Purpose of the study plan, contents, approval and changes
As part of the PhD study programme, the student in consultation with the principal supervisor must prepare a study plan. The study plan must be sent by the department to the Office for PhD and continuing Education via DTU*DOC, no later than two months after the commencement date of the study programme as it must be approved no later than three months after commencement. The study plan must be approved by the PhD committee. The individual PhD school/DTU department may have special requirements for the study plan. The principal supervisor, the PhD student, and the head of the PhD school must sign the study plan.
The study plan is a good management tool. Use it to manage your project. It will give you the opportunity to follow up on whether goals are achieved or whether the project has changed direction or progress has stalled. The study plan may be regarded as a mutual statement of intent between supervisor and PhD student.
Most PhD students will experience changes to the study plan during their PhD studies.
The study plan should be used to ensure a professional coherence between the PhD thesis, dissemination work, and course work.
Purpose
The study plan has several purposes, including:
- To ensure that the principal supervisor and the PhD students carefully consider and formulate the purpose of the studies, contents and time schedule of the study.
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To serve as a foundation for the PhD committee’s assessment of whether the planned study programme is of a sufficiently high quality.
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To form the basis for the biannual assessments which for the remaining part of the study period are decisive for the continuation of the studies.
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To provide a basis for the PhD committee (at the completion of the studies) to assess whether the achieved results are in accordance with the planned course of study.
Contents of the study plan
The study plan must contain the following:
1) Factual information
PhD programme, DTU department/PhD school, PhD student, principal supervisor(s) and study period.
2) Agreement on the form of supervision
Among other things, it is to be agreed how often supervision will take place in the form of meetings or by written report.
3) The nature and contents of the scientific project
It must be noted that as a rule, at least half of the study period must be spent at DTU.
Efforts should be made to present a clear description of the contents, the original contribution, and the expected result of the project (1 to 2 pages).
4) The external stay(s) of research (possibly research stays abroad)
When conditions allow, the PhD student should, as part of the programme, enter into active research environments outside DTU, either through stays at other - primarily foreign - institutions of research, or in some other way.
Read about planning the research stay and tax liability when posted abroad on Portalen (access only for employees and PhD students at DTU).
5) Course requirements
According to the ministerial order, the PhD student must follow courses to an extent corresponding to about 30 ECTS-points (1 ECTS-point corresponds to 28 working hours).
It is recommended that participation in courses take place within the first eighteen months of study in order to ensure a broad basis for the research work. At DTU, the courses may contain a combination of the following elements:
- PhD courses (DTU's or those of other educational institutions) concluded by an examination assessed in the usual way. PhD students are entitled to a re-examination. Completed courses must be documented by tests passed.
- Specialised PhD courses of up to 10 points. Assessment is made in the form of a report or a test. The course is approved by the PhD committee in connection with the approval of the study plan. As a minimum, the course is evaluated by an internal examiner. If external examiners are used, these are paid by the department’s part of the taximeter grant.
- Courses of up to 15 points at master’s (advanced) level.
Courses below PhD level exceeding 15 points require special reasons in order to be approved as part of the study plan.
- Courses at undergraduate (fundamental) level may under special circumstances be approved by up to 5 points. Such courses must be strictly necessary to the study programme and must be on topics on which the PhD student does not have any previous knowledge.
A study plan which contains information on courses corresponding to 20 points and describes the intention for the remaining 10 points is considered satisfactory.
Please make sure that your study plan is up to date before the conclusion of the PhD programme in order to ensure, among other things, that the diploma supplement has a correct listing of completed courses.
Courses in the study plan must be approved by the principal supervisor and the programme committee. As a minimum, approval requires that a description of the scientific contents and the extent of ECTS-points is enclosed.
DTU's list of approved PhD courses can be found in DTU's Coursebase.
Courses taken previous to beginning the PhD that are not part of another degree and for which you would like to obtain a credit transfer, must be listed in the appropriate place in the study plan.
6) Teaching and dissemination requirement
The PhD student must gain experience in communicating knowledge, either by teaching activities within his/her subject area or through dissemination of research results, e.g. articles, presentation at conferences, etc.
This is considered fulfilled by at least three months of documented dissemination work.
The study plan must specify which activities the student wishes to have approved as part of the dissemination activities as well as an estimate of the time needed to carry out the activities.
7) Time schedule for the three-year study programme
The study plan must contain a time schedule which forms the basis for the half-yearly evaluations of whether the studies are progressing satisfactorily. The duration of the PhD studies is three years. The time schedule can include any granted leave of absence that results in the final date being postponed.
8) Any contract on patents/inventions (intellectual property rights)
If the PhD studies are financed either entirely or in part by a company or similar entity, a contract must be made. The contract is to be approved by the legal advisers in the Office for Research and Innovation. A copy of the signed contract must be enclosed with the study plan. All departments have a person responsible for contracts, and the existing standard contracts can be obtained from this person.
Approval of and changes to the study plan
The study plan must be forwarded to the Office for PhD and Continuing Education, no later than two months after the date of commencement. The approved study plan must be available three months after the commencement of the studies, at the latest.
If any essential changes are made to the study plan, a revised study plan must be prepared. The revised plan must be approved by the PhD committee.
In consideration of the work of the PhD committee, the proper form should be used for submitting changes to the study plan (see link on the top right side of this page).
The application for changes to the study plan must be forwarded to the Office for PhD and Continuing Education.
If the study plan includes stays abroad of more than twelve months, this must be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies. Such approval implies that an agreement has been made with a local supervisor at the foreign institution and that it is rendered probable that a close contact to the principal supervisor at DTU can be maintained during the stay abroad.