Fields of study within doctoral degree programmes in natural science: Biology Resource Management Biotechnology

Transcription

1 Supplementary provisions to the regulations for the degree PhD at the University of Tromsø - PhD programme in natural and social sciences at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics Adopted by: The Research Committee Applies from: Archive reference: 2010/ Legal authority: Regulations for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of Tromsø, 3 rd paragraph, second article This is a translation. The Norwegian version has official status. Each paragraphs and supplementary rule refer to the same paragraph in the regulations for the degree of PhD at UiT 1. Applicability The supplementary provisions apply to: Doctoral degree programme in natural science Doctoral degree programme in social science at the Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics (BFE Faculty). Fields of study within doctoral degree programmes in social science: Business Administration Economics Organization and Management Marketing Resource Management Fields of study within doctoral degree programmes in natural science: Biology Resource Management Biotechnology 2. Objective The objective of the doctoral degree programmes at the BFE faculty is to qualify students for research activities at a high international level. The candidate shall complete advanced training in theory and methodology and acquire an independent and reflected attitude to research within the academic discipline. 3. Responsibility for the doctoral degree programme The Research Committee (RC) is responsible for programme management and has jurisdiction in the following cases: 1

2 Admission to the doctoral degree programmes Approval of the instruction component, i.e. courses and other activities to fulfil the requirements in 14 Appointment of supervisors Appointment of evaluation committees Evaluation and allocation of transition grants Evaluation and allocation of mobility grants Approval of the PhD evaluation report. The RC has delegated this authority to the leader of the RC The institutes have the responsibility for supervision of the candidates and to follow up the candidate on professional and personal aspects. 4. Terminology Refer to regulations. 5. Contents of the doctoral degree programme Refer to regulations. 6. Admission requirements for the doctoral degree programme In order to be admitted to a doctoral degree program, the applicant must either have completed a 3-year Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS) and a 2-year Master's degree (120 ECTS) or a five-year integrated Master's degree (300 ECTS), or equivalent educations in terms of volume and duration. The extent and duration of foreign educations compared to Norwegian higher education is evaluated using NOKUT guidelines. Candidates who have completed a 90 ECTS Master's degree, may qualify for admission by Writing a thesis of 30 credits subjected to oral examination Writing an article that is published, accepted or submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The scientific work shall be presented in a relevant forum and an external examiner shall evaluate the quality of the work. The work load shall be equal to 3-4 months. Completing additional relevant master courses (3000-level) Special syllabus is credited according to 15 of these supplementary provisions. Grades: The applicant must have a C or better on the master thesis as well as subjects included in the degree (a total of 120 ECTS), or a C or better from the last two years of an integrated master's programme (120 ECTS). A grade lower than C in one subject can be compensated with a grade better than C in any other subject. For applicants with a foreign education where the assessment of grades differs from the Norwegian grading system, the grades will be subject to individual assessment. Applicants from many countries must document sufficient English language proficiency equivalent to university admission certification. This can be documented by: 2

3 Licenced English tests with a high enough score; TOEFL test with a score above 580, IELTS test with a score above 6,5 or other approved English tests 3 Applicants who have accomplished a Master degree with English as the instruction language and have written the Master degree thesis in English are exempted from the English test. Other exceptions which are detailed in NOKUTS language requirement guidelines. This includes applicants from countries which are members of EU/EEA and/or the Council of Europe / UNESCO-Cepes and who had English as 1 st foreign language over a period of minimum 7 years in primary and secondary school. Should the supervisor committee find that a candidate lacks the necessary knowledge within a certain field, the Research Committee may, on the recommendation of the academic community, instruct the candidate to complete special supplementary courses in addition to the programme's curriculum. 7. The application for admission A doctoral fellowship funded by the university provides a right to study. An application for a doctoral fellowship at the university is therefore also an application for admission to the doctorate study. The employed person will be asked to supplement their application. Applicants with another employer than the UiT the Arctic university of Norway must apply directly to the admission committee, i.e. the research committee at the BFE-faculty. Applications must be submitted on the official application form with all required attachments: UiT The Arctic University of Norway Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics Research Department P.O. Box 6050 Langnes N-9037 TROMSØ Mark the envelope: Application for admission to PhD programme The final plan for the education must be approved and regulated by contract within six weeks after admission. For UiT funded PhD students, the final plan for the education shall be approved and regulated by contract within six weeks after being employed. The final project description shall be written in cooperation with the supervisors and is considered a contract between the signatory parties. The presentation of the research project shall be 5-10 pages, and shall be signed by the PhD student and all supervisors. It is recommended to use the BFE Faculty's template when writing the project description. The project description must include: A description of the research topic, including an introduction that places the planned research project in context, and how it relates to relevant international research. A description of the research questions and hypotheses. What are the objectives, and which methodology will be applied? 3

4 Description of the primary data and sources to be used, including how data will be collected/sampled and analysed (where relevant). References to relevant academic literature. A preliminary time schedule for the completion of the doctoral degree programme. The schedule should indicate when the candidate plans to complete the educational component, field and laboratory work, data analysis, the writing and submission of scientific articles and presentations (lectures, poster presentations, etc) and stays abroad. If the research fellow is under teaching obligation, a preliminary time schedule for the teaching duty should be included as well. Preliminary budget and funding plan for the PhD project. Annual expenditures and funds are considered sufficient. A preliminary publishing schedule, including working titles, co-authors and time for submissions. Provide a justification if the plan is to submit the thesis as a monograph instead of a collection of articles preceded by a synopsis. A tentative title and an outline for the work shall also be included. Affiliation to research groups and association to a research school, if any. The instructional component with PhD courses (course code, course name and institution, and the date for a planned exam in the courses) and other activities to fulfil this requirement. Attach a description of special syllabus, if any. If the project faces issues with regard to research ethics, for instance animal experiments and collection of privacy protected information, this must be described. Furthermore, mention which authority that will approve the research project to be carried out. Individual and / or scientific learning outcome should be specified. Although it can be referred to the general learning outcome described below, it should be specified in the project description which discipline and/or individual knowledge, skills, and general competencies the candidate should have acquired by completing the degree. These learning outcomes could be related to: o methodology (quantitative and/or qualitative) o field and laboratory work o sampling and experimental design o statistical analysis o management, networking and international understanding o communication and dissemination o other areas that are typically disciplinary and/or individual o personal development Application attachments Certified copies of diplomas and transcripts of records qualifying for admission Documentation of English language proficiency when this is relevant Curriculum Vitae (CV) Contracts A, B and if relevant, contract C, see 11 An incomplete application will be returned to the supervisor with a message to the applicant. 8. Admission committee 4

5 The Research Committee (RC) at the BFE Faculty is usually the body that evaluates and approve applications for admissions. The leader of the RC, the vice dean of research, also has the authority to approve applications for admission to the PhD programme. 9. Decisions concerning admission The BFE faculty allows admission to joint doctoral degrees. The faculty has some additional requirements and rules regarding such admissions. 10. Admission to courses in the instruction component Application for admission to doctoral degree courses must be submitted on a separate form Application for admission to doctoral degree courses (8000 level courses) at the University of Tromsø, which may be downloaded from the university website. The application deadline for admission to 8000 level courses is September1 in the autumn semester and February 1 in the spring semester provided no other application deadline is stipulated in the published course description in the course catalogue on the university website. PhD students, who wish to take courses that are not to be included in the educational component, must apply for ordinary admission as a single course/programme student within current regulations and deadlines. 11. Contract Standard forms for the contract parts A and B and contract between the UiT and external employer (cf contract form C) must be filled in, signed and enclosed with the application for admission, cf 7. The agreements must contain the following signatures: Agreement A: Vice dean of research and doctoral student Agreement B: supervisors and doctoral student Agreement C: dean and external party Project description: doctoral student and all supervisors 12. Right to study Provided that the head of institute has been informed about deviations in the time schedule and the PhD student is unable to complete the education within two years in excess of the normal time frame, the candidate may apply for an extension of the right to study. The application must contain an explanation for the delay and a schedule/plan for the completion of the degree. Both the candidate and supervisors must sign the application. 13. Leave of absence 5

6 The candidate must apply for a leave of absence and report any break in the studies as soon as possible so that this may be registered on the candidate's time account. The report is to be sent to the institute, who will forward it to the Research Department. 14. The doctoral degree programme A mid-term evaluation shall be carried out. The PhD student shall present project status for the supervisors and others within the same field of research, e.g. research group. The PhD student shall receive feedback and if necessary update the project description accordingly. The BFE Faculty recommends that all PhD students with teaching obligation shall be given the opportunity to take the university pedagogical seminar during the course of their studies. No credits are awarded for this seminar, but one may apply to have the participation approved as part of teaching obligations. The participation in the seminar shall be agreed and supported by the supervisor and must not delay the time schedule for the doctoral degree study. 15. The instruction component Courses in the instruction component must be on PhD level (8000-level) and must contain training in philosophy of science and ethics. The instruction component comprises 30 credits, and at least 20 should be taken after admission. Courses and other activities in the instruction component should not be older than two years at the moment of admission. Courses that are to be included in the instruction component must normally be either ordinary courses at the institution or special curriculum courses. The courses must have an evaluation using pass/fail or a graded scale (A-F). Courses in the latter category must be completed with the grade C or better for them to be approved as part of the instruction component. The special syllabus in the instructional component may comprise a maximum of 10 credits and may consist of the following: Literature-based curriculum. For scientific books or articles in natural science subjects approx pages are estimated per credit, and in social science subjects approx pages per credit. o Literature-based curriculum (3 credits) will be evaluated through an oral exam. o Literature-based curriculum (4-6 credits) will be evaluated through an essay (4000 words) and an oral exam. o Literature-based curriculum (7-10 credits) will be evaluated through an essay (4000 words), a lecture with an assigned title (30 min) and an oral exam. Oral presentations at a scientific conference (up to 3 credits). The presentation must be documented by a copy of the presentation and the conference programme. Preparation and presentation of a poster (up to 2 credits). The poster presentation shall be documented by a copy of the poster and the conference programme. A maximum of 5 credits can be awarded for oral and poster presentations, and only one presentation and one poster will be approved. 6

7 National and international research courses evaluated by a relevant academic community with regard to level and scope may be used as part of the instruction component. Application for approval of research courses are addressed to the research committee. Approval requires: The supervisor s confirmation that the course is relevant. Documentation of the teaching programme. The level of the course must be specified. If the work load is not given in credits/ects: o An account of the number of hours used to complete the course must be attached. One credit is equivalent to working hours and o Proof that documents completion of the course and that a knowledge test has been passed, e.g. exams, essay, poster, lecture or other means. The instruction component must be such that it along with the thesis offers the necessary academic scope and depth. Any changes in the instruction component must be recommended by the supervisors, and has to be approved by the Research Committee. 16. Academic supervision For the doctoral degree programmes at the BFE Faculty, the appointment of three supervisors for each PhD student is recommended. A minimum requirement is two supervisors. One supervisor is to be appointed as main supervisor and the others as cosupervisors. Even if the day-to-day supervision of the student is taken care of by an external co-supervisor, it is the main supervisor at the BFE who has the overall scholarly responsibility. The main supervisor should furthermore have the administrative responsibility for the PhD student. Co-supervisors are professionals who offer supervision and share the scholarly responsibility for the PhD student. Supervisors arrange between themselves how to share the academic supervision. All supervisors are obliged to stay in touch with the candidate and must keep themselves informed about the student's progress. Any deviations in the scheduled progress must be reported to the head of the institute. The main supervisor must stay in touch with the PhD student on a regular basis, at the minimum once a month. The PhD student should be able to expect about 40 hours of supervision with his/her supervisors per year (direct supervision, possibly together with other students). Supervisor responsibilities: Offer advice concerning the topic, research questions, and limiting the scope of the research Be informed about the candidate's progress and evaluate the progress in relation to the time schedule Approve the funding plan and the use of projects resources and make sure that it is followed Make sure that the planned progress is realistic 7

8 Discuss and evaluate hypotheses and methodology Help the candidate become acquainted with the academic literature and primary data Discuss and offer advice on how to write the thesis Provide the PhD student with a scholarly affiliation and help introduce the candidate to relevant academic communities Discuss results and how to interpret them Give the candidate an introduction to the principles of research ethics. The guidelines are to be distributed to both supervisor and student once an agreement has been made. The guidelines may also be downloaded from the university website. Supervise the candidate in the preparation of the thesis to ensure that it is on a par with the level of international scientific publications. Make sure that mid-term evaluation is conducted If the collaboration between the PhD student and the supervisor should not work out, the student may change supervisors. See contract form B, paragraph 7, for further information. 17. Affiliation to a research community The PhD student should be part of and affiliated to a relevant research community. The supervisor committee has the main responsibility for making sure that the PhD student actively participates in a research community together with senior researchers, postdocs and other PhD students. Only in a few circumstances, the PhD student is allowed to have supervisors who are not part of a research network working with similar topics as the student. The PhD student must be in contact with his/her supervisors on a regular basis and be included in an active research community. The PhD student should therefore stay at UiT the Arctic University of Norway for part of the effective study period, unless extraordinary circumstances should dictate otherwise. 18. Infrastructure / Equipment UiT funded PhD students at the BFE Faculty are awarded an annual research grant by the institutes. The grant size varies, in 2014 being ca NOK and each year for nonexperimental and experimental projects, respectively. The annual grant is awarded to the student and supervisor, and should be spent on running costs for the doctoral degree project, but may also be used for participation at conferences, courses outside Tromsø and on literature. The operating budget should be outlined in the project description. For externally funded PhD students, the funding is dependent on the project to which they are attached, and the budget is prepared in correspondence with the budget of the external project. 19. Requirements on the doctoral thesis 8

9 Doctoral theses at the BFE Faculty should normally be written in English or Norwegian. If the PhD student wishes to write in a different language, he/she must apply and have it approved by the research committee. If two or more PhD students wish to collaborate and write a common doctoral thesis, it is a condition that the academic community recommends it. The thesis must be of high scientific quality with clear and concise research questions. Material and methods must be adequate and suitable. The results shall be verifiable and be able to be reproduced using same methodology. The use of figures, tables and illustrations must be appropriate, and the conclusions must be tenable. Sources must be suitable with regard to critical selection and evaluation. References to literature must be correct and appropriate. All text must be presented in a clear and concise manner, free of linguistic errors. The scope of the doctoral thesis should be such that the degree may be obtained by a research effort equivalent to 2.5 man-years. The thesis must, independent of form, be at a level that may be accepted by international periodicals with "peer review" routines. For a thesis in the form of collections of articles, at least one article ought to be published or accepted for publication. Normally, the collection of articles for the doctoral degree should consist of 2-4 articles and an introduction/summary that ties the individual articles and put them in context. The articles may have more than one author, but the PhD student should be the primary/first author of at least two articles and sole author of the introductory part. In addition to the individual articles, the thesis should contain a presentation of the results and a detailed discussion. This collective presentation must be an independent scientific and up-to-date document in which the candidate has the opportunity to expand on and, if necessary, correct and/or adjust aspects written in the articles. It should demonstrate scientific perspective and maturity as well as an ability to comprehend advanced scientific issues. The front cover of the doctoral thesis must be designed in correspondence with a template prepared by the UiT the Arctic University of Norway. 20. Work that may not be accepted 21. Publication of PhD thesis The thesis will usually be publicly available in the Munin database after it has been approved by the faculty. 22. Quality control and reporting The PhD student must submit written progress reports to the institute every autumn semester. It falls upon each institute to follow up their PhD students. Every spring semester a status survey must be answered. Once a year, all PhD students must be given the opportunity to talk to the head of the institute or a person appointed by the institute. Both the PhD student and the supervisor are obliged to report any substantial deviation from the progress plan to the institute. 9

10 23. Obligation to report results that have commercial potential 24. Voluntary termination The research department must be informed about a PhD student who voluntary chooses to terminate their PhD. 25. Forced termination The institute may suggest forced termination for a PhD student for reasons mentioned in the regulations. A final decision is made by the Faculty Board. 26. Submission Submission of the doctoral thesis shall be done through the internet portal Munin, which is the submission portal for doctoral degrees at the UiT the arctic university of Norway. If the thesis includes collaborative work, the doctorate candidate must according to the regulations for evaluation of Norwegian doctor s degrees acquire a written statement from the co-author(s), including his/hers/theirs consent to use the work as a part of the thesis. The statement shall show the distribution of work between the authors and specify the PhD candidate's contribution. When the thesis has been submitted in the Munin portal, the following documents shall be submitted to the BFE Faculty: Confirmation from the main supervisor whether the thesis is recommended to be evaluated as part of the fulfilment for a doctoral degree Four bound copies of the doctoral thesis Copy of Acknowledgements Copy of the front/first page of each article included in the doctoral thesis. Co-author statements Popular summary in Norwegian, if this is not already registered in the delivery portal. If the popular summary is written in English in Munin, the PhD student or the scientific community must arrange for a Norwegian translation. 27. Appointment of committee The research committee will appoint an evaluation committee after receiving a recommendation from the institute. The recommendation from the institute shall usually be forwarded at the time of submission, and the appointment must take place no later than within three weeks after submission. The main supervisor and the head of the institute must confirm the legal competence of the committee members. 10

11 It is the responsibility and task of the evaluation committee to propose a date for the defence once the thesis has been approved. The public defence ought to take place within three months after the submission. Supervisors may not be part of the evaluation committee for candidates they have supervised. 28. Withdrawal and errata 29. Obligation to inform 30. Deadlines 31. Recommendation The BFE-faculty has decided (Case FS BFE 14-09) that the research committee has the authority to make decisions concerning the administration and management of the UiTs' PhD regulations. The head of the research committee, vice dean of research, has been given the authority by the research committee to approve the recommendation set forth by the evaluation committee. 32. Processing of the committee report 33. Re-submission In the event of a second submission, the same procedure is followed as with an ordinary submission, cf Trial lecture The PhD student must hold a trial lecture lasting 45 minutes on an assigned topic. The purpose of the trial lecture is to allow the candidate to document his/her ability to acquire and disseminate research-based knowledge. The trial lecture shall test the candidate's professional maturity, and the topic should therefore be different from the main topic of the thesis. The lecture should normally be devised so that it may be attended with benefit by an audience with previous knowledge equivalent to what one might expect to find among bachelor students of the subject. Both the scientific content and the dissemination performance will be evaluated. The evaluation committee must assign a title for the trial lecture and inform the research department of the title at the same time as the evaluation report is submitted. The 11

12 research department will forward it on to the candidate ten workdays before the lecture takes place. 35. Defending the thesis After the candidate has presented the thesis, a presentation which should last no longer than 45 minutes, the thesis discussion begins. Here, two of the members of the evaluation committee act as opponents and the candidate is allowed to defend his/her thesis. Members of the audience may submit questions to the leader of the evaluation committee or to the opponents during the break. The defence shall normally take place at the BFE Faculty. The dean can in special cases approve that the defence is held at another institution than the UiT. 36. Approval of the doctoral trial 37. Awarding the degree, diploma 38. Appealing a decision to turn down application for admission The complaint is addressed to the BFE Faculty, which will handle the complaint according to standard administrative procedures. 39. Appealing a decision not to approve the instruction component 40. Appealing a decision not to approve a dissertation, trial lecture or defence 41. Taking effect Supplementary regulations take effect from June 1st