Select and admit to doctoral courses

When the course catalogue has closed for application, it’s time to start with the admission to the course. Instructions and templates to use are sent to the semester's current course providers, but on this page you will find most of the information you need for handling the admission to your course.

About admission

Admission is done at the department of each course, either by the course director or by a course administrator, and should be started immediately after the last application day.

For current dates to relate to, see the workflow (document Workflow for admission to doctoral courses) for the semester in question.

To make the selection for admission

Before admission can start, a selection of the applicants must be made. The list of applicants can be retrieved from KIWAS after the last date for application (see instructions sent to the current course providers) and the selections is made in two steps:

Group the applicants according to the general selection criteria. Check that the “category” to which the applicants indicate that they belong corresponds to what is stated in their motivation (KI post docs must have proven their status by submitting a reply form signed by their supervisor/PI). Please note that doctoral students at universities covered by formal collaborative agreements with KI, are treated as KI doctoral students when it comes to selection. Mark ineligible applicants.
Rank the applicants within each category according to the specific selection criteria specified in the course occasion (course catalogue).

Admission

When you have made the selection, you can start the admission.

The admission offer is announced in two steps:

Via the admission function in KIWAS*
Via an e-mail with an attached supervisor certificate, adapted for the specific course, and a link to KIWAS where they must respond.

*In KIWAS under Manual in the left hand menu you will find a quick reference guide that describes each step in detail.

State a last day to reply that applies both to responses via KIWAS and for the return of the supervisor certificate. Follow the recommended dates for the semester in question (see email with instructions for admission).

When admission has been made in the first selection group (KI doctoral students and those equated) and there still are vacancies, one can move on to the next selection group (KI post docs), and so on. We recommend a certain excess intake, ie slightly more than the maximum number for the course.

Applicants who could not be offered a place in the first round of admissions can be offered a reserve place. Since they need to accept an offered reserve place via KIWAS, you as the course provider get to know who is still interested if it becomes relevant with a second admission round.

Ineligible applicants (see Eligibility and selection for doctoral courses) are selected in KIWAS and saved as not admitted. Applicants who expect to be admitted to doctoral education before course start can be offered a reserve place until they have informed the course provider that they have been admitted to doctoral education and thus become eligible for the course.

When having few applicants, those who belong to the category "other applicants" may be offered a reserve place, in anticipation of more applicants that result in compensation for the course provider (normally doctoral students or KI postdocs).

To consider when selecting and admitting:

Note that only doctoral students and applicants who have a PhD are eligible applicants.
Drawing lots is not permitted. It must be possible to rank the applicants.
Admission can never be based on the order that the applications were received. Selection is performed after the course catalogue has closed for application.
A certain excess intake of applicants is recommended to provide margin for dropouts.
When having few applicants, the course provider should consider whether to cancel the course or advertise it on the web page for course vacances. Please consult the doctoral programme in charge.

Handle the admission immediately

Admission can start the day after the course catalogue has closed for application. It is important that it is started immediately, even though your course is not given until at the end of the next semester. The reasons for this are:

The applicants should receive their admission offers to various courses at the same time so that they can decide whether to accept or decline. A late admission offer may lead to dropouts for another course.
Clinical doctoral students, in particular, require a long-term perspective in order to schedule their study time.
We have a planned date for transfer of admission data, from KIWAS to Ladok, handled by the Ladok system management group. Therefore, enter a last reply date that is within the specified time frames, to ensure that applicants have time to respond before the data transfer takes place. See the workflow (document Workflow for admission to doctoral courses) for current dates to relate to.

Supervisor certificate

It is mandatory to use a supervisor certificate to be signed by the applicant and his/her supervisor and returned in order to accept the admission offer, in parallel with a reply via My courses in KIWAS. By this the doctoral student verifies that the course is in line with the planned studies. This certificate also applies to KI postdocs who by this also prove their status as KI postdocs.

Remember, when receiving the signed supervisor certificate, to check that the applicant also has accepted the course offer via My courses in KIWAS.

To consider regarding the use of the supervisor certificate:

It is mandatory to use for admission to doctoral courses.
The certificate should be pre-filled by you as a course provider with the relevant information before sending it to the applicant you are admitting.
Signing may be done manually (then scanned or photographed) or electronically by using Edusign.
Be aware of that the supervisor certificate is an admission offer, and hence should not be used for application for courses (when receiving late applications).
The certificate is only relevant to the applicant groups KI doctoral students, doctoral students from other universities and KI postdocs (i e those groups that have a supervisor or PI). Doctoral students in research schools are excluded with regard to the courses that are included in the research school's course offering, where participation is expected.
In case of late cancellation without acceptable reason you may demand an administrative fee from the KI supervisor/PI, provided that you have received a signed certificate. Please note that we are not sending invoices to other universities for this, so this only applies to KI doctoral students and KI postdocs.

Send a complete participant list to the Ladok administrator

Manual processes associated with admission should be avoided as far as possible. However, there are times when manual handling is required:

when an applicant has only entered birth date (not a complete personal identity number) in KIWAS. If the person is lacking a Swedish personal identity number and is not already established in Ladok, a passport copy needs to be requested.
when admission of late applicants to vacancies is performed outside KIWAS. See also below under Late applications.
when applicants accept an admission offer via KIWAS after the data transfer has been done (last reply date is decided by the course organiser when preparing for admission in KIWAS - please always follow the recommended dates).

By sending a complete list of participants to the department's administrator for doctoral courses, you get help to check which participants need to be handled manually in Ladok. Do this as soon as admission is complete.

Cancellation of a course place

Cancellation of a course place once accepted, should be submitted by the student via the Ladok student web interface. This can be done as soon as the admitted students have been transferred to Ladok. We encourage them to also notify the course provider directly, but this is not always done, so remember to check in Ladok if any cancellations have been made, since you will not receive any notification from Ladok! See instruction (in Swedish only): Återbud på kurs i Ladok - när gjordes återbudet? (alla utbildningsnivåer).

Registration in Ladok

Each course participants must register via the Ladok student interface prior to course start, to confirm that they are starting the course. It can be a good idea to remind them during the admission process that they will have to register in Ladok later on. The registration period will be open from one week ahead of course start, until two days after. This means that if anyone has forgotten to register when they turn up on the first course day, there is still time to register.

Course vacancies

If you have vacancies left on a course after the end of the application period, you may advertise the course further through the website for vacancies on doctoral courses.

You may need to request more information from the applicants in order to make the selection and for the course report later on.

Send an email to doctoralcourses@ki.se with the course number, title and email address to the person to which applications should be sent.

Please note, though, that both the admission process for these additional applicants and the registration (admission) in Ladok will be manual. See Late applications below.

Late applications

Applications received after the course catalogue has closed are processed manually and should not (and can’t) be entered into KIWAS. Admission is done by sending an admission offer via email, with the supervisor certificate as an appendix.

The course responsible department is responsible for that these course participants are manually added (admitted) to the course occasion in Ladok. Send a complete participant list to the Ladok administrator for doctoral education at the department responsible for the course.

Workflow for admission to the course catalogue's courses

See the workflow for courses announced in the course catalogue, from application to completed course evaluation and course analysis. The document also contains time indications for the current semester.