Collaboration on educating PhD students is now possible thanks to a new agreement between DTU and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
DTU has entered into an agreement enabling PhD students to complete their PhD programme at DTU and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) , Norway. This is the first time that DTU has entered into a framework agreement with one of our alliance universities on a joint PhD programme.
The agreement will allow the two universities to plan the PhD programme from the ground up and determine when the PhD student will be researching at one university or the other. The PhD students will have one of the universities assigned as their ‘home-university’, but over the course of their three-year PhD programmes they will spend at least one year at the ‘guest university’.
The framework agreement was signed by DTU’s President Anders Bjarklev (left) at a video conference attended by NTNU on Monday 23 February 2015. Photo: Thorkild Amdi Christensen.
PhD students will have strong competencies
Agreement strengthens research collaboration between DTU and NTNU. At the same time, the PhD students will develop strong competencies as project managers, says Martin P. Bendsøe, Dean of Graduate Studies and International Affairs, Senior Vice president. He goes on to explain:
“We are seeing an increase in cross-institutional research projects, with collaborative projects becoming the future working method for most researchers. With a joint PhD programme across two universities, the student gains early experience in managing a research project across cultures, departments, and disciplines of the programme. These are much sought-after competencies in the job market.”
The first joint PhD programme has already been established between the two universities in the maritime field. Subject fields such as aquatic research and energy will be some of the next areas featuring a joint PhD programme. The new framework agreement paves the way to establish joint PhD programmes for all fields of study at the two technical universities.
Following graduation, the new researcher will be awarded a PhD degree from both universities.