Amelie about the number of newly admitted doctoral students

Last week, a discussion started at KTH. The question debated was if the number of newly admitted doctoral students had decreased, and if so why. We then had reason to take a closer look at the figures for the CBH School and could see that the number of newly admitted to the third-cycle education programmes has varied quite strongly from year to year during the last 10-year period, without any clear trend over time. Over the past 10-year period, the year 2020 stands out as having the lowest number of new admissions to CBH's doctoral program, which was probably due to difficulties recruiting during the pandemic. In 2021, the number of new admissions increased again only to decrease slightly in 2022, which may well have been a temporary decline.

On the other hand, The CBH School, on the other hand, can see a clear increase in the number of newly hired postdocs in recent years. At the CBH School, we thus see a trend of more postdocs being hired, while the number of newly admitted doctoral students is relatively unchanged and decreases somewhat in some programs. The employment of postdocs is seen by several of the school's research groups as a natural way to strengthen the research environment, bring in new skills and establish international contacts. I think it is positive for the school's departments to have a mix of doctoral students and postdocs and hope that we can maintain a good balance between these categories in the future as well.

Amelie