Application and admission

Application

Our PhD positions are usually announced and possibly to apply to during March. The nextcoming positions will probably be announced in March 2024.

You can find the announcements and apply to these at Jobs and vacancies at Uppsala University. You can find more detailed information in the job announcements.

The department conducts research and provides education on the doctoral level in the following fields: Entrepreneurship, International Business, Marketing, Organisation/Management, Accounting/Finance.

Requirements

General entry requirement: an advanced level qualification, has satisfied the fulfilment of the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits awarded at the advanced level, or has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.
The specific entry requirement: courses in Business Studies comprising 90 credits.

In order to get a PhD position, the candidate needs to be admitted to the doctoral programme, and for this, his/her potential ability to pursue the programme is decisive.

Note that a master thesis that has not yet been completed and assessed by the application deadline is given respite until ;May 31, 2023.

Language requirements

All applicants need to verify English language proficiency that corresponds to English studies at upper secondary (high school) level in Sweden ("English 6"). This can be done in a number of ways, including through an internationally recognised test such as TOEFL or IELTS, or through previous upper secondary (high school) or university studies.

The minimum test scores are:

IELTS: an overall mark of 6.5 and no section below 5.5
TOEFL: Paper-based: Score of 4.5 (scale 1–6) in written test and a total score of 575. Internet-based: Score of 20 (scale 0–30) in written test and a total score of 90
Cambridge: CAE, CPE

More information about English language requirements

Admission

Assessment of the application and Interview

During the selection of PhD applications, different criteria are used for the assessment of the applications

Besides from making sure the applicant fulfils the requirements, Bachelor and/or Master's thesis and other written essays will be assessed.
The applicant's ability to benefit from postgraduate studies in business studies according to criteria of methodological rigor, theoretical awareness, critical thinking, independence and originality as well as communication skills.

Instructions for recommendation letters

A recommendation letter shall be included in the application. The recommendation letter must state in which capacity the referent has known the applicant. We are particularly interested in an assessment of the applicant in terms of our admission criteria. That the applicant shall note the referent's e-mail address and phone number in the application

Interview

An Evaluation Committee assesses the applications and provides a recommendation for which candidates that will be called to interviews. The interviews are planned to be held 14, 17-18 April 2023. Further, a specific assignment will be handed out to selected applicants among those interviewed. The Head of the Department, in consultation with the Department's Admission Committee, makes the decision of who will be admitted. Final decisions are made at the end of May.

The PhD position

The PhD program starts 1 September each year. The duties of a PhD student are primarily directed at his/her own research education, (4 years full-time), 90 academic credits of courses and 150 credits research for the doctoral thesis. The work may also involve, to a limited extent (maximum 20%) other departmental duties, mainly related to teaching undergraduate courses – in which case the position may be extended to maximum five years.

There are local guidelines for PhD students that applies for a doctoral studentship. A person may be employed as a doctoral student for a maximum of eight years, but no longer than the equivalent of four years of full-time study. General rules about PhD education can be found (in Swedish) in Högskoleförordningen Chapter 5, 1-7 §§, in Uppsala University rules and in the General Syllabus for PhD studies at Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University (only available in Swedish).