Appointment of supervisors
Supervisors are appointed after admission
The applicant submits an application without a formal association with, or approval from, a supervisor.
Awarding of fellowships and admission to the PhD programme are conditional on the faculty having adequate supervisory expertise and capacity in the applicant’s proposed field of research.
Fellows will be assigned a supervisor by the management of the relevant unit. Supervisors should normally be faculty members.
Supervisors' qualifications and institutional affiliation
The supervisor shall be a professor or hold a doctorate or equivalent qualifications.
A doctoral project will normally be academically anchored at the faculty where the supervisor is employed. However, a supervisor from another UiO unit may be appointed if the project is interdisciplinary and this is necessary.
Co-supervisor
When a co-supervisor is appointed, a separate agreement shall be made between co-supervisor and the candidate’s basic unit (department/institute/centre), which establishes the distribution of the hours of supervision between main supervisor and co-supervisor. The faculty is not a party to such an agreement.
Guidelines for duty hour accounts stipulate hourly rates for supervision at doctoral level. Some departments also have their own guidelines and descriptions of routines for the appointment of supervisors.
Especially for IKOS
The purpose of the co-supervisor is to contribute with competence, approaches and input that can complement what the main supervisor can offer.
The co-supervisor typically reads the dissertation with specific goals in mind, is not responsible for assessing the dissertation as a whole (this is the main supervisor's responsibility) and will be consulted somewhat less frequently than the main supervisor.
When the candidate, in collaboration with the main supervisor, is looking for a secondary supervisor, you may have one or more of the following in mind:
- Competence in theory and / or methods that the candidate wants to use, and which the main supervisor does not work much with
- Language competence (eg if the dissertation is about Turkish cultural history and the main supervisor is a cultural historian without Turkish competence)
- Especially good empirical knowledge and personal network in a geographical area, in cases where the thesis has an area study component
External supervisor
An external co‑supervisor may be engaged; note that no additional funding is provided for this. Upon acceptance, the allocation of supervision hours between the main supervisor and any co‑supervisor must be agreed, as must any remuneration for an external supervisor.
Expectations to supervision
Mutual contract
When candidate and supervisor sign the acceptance agreement, they enter into a mutually binding contract. The contract states the following about the supervisory relationship:
"The candidate and supervisor mutually undertake to keep one another informed at all times of any matters of significance for the conduct of the supervision."
What are the advisor’s responsibilities?
- assist the candidate by offering professional advice and providing support in the planning of the work so that the project can be completed within the framework of the doctoral degree course
- assist the candidate with the formulation and delimitation of topic and problematic issues
- assist the candidate by providing guidance with respect to literature in the field and the data to serve as a foundation (libraries, archives, etc.)
- help to introduce the candidate into relevant academic communities
- keep up to date with the progress of the candidate’s work and assess this in relation to the work plan
- give the candidate guidance in questions relating to research ethics connected with the thesis
- take the initiative in discussing with the candidate how the supervision is functioning
- in his or her work live up to the Ethical Guidelines for Supervisors at the University of Oslo.
What are the doctoral degree candidate's responsibilites?
- plan his or her work so that the project can be completed within the framework of the doctoral degree course
- submit reports or drafts of the whole or parts of the thesis to his or her supervisor, at least every half-year unless otherwise agreed with the supervisor. Parts of the thesis can, as the case may be, be presented in connection with seminars or group supervision
- abide by such agreements as are entered into with his or her supervisor concerning submission, supervision, participation in seminars etc.
- in his or her work live up to such principles of research ethics as apply in the subject field.
The supervisory relationship
Supervisor's handbook
We recommend that both candidates and supervisors read the supervisor handbook "Patentløsninger og Fingerspitzengefühl. Om å veilede til PhD-graden" (nb.no)
In the event of problems in the supervisor relationship
It is important that a poorly functioning supervisor relationship not be allowed to persist for any length of time. How the supervision should be and how it is functioning should be taken up at meetings between supervisor and candidate.
If the supervision does not function satisfactorily, for the supervisor or the person supervised, this should be taken up directly with the supervisor or the candidate as the case may be.
If circumstances make it difficult to take up the matter directly, the head of Department should be contacted, or the head of research at the department in question or the PhD coordinator at the department.
The PhD coordinators at the departments have a clearly defined function of ombud for all candidates at their department.
Performance appraisal interviews at the departments, talks with the PhD coordinator and annual reporting from candidate and supervisor shall contribute to ensuring that the quality of the supervision is good enough.
In the event of changes in the supervisor relationship
If, for any reason, there should be changes in the supervisor relationship, a new supervisor or the appointment of a secondary supervisor, the faculty executive office shall be informed of this.
A new agreement must be made or changes must be incorporated in the existing acceptance agreement and sent to the parties for signature.
A request to be released from the supervision agreement shall be addressed to the Faculty of Humanities, but sent via the basic unit. The decision to release the doctoral degree candidate and supervisor from the supervision agreement is taken by such body as the Faculty appoints.