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Paid work at the department

Terms of the 840 hours departmental work

  • Graduates enrolled as PhD students and employed as PhD fellows at the Faculty of Arts after completing their Master’s degree will be employed and paid in accordance with the current collective agreement for state-employed academics, currently the collective agreement of 1 October 2008; appendix 5, entry on PhD fellows. According to section 7(2) of the entry, the PhD fellow must perform work for the institution of employment according to its directions, corresponding to 840 working hours for a three-year term of employment.
  • If the PhD fellow is enrolled/employed for a shorter period of time than three years in total, the departmental work will be reduced in accordance with the duration of the employment period.
  • For 5+3: Over the course of your three-year employment, you are obliged to perform job tasks equivalent to 840 working hours in total. The work may include teaching, dissemination, research, library or other academic activities.
  • For 4+4 Part B: Over the course of your two-year employment, you are obliged to perform job tasks equivalent to 560 working hours in total. The work may include teaching, dissemination, research, library or other academic activities
  • The departmental work should, as far as possible, comprise a learning dimension of relevance to the PhD student’s future career and ensure progression towards a higher degree of independence in assignments. A balance between teaching assignments and other assignments, such as academic assistance etc., should be sought.

Planning and relevance of the work

  • Agreements on the content and performance of the PhD fellow’s departmental work will be concluded between the department and the PhD student.
  • The responsibility for organising the PhD student’s teaching resources and for planning the PhD Students teaching assignments lies with the head of the department.
  • The agreement is concluded in consultation with the principal supervisor.
  • If the 840 hours are not fully utilised, this will be the responsibility of the department as a whole and not the relevant academic area. The maximum limit of 840 hours may not be exceeded.
  • It must be ensured that the PhD student gains experience in teaching and/or other forms of knowledge dissemination, which is, as far as possible, related to the student’s PhD project.
  • Teaching and dissemination assignments must be organised to ensure progression towards a higher degree of independence in the assignments.
  • Teaching assignments, including exam papers, may not take up more than two-thirds of the work assignments on parts A and B.
  • PhD students in the 4+4 scheme must take on teaching assignments on both part A and part B, if they are paid for departmental work on part A and part B, respectively (up to 280 hours on part A and 560 hours on part B)

Please have the PhD Plan and Semi-annual evaluations in mind

  • The purpose of the agreement is to ensure that the PhD student will be able to complete his or her PhD degree programme in accordance with the approved PhD plan and hand in the dissertation at the end of the enrolment period.
  • The departmental work is scheduled and distributed in a way that will ensure a rational work process for the dissertation.
  • Performance of the assignments and any changes thereto must be registered in the semi-annual evaluations, ensuring that all the departmental work performed and the remaining work are indicated in each semi-annual evaluation.
  • To allow the student to complete the dissertation, the student should not be required to work during the last term of the PhD degree programme.

Forms of the departmental work

  • Academic assistance for
    • Major research applications
    • Scientific conferences
    • Centres
    • Major research projects
  • Student teaching work
    • Comprise feedback in connection with written assignments
    • Exercises or discussion in connection with lectures
    • Facilitation of group work and review/repetition of known basic material
  • Independent teaching assignments
  • Exam work

Preparation time and factor

For the acquisition of the required teaching competencies, meetings etc. (including university pedagogics course for PhD students), 100 hours will be credited to the student as teaching (for 4+4, these will be divided into one-third on part A and two-thirds on part B).

Student teaching assignments, co-teaching etc.

  • 1½ hours of preparation time per teaching hour will be allocated
  • 25 hours per new course will be allocated for supervision, pedagogical development, course planning etc.

Independent teaching assignments

  • 3 hours of preparation time per teaching hour will be allocated
  • 65 hours per new course will be allocated for supervision, pedagogical development, course planning etc

Exam work

  • Follows the current rules for the department’s academic staff.

Assignments without preparation

  • For assignments as research assistant, research secretary in major research projects, project applications, conferences or research centres, the gross time spent will be allocated.
  • The extent of such work will be agreed before the assignment is commenced. 

Studies abroad

  • To strengthen PhD students’ opportunity to study abroad for an extended period of time during the PhD degree programme, the departmental work may be reduced by 20 hours per month spent studying abroad to be completed in accordance with the PhD plan.
  • This reduction may only be granted for up to five months of studying abroad.

The PhD committee

  • Twice the actual time consumption for elected members of the committee. To this is added any transport time between the different campuses.

Agreement on working hours at the Faculty of Arts, 2023-2025

Applicable for PhD students

For externally employed PhD Students

  • PhD students not employed by the faculty are generally exempt from departmental work unless a specific agreement is made with the graduate school during enrolment.
  • However, all PhD students must fulfill the teaching/knowledge dissemination requirement outlined in the PhD Order. For externally employed PhD students or those opting out of departmental work, this involves participating in teaching activities at the faculty equivalent to one term.