The formal part of the PhD study

At the Faculty of Health Sciences the candidates are required to complete formal studies consisting of 30 credits. Minimum 20 credits should be taken after admission to the Phd study, and courses/activitiestaken earlier should not be older than two years when you start the PhD study.

Together with the work of the dissertation the formal studies must provide the student with training containing both necessary academic depth and extent.

Courses that are to be included in the formal studies must normally be courses at PhD level (8000-level courses).

The formal studies must be completed and approved before the dissertation is submitted. You may apply for approval of the formal part when all courses/activities are completed, or apply for approval of the courses/activities as you finish them during the study. Application regarding changes in the approved plan of the formal studies must be made in cooperation with the main supervisor and is processed by the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Please notice:

The formal studies must include the courses in:

- Theory of science and ethics, 6 ECTS

- Scientific methods, 6 ECTS

- Research communication, 3 ECTS

All together 15 ECTS.

These courses are approved by the faculty:

HEL-8011 Qualitative research methods, 6 ECTS

HEL-8004 Allmennrettet og vitenskapelig forskningskommunikasjon, 3 ECTS

The rest of the 15 ECTS can be put together by other courses, presentations and/or research stay abroad.

• Courses evaluated according to the graded scale from A (highest) to F (lowest) must be graded C or better.
• An individual study syllabus can be approved as a part of the formal studies if there are no research courses available in the relevant field of research
• Max 6 ECTS in research communication/presentations can be included in the formal part.
• Research courses arranged by other Norwegian universities may be a part of the formal studies.
• Participation in other research courses at a national or an international level may be approved with credits.
• A presentation at a national conference/research forum gives 1 credit. A presentation at an international conference/research forum gives 2 credits. All together 3 credits in form of presentations can be included in the formal part of the PhD study.
• Popular science presentation/production - max 2 credits
• For research stay abroad of min 2 weeks you can get 1 1/2 credits per week, in total 6 credits. You can not get credits for a research stay in your home country.

PhD schools and the formal part of the PhD study

Please note that if you apply for a PhD school, the PhD schools at the faculty have their own requirements to courses/activities in the formal part of the PhD study.

Application for approval of credits

For approval of credits in the formal part of the PhD study you write a short application where you list your courses/activities.

- Research courses that are not arranged by UiT must be documented with course certificate, course description, time table and list of syllabus. We need a certified copy of the course certificate.

- Presentations must be documented with

• copy of the frontpage of the conference leaflet
• copy of the participation list with information that shows whether you had an oral or a poster presentation
• the abstract or the powerpoint presentation
• confirmation on held presentation from the institution/organizer, or your supervisor. We need an original document or a certified copy of this.

- Research stay abroad must be documented with a confirmation letter from the institution that shows place and time period for the stay. The letter should also include a short description of your work at the institution. We need an original document or a certified copy of this.

Application for approval of credits should be addressed to: