Eligibility and selection for doctoral courses

Doctoral courses at Karolinska Institutet (KI) are open for doctoral students at all universities and colleges as well as for KI post docs and other applicants holding a PhD. Admission is based primarily on general and secondarily course-specific selection criteria.

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Eligibility

Only applicants who are either doctoral students or hold a PhD are eligible for admission.

Some courses may also have specific entry requirements, i e prerequisite courses (or equivalent). In these cases, this is stated in the syllabus.

Selection criteria for courses at doctoral level

A selection procedure has to be performed if there are more applicants than places available. How this selection is performed is indicated below.

General selection criteria

The following priority is applicable when Ki has the main responsibility for the course:

1. Doctoral students admitted to doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet

Note that doctoral students in collaborative agreements within doctoral education at KI are treated equally with KI doctoral students. The collaborative agreements in question are listed on the following page​:

​2. Post docs at KI

To belong to the category “Postdocs at KI” when applying for doctoral courses, applicants must be able to prove that they have a postdoc position at KI or Region Stockholm at the time of the course, and devote most of their working time to their own research (but may have a different job title than postdoc). Anyone who has obtained the PhD degree more than five years before the course start (with up to 24 months’ extension due to parental leave, long-term illness, general medical internship (“AT-tjänstgöring”), non-academic employment or unemployment) is no longer considered a postdoc in this regard.

If the applicant cannot prove that he/she has a postdoc position at KI or Region Stockholm at the time of the course, the course application is handled as belonging to the category “Other applicants”.

3. ​Doctoral students from other universities

Admitted to doctoral education at a university in Sweden or abroad.

4. Other applicants

This category includes applicants with a PhD (other than postdocs at KI, see above), e g teachers and researchers.

If you have an ongoing application to doctoral education and are expecting a decision before course admission has been carried out, you can apply under the category of "other applicants." The course provider will assess each applicant as eligible or ineligible during the admission process. 

Course specific selection criteria

Within the above categories, selection is performed according to the criteria stated for each course in the course catalogue.

Applicants within the category "other applicants" may be offered a reserve position, in anticipation of more applicants that result in compensation for the course provider (normally categories 1-3).

For most general science courses, registration date as doctoral student is a selection criterion, but please see each course occasion for correct information. Please note: If the registration date as a doctoral student is incorrect in your personal profile, the application becomes invalid.

Contact

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Anna Gustafsson

Administrative Officer
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Anna-Karin Welmer

Chair of the Course and programme committee
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Emilie Agardh

Vice chair of the Course and programme committee
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Ingeborg van der Ploeg

Central director of studies