Structure of the educational component
Candidates admitted to the programme before 1 January 2023 may choose to follow the structure below, or the current programme structure implemented on 1 January 2023.
Candidates admitted after 31 December 2022 should refer to the current programme structure.
The courses on offer after the current structure of the educational component was implemented have changed slightly. Transitional arrangments for candidates admitted to the programme before 1 January 2023 are described here.
|
Activity category |
ECTS |
|---|---|
| HF's general initial courses: Introductory seminar, Theories of Knowledge, Research ethics | 5 |
| Thesis seminar | 6-8 |
| Conference | min. 4 |
| Dissemination | min. 2 |
| Research courses: Elective courses and seminars at UiO or external institutions | 8 - 12 |
The educational component must be completed before the candidate's dissertation is submitted, and candidates are recommended to complete the majority of ECTS required in their first two years.
The 30 ECTS are merely the minimum number required to complete the educational component and, for that reason, do not necessarily provide the full picture of the competencies you have gained during your doctoral work. Other activities you participate in, but which do not yield ECTS, may have a positive impact on your doctoral project and future career.
Category descriptions and assessment of credits
Thesis seminar
Minimum 6/maximum 8 credits should be earned from participation at the thesis seminar, as described below.
ILOS offers subject-specific thesis seminars in two of the department’s disciplines: literature and area studies. Candidates in language studies attend thesis seminars at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies (ILN).
You are required to present material from your dissertation at least 2 times, and serve as commentator on someone else’s writing at least 2 times. (Note: This requirement is for those starting their program 1.1.2018). You are also most welcome to participate without presenting or commenting. We will circulate the texts in advance to make sure that everyone has sufficient time to read them.
It is generally recommended that you participate in these seminars more often than the program strictly requires, both as a presenter, commentator, and participant. PhD candidates are generally welcome to attend any thesis seminar or course that may be of interest to them, regardless of their own discipline. If your work intersects with another discipline (eg. anthropology, philosophy, political science), it is recommended that you attend relevant thesis seminars not only at ILOS, but also at other HF departments, or at another faculty.
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Text presentation: 2 credits
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Commentator: 1 credit
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Other active and well-prepared participation: 1 credit
Note: At ILOS there may be sporadic opportunities for obtaining ECTS by presenting or commenting on dissertation material in other contexts than the designated thesis seminars. Any such participation will need to be approved by the PhD-coordinator.
Important! The thesis seminars held at ILOS have now been discontinued and replaced by text development seminars, effective from August 2023. Candidates who have obtained points through participation at thesis seminars may combine these with points they obtain through text development seminars.
See the current programme structure for further information on the points allocation used at text development seminars.
Conference
Should amount to at least 4 credits of the educational component.
Credits are earned from participating with a paper or poster at an international conference, ie. a conference involving participants from several countries. You should prioritise finding a conference at a foreign university.
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Paper/presentation (with submission of abstract and peer review): 4 credits
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Paper/presentation (without peer review): 2 credits
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Poster: 2 credits
Dissemination
Should amount to at least 2 credits, out of which at least 1 must be earned from activities involving the general public. The dissemination must be research-based, that is, related to your own research or academic discipline.
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Public outreach: 1–2 credits (for example newspaper article; encyclopedia entry; or a talk that is open to the public: 2 credits. Blog posting: 1 credit.) If you give a talk at your department, it will have to be announced as open to anyone interested eg. on Facebook or UiO events pages in order for it to qualify as an outreach activity.
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Lecture or seminar at a college, university, institute etc. outside of UiO: 2 credits
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Certain PhD courses in popular communication held at UiO may also render credit points (as specified in the course description).
Elective courses and seminars
This part of the 30 ECTS educational component should make up a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 credits. Although there will be various courses and seminars offered at ILOS, you are encouraged to look for relevant opportunities at other UiO departments and faculties, and at external institutions in Norway and abroad.
ILOS’ PhD candidates are also given the opportunity and financial support to organize their own PhD workshops and guest lectures. For this purpose, it is important to cooperate with other PhD candidates and identify a small target group for the workshop. In order for such PhD-initiated activities to qualify for ECTS-points, they must be approved by the PhD-coordinator. Organising an event might also in itself qualify for ECTS-points, provided the candidate can document that the organising of the event included academically relevant work, and not merely administrative tasks (as of 1.1.2021).
Approval of educational activity
Candidates are encouraged to plan their educational component in consultation with their supervisor and the PhD-coordinator. As a rule, all planned activities need to be approved in advance by the PhD-coordinator in order for them to be registered as part of the educational component. This also applies to any activities recommended by the supervisor(s).
1 ECTS corresponds to 25-30 hours of work. The candidates are themselves responsible for providing sufficient documentation detailing the extent of their participation and, where relevant, information that is necessary for calculation of ECTS.
Requests for approval of educational activity must be sent via online form:
Obligatory non-credit bearing activities
Midway assessment
A midway assessment must be conducted for all candidates enrolled in the PhD-programme at the Faculty of Humanities. The midway assessment is thus a compulsory part of the PhD-training. The purpose of the midway assessment is to assess the progress of the project relative to its planned completion date. Read more here.
When handing in your dissertation
At the end of your program, you and the PhD coordinator must sign a form that indicates your completion of the educational component.
Courses and seminars
Information about the joint courses offered by the Faculty of Humanities and the advanced courses offered by the the various Departments are announced on a continuous basis.
The course calendar shows all planned courses and seminars at HF.
Useful information
Contact
PhD leader Atle Wold
Research administrator Tor Erik Risvik Johnsen