Graduate School, Arts

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 Forside For Applicants Application guide

Application guide

This guide is for all applications regarding enrolment and employment as PhD student:

  • Application via open or specific call (enrolment and scholarship)
  • Application via ad hoc link - external funding (enrolment only)

As of October 2025, we expect that applicants for our open calls will be required to upload an additional mandatory document in their PhD application. The application must include a formal letter of commitment from the prospective principal supervisor. The principal supervisor must be an active, recognised researcher within the relevant research area, and must be employed at the Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University as a professor or associate professor.
The letter of commitment (max one page) must be written on Aarhus University's official letterhead. Detailed requirements for the letter will be available in the application guide before the call is announced in September 2025

We do not offer one-to-one guidance in connection with your PhD application. Nor do we have the resources to read or comment on your project description or application.

You do not need a pre-assessment in order to apply for a PhD scholarship/fellowship under the open call or a specific call. Therefore, do not send your CV, project description or other documents to us by email before you apply. 

We therefore strongly recommend that you read each section of the application guide incl. comments before writing your application. Each section of the application form is described extensively in the guide, which means that you should be able to find an answer to all your questions.

See the application guide's directory to the left of this page.

  • We strongly urge you to submit your application in good time before the deadline expires. 
    We cannot help you if you experience technical problems outside normal working hours or in the weekend.
  • Make sure that all your appendices are ready and saved as PDF format before you start filling out the application form. The application form cannot be saved and will timeout if left for longer periods of time.
  • Due to the “General Data Protection Regulation” you will not be able to check your application once you have sent it. We therefore urge you to check all your appendices before you send your application.
  • Applicants may only submit one application per call.
    The open call is one call so you have to choose between the 8 PhD programmes.
    If an applicant has submitted more than one application for the same call we will assess the last application received. The other applications will be considered as drafts and deleted.
  • The fields marked with a star * are mandatory and you cannot send your application if they are blank (list of mandatory appendices).
    Your application will be rejected if it is missing one or more of the mandatory appendices.
    The fields marked with (*) are only mandatory if you start filling out the first field in the section.
  • Appendices must be uploaded in PDF format (max 20 Mb). Reduce the file size before uploading. Do not lock the PDF files. Unlock any locked files such as TEOFL or IELTS test results before uploading them to the application.
  • Appendices must be uploaded under the correct category. Assemble the documents and upload them as one PDF file if you have more than one document per field. See "How to apply" if you need help to merge documents into one PDF file. 
  • The Graduate School does not grant any exemption of the application deadline due to internet and server problems. The application will be assessed on the basis of the documents received in the application facility by the application deadline. If the application is missing any of the mandatory appendices, it will be rejected.
    If you cannot send your application due to technical problems please see the page "How to apply" for further information on what to do if you cannot send your application. See the section "Errors when sending your application".   
  • You cannot change your application or add appendices to your application after the application deadline. The only exemption is the Master’s degree certificate (see "Diploma and transcripts of records" in the application guide).
  • If you wish to withdraw your application you must contact Bettina H. Acthon (acthon@au.dk) at the Graduate School, Arts.

PhD degree structure
The Graduate School, Arts offers two degree programmes (4+4 and 5+3).

PhD programmes
Description of the 8 PhD programmes.

Assessment committee
Please note that the composition of the standing expert assessment committee may change. 

Academic questions relating to the application
Academic questions relating to the PhD degree programme (including qualifying examinations) should be addressed to the relevant PhD programme director.

You cannot expect an academic sparring on your project from the PhD programme director or potential supervisor.

Technical questions relating to the application
Technical questions should be addressed to Bettina H. Acthon (acthon@au.dk) at the PhD Administration of the Graduate School, Arts. Please read the application guide thoroughly before contacting the PhD Administration.

Link for the application form
You can find the link for the application facility in each call (open and specific calls). See the section called “Application” in the call.

Verifing content of application
It is your responsibility that all mandatory documents are uploaded to the application. Due to the "General Data Protection Regulation" we may no longer send you a link for the application in order for you to check the application after it has been sent. 

We do not have the resources to check your application and/or attachments before or after you have sent the application.

Revised 23.04.2025
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Bettina Holmbo Acthon