Doctoral studies

About the programme

Third-cycle education can comprise either two or four years of full-time studies and lead to two different degrees:

• Licentiate degree consisting of 120 credits, equivalent to two years of full-time studies. The Licentiate degree is usually a milestone on the way to a doctoral degree. 
• Doctoral degree consisting of 240 credits, equivalent to four years of full-time studies. Almost all doctoral students at the Faculty of Science have a doctoral degree as their final goal.

As a doctoral student, you are admitted to one of the faculty's more than 20 third-cycle subjects. You are usually employed through a doctoral studentship. The University regularly advertises vacant doctoral studentships to which you can apply if you meet the admission requirements. 

Find vacant doctoral studentships (lunduniversity.lu.se)

The programme includes, among other things, courses, seminars and a research assignment that will result in a licentiate thesis or a doctoral thesis. You can also participate in one or more graduate schools on different themes. The graduate schools offer courses, workshops, seminars and networking opportunities.

Once you have completed all parts of your programme, you apply for a degree certificate. After receiving your degree, you can work as a researcher at a university or a company, for example.

Doctoral studies at Lund University (lunduniversity.lu.se)

Subjects

The Faculty of Science has more than 20 third-cycle subjects. For each subject there is a general syllabus in which you can read about admission requirements, components of the programme and more.

Graduate schools

A graduate school offers, among other things, courses, workshops and seminars on a specific theme. The Faculty of Science has the following graduate schools:

• Admire (advanced microscopy research environment) – admire.lu.se
• Agenda 2030 – agenda2030graduateschool.lu.se
• Bioeconomy – cec.lu.se
• ClimBEco (biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing climate) – climbeco.lu.se
• Compute (scientific discovery using computers) – compute.lu.se
• lntegrative Biology – biology.lu.se
• QDETAILSS (high quality detection and analysis of liquid and solid samples) – kilu.lu.se/internal
• XANADU (X-rays and neutrons for advanced sustainability research) – fysik.lu.se