall be considered in line with Section 3-5 (3) of the University and University Colleges Act.

Grades

Applicants must have achieved B or better on the master thesis and have an average grade of B or better on subjects included in the degree. The average must be at least 3,5 according to the conversion table in section 35 in the regulations for study and examinations at UiT (A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1.)

For integrated master's degrees, applicants are required to have achieved a grade of B or higher on their master's thesis and an overall average grade of C or higher across all courses comprising the integrated degree programme (equivalent to 300 ECTS credits). This corresponds to a minimum grade point average of 3.0. The rationale for the slightly lower grade requirement for integrated master's degrees is that academic performance typically improves in the later stages of the programme.

For applicants with an abroad educational background where the assessment expression deviates from the Norwegian grading system, the grades must be assessed individually.

English language proficiency

Documentation of sufficient English Language proficiency is required in order to be admitted to PhD studies. Requirements are either fulfilled by formal education or by obtaining a high enough score on an international recognized test.

Applicants from Nordic countries, English speaking countries and some other countries are exempted from providing a test. The GSU-list informs of which countries are exempted from English tests. In addition, if the master’s thesis has been written in English and English has been used as the language of instruction in the master’s programme, English tests are not generally required.

Funding of PhD

Admission to organized PhD programmess at UiT requires sufficient funding. For PhD candiates employed at UiT, all financial aspects are usually taken care of. UiT funded PhDs are either funded by UiT or externally funded by projects (NFR, EU and other funding institutions). A budget must be included in the application for final admission in order to show the use of the funding.

External PhDs, i.e. fellows with a different employer than UiT, are asked to provide documentation that the PhD is adequately funded. The PhD regulations states that the funding should be similar to costs of UiT funded PhDs. Funding shall cover salary costs, operating costs and overhead to the faculty.