Before admission

Announcements for employment as a doctoral student are made twice a year, at the beginning of the spring term and the beginning of the autumn term.

In accordance with the provisions of the Higher Education Ordinance and the admission regulations regarding postgraduate education at Lund University, the selection shall be based on an assessment of the applicants' ability to carry through the education.

To prove this ability, the application for admission must contain:

• a project description (maximum five pages) in English, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian, describing and problematizing the current state of research and formulating clear objectives and research questions.
• a curriculum vitae (CV) demonstrating your general competence, including relevant educational background, work experience, and grades.
• a degree project or other written work that supports your ability in your chosen research area.
• at least one and a maximum of two reference persons who can attest to your ability to undertake the program

A project description should be attached to the application. It should not provide a complete account of the project's implementation. The project will naturally take more definite shape as work progresses.

The project description should primarily reflect an interest in a subject and that the applicant has developed some ideas about the subject, the purpose of the project, and the method for its implementation.

The project description should not exceed 15,000 characters, including spaces.

Guidelines for the Project Description (PDF, 204 kB)

The applicant's ability to carry through the education is assessed on the basis of the following assessment criteria without mutual ranking:

Applicant’s general competence:

• quality and content of the applicant’s previous written work, such as a master’s thesis
• ability to participate actively in the faculty’s research environment
• relevant educational background and grades/grade average
• relevant work experience

Scientific quality of the project description:

• ability to describe, question and discuss the current state of research
• sufficient clarity and logical coherence in the formulation of the aim and the research questions
• stringency of legal reasoning and analysis
• adequate selection of theory and methods
• capacity for creativity and innovation in the formulation of the research questions and approaches
• clear expression and sufficient detail

In order to be admitted to the doctoral program at the Faculty of Law, it is required that the applicant has both basic qualifications and the special qualifications established by the Faculty of Law. Furthermore, the applicant is required to have the other abilities needed to carry through the education. In order to be admitted to the doctoral program, it is also required that the applicant is employed as a doctoral student in connection with the admission or is deemed to have corresponding long-term funding for the program.

Applicants with a Swedish law degree must have obtained an average grade of Ba on the compulsory courses in the program. Applicants with another degree must have achieved a substantially corresponding grade level in comparable parts of the education. Only if there are special reasons can the board grant an exemption from this grading requirement.

Decisions regarding admission are reviewed by the Board for education at the doctoral level. Before a decision is made, the matter must normally be prepared by an evaluation group appointed by the board. Director of Studies, chairman or vice chairman of the board for postgraduate education, a senior member of the board and a PhD student representative are included in the evaluation group. The evaluation group must have been appointed by the board for postgraduate education before the announcement.

The Board for education at the doctoral level may decide to invite a limited number of applicants for an interview. The decision may align with the proposal from the preparatory group or deviate from it. Prior to the interview, references about the applicants are obtained.

Contact between invited applicants and potential supervisors usually occurs at this stage, if it hasn't already taken place.

After the interviews, the board for postgraduate education decides on a ranking of the applicants and submits a reasoned proposal for a decision on admission of applicants to postgraduate education. The proposal should normally be notified to applicants at least two weeks before a decision on admission is made and contain information on the possibility of submitting a request to the board for postgraduate education for reconsideration of the proposal for admission within a specified time. The Board's decision is made in accordance with the proposal, unless the applicant's requestion for reconsideration gives reason for a change in the ranking.