Individual study plan (ISP)

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

Creating and revising an ISP

Starting April 2019, the first individual study plan should be created after admission, not before.

To help you speed up this process, you can follow the new step-by-step guide (pdf 3.5 MB) , which has been created specifically for the EECS-school.

If you experience technical difficulties or have feedback concerning the ISP system, please contact e-isp@kth.se .

Revision periods

All individual study plans at the school should be revised once per year during a specific revision period. Right now, the revision period is underway for one of the school's four doctoral programmes:

Electrical Engineering: The schedule for 2024 will be announced at a later date. The previous revision period was 4 September—13 October 2023. Those who established an ISP after 1 June 2023 did not need to do another revision.

Computer Science: The revision period is set for January—March 2024. Those who established an ISP after 1 October 2023 do not need to do another revision.

Mediated Communication: The revision period is set for January—March 2024. Those who established an ISP after 1 October 2023 do not need to do another revision.

Information and Communication Technology: The revision period is set for January—March 2024. Those who established an ISP after 1 October 2023 do not need to do another revision.

Registration

From July 2021 onwards, doctoral students can register themselves on their doctoral thesis (or licentiate thesis if a degree of licentiate is the final degree) every calendar half-year. The registration is done via Ladok for students. Read more about how and when to register on the doctoral/licentiate thesis every half-year . If you are not registered after the registration period, please contact doctoral-education-support@eecs.kth.se .

FAQ

The principal supervisor initiates an ISP using the web-based eISP system . Login, click the menu "Study plans", then button "New study plan", and find the doctoral student you are supervising in the list (if the name does not appear in the list, please contact doctoral-education-support@eecs.kth.se ). Fill in the required fields of the new study plan, press "Save and close" and notify the doctoral student. If the doctoral student is missing from the list, make sure that the permissions are set to the EECS school by choosing "Change permission" in the menu to the left.

An initial ISP will probably not be as comprehensive as the following ones. However, it still must contain information known at the time of writing (e.g. division, intended degree, supervisors etc), as well as planned activities and other relevant plans for at least one year ahead (e.g. a short description of the project, courses, research plan etc) and sometimes the whole study period (e.g. time plan, funding, mandatory courses etc). Therefore, please use the step-by-step guide (see the subheading "Creating and revising an ISP" above) as a reference when filling out the first ISP, so as to avoid further delay during the eISP approval process (png 591 kB) .

The principal supervisor or the doctoral student initiates a revision using the web-based eISP system . Login, click the menu "Study plans", and then the button "Revise" next to the doctoral student's name. If he or she has not used the eISP system before, see question "How do I create an ISP for the first time?" above.

All new study plans start with the status "Created". This means that both the principal supervisor and doctoral student can edit and save the study plan simultaneously - much like working on a draft. When the study plan is ready for approval, the doctoral student initiates the approval process by clicking the "Approve and send" button. It will then reach the principal supervisor for approval. This starts the eISP approval process (png 591 kB) .

Most fields are filled out manually, either by the supervisor or the doctoral student. However, some fields are locked and data must be collected from Ladok. The doctoral education support, the Directors of Studies and the Director of Third-Cycle Education who are reviewing the study plan cannot edit it, only give comments in the comment section and reject/approve it.

Choosing PA in the ISP (pdf 126 kB)

It might be because the study plan is waiting for someone else to edit or approve ( the eISP approval process (png 591 kB) ), or the ISP has already been established and cannot be edited anymore. See the study plan's status in the column labelled "Status" in the ISP system.

An ISP will be sent between the principal supervisor and student until the supervisor approves it without having made any changes. If an ISP is not approved and is sent back, it will be received by the doctoral student first.

Common reasons

Section 2.1 Time plan. Planned degree of activity is missing for one or more semesters until the time of the intended degree, according to section 1. The degree of activity does not match section 2.3 for all semesters.

Section 2.2 Fundings. Planned funding is missing for one or more semesters until the time of the intended degree, according to section 1. An incorrect type of funding has been specified.

Section 4.2 Assistant supervisor. Assistant supervisors have been stated in the ISP without having been appointed by the director of third-cycle education (FA). All supervisors must be decided by the FA, either at the time of admission or later, using the form application for new supervisors .

Section 4.4 Additional persons. Assistant supervisors have been stated here, although the field should not be used for this purpose. If a supervisor has been appointed by the director of third-cycle education (FA), but the person is missing from the list in section 4.2, contact doctoral-education-support@eecs.kth.se .

This might be due to ongoing compatibility issues between Ladok and ISP. See updated system information here , under "Current information". For example, transfered courses are not obtained from Ladok due to system compatibility issues. In case of discrepancies on course results, Ladok will have the final say.

This may be due to two reasons:

The section 2.1 "Study period used (%) - Ladok" is updated one whole semester at a time. Therefore, the number may be misleading at the beginning of a new semester.
The number does not take into account all information in section 2.4 "Past and present leaves/appointments eligible for extensions/special reasons", such as commission-of-trust. Read more about this in the following FAQ.

Section 3.4 (png 6 kB) of the ISP is used to specify special reasons for extending the study period, such as "illness, service in the military armed forces, parental leave or leave of absence related to an elected position in a trade union or student organization" ( ISP-manual ).

Section 2.1 "Study period used (%) - Ladok" of the ISP may not be fully reliable in the case of extensions, since the ISP is mainly a plan. The number comes from Ladok, which is not the main basis of extensions. HR will take extensions into consideration based on the doctoral student's assignments at the department, the entries in the HR+ system and, if applicable, decisions on time compensation for doctoral representatives from the PhD Chapter at KTH, when preparing the final contract. The doctoral student is recommended to communicate with hr-support@eecs.kth.se , so that time extensions are correct. For questions regarding the financial aspect, the supervisor may contact ekonomi@eecs.kth.se .

Doctoral students follow the syllabus for third-cycle subject which was valid on the date of admission to doctoral studies. A doctoral student may switch to a newer syllabus by adding a link to it under tab 1, "Information about the general study syllabus", in his/her individual study plan (see also page 4 of the step-by-step guide ). However, if the doctoral student's specialisation does not exist in the new syllabus, he/she must also apply for a change of specialisation using the form FO-BANT . See the school's general syllabi for third-cycle subjects .