Opening a doctoral study place

A study place must be opened before recruitment can begin. In addition to the letter of initiation, a funding plan must be submitted. Always use the latest template for the funding plan that is in the ABE school's form archive under Doctoral studies  [in Swedish], as it is updated every year to contain current cost information.

The school has regular deadlines for when the initiation letter and funding plan must be received by the doctoral studies officers, see current dates below.

When deciding to open a study place, the responsible HR Officer  is notified, who then together with the recruiting manager produces the advertising material for the vacancy.

Read more about Co-advertising of doctoral student places

A study place must be opened before an application for admission is submitted. For a doctoral student who is employed by an external employer (for example a company, a higher education institution or another Swedish authority), the letter of initiation must by supplemented by a doctoral student agreement or industrial doctoral student agreement.

For doctoral student agreements and industrial doctoral student agreements, the office provides standard templates. Contact the doctoral studies officers to get the latest templates at fouhandl@abe.kth.se .

More information about the process around the doctoral student agreements (industrial doctoral student) can be found here: Doctoral student agreement - industrial doctoral student  [in Swedish]

A study place must be opened before an application for admission is submitted. For a doctoral student who is to be supported with an educational scholarship, the initiation letter must be supplemented with a funding plan that consists of a scholarship decision and a possible additional scholarship. If part of the studies is to be financed by a doctoral student employment, a financing plan for the time as an employee is also needed.

The scholarship decision must contain information about:

• Which organisation / authority / foundation is behind the scholarship
• Name of the recipient of the scholarship
• The size of the scholarship, preferably how much is paid per month or year.
• Period for which the scholarship is paid out
• Information about the scholarship provider and the scholarship

A doctoral student can be funded for all four years if the scholarship is provided within the framework of
1) a development assistance and capacity building programme where scholarships constitute an accepted form of financing or;
2) if the scholarship is provided within the framework of a programme financed by the European Union or equivalent other collaborations where scholarships constitute an accepted form of financing.

In other cases, it is only possible to finance the first year of doctoral studies with a scholarship, and the doctoral student must be employed when three years are left of his/her studies. Therefore, it is only possible to use scholarships for doctoral students who are admitted to the doctoral degree and not to the licentiate degree.

Doctoral students at KTH who receive educational scholarships must have an equivalent level of income as other doctoral students. An external education scholarship that does not reach an equivalent level of income must be supplemented with a KTH-established supplementary scholarship.

Supplementary scholarships must contain information about:

• Name of the recipient (Does not apply to CSC fellows, where only the number of places must be stated)
• Promise that the supplementary scholarship is valid for four years of full-time studies
• The size of the supplementary scholarship, which must take into account the difference between the educational scholarship and the Doctoral student salary agreement
• That the supplementary scholarship takes into account that the Doctoral student salary agreement is adjusted every year
• It is also advisable to provide a larger amount to cover costs such as conferences, travel etc
• More information about educational scholarships and livelihood levels can be found here: Doctoral students with external scholarships

For Chinese students who receive scholarships through the China Scholarship Council (CSC), there is a special process, read more here: KTH-CSC program  [in Swedish]