Interested in doctoral education at KI?
Doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet
Doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet (aiming for either a licentiate or Ph.D. degree) is largely based on the student's personal research project, which is complemented with courses and clearly specified knowledge requirements. It requires normally a total of four years' full-time doctoral education to acquire a Ph.D. degree.
If you are interested in other kinds of postgraduate education, e.g. specialisation or master programmes/courses, please visit the following links:
- Visiting Researchers Service (information about specialisation)
- Master programmes and single subject courses
Available doctoral positions at KI
Available doctoral positions will be advertised four times during 2013.
Application periods
- February 11 - March 8
- April 1 - 29
- September 16 - October 11
- November 4 - 29
Admission procedure
There is no general admission to doctoral education at KI. All admission procedures are handled on the department level and decision on admission is taken by the head of department, based upon a proposed individual study plan that should be written jointly by the student and the supervisors. This means that everyone who wishes to apply for admission to doctoral education at KI first has to find a potential supervisor among established researchers at KI active within the area of interest, who can help formulating the individual study plan together with the student.
Find a supervisor
Contact can be taken directly with potential supervisors and research groups working within your field of interest by searching the departments and staff catalogue at KI.
You can also find a supervisor within a specific field by searching at PubMed. Type Karolinska together with your field of interest.
Study plan including plan for financing
When you have found a potential supervisor having the right field of interest and expertise as well as the time, resources and interest to guide you in the joint writing of a proposal for an individual study plan, this should be done according to the Rules of doctoral education at KI.
General eligibility
To be accepted as a doctoral student, the student must also be able to prove general eligibility with at least 240 credit points from previous studies as an undergraduate student at a university.
Admission seminar in English
There are no official requirements for the command of the English language. However, you have to present your individual study plan at a seminar in English for a committee at the Department where you want to be registered as a Ph.D. student. After that the head of the Department decides to accept or not accept your request to be a research student, based upon a combination of your and your supervisors merits as well as the quality of the proposed individual study plan.
