In accordance with the graduate school’s Rules for the PhD Programme (English version - Danish version), 2 supervisors must be appointed for a PhD project:
Principal supervisor
The principal supervisor must be an active, recognised researcher within the relevant research area, and must be employed by the university as a professor or associate professor, or on an equivalent level, and must be affiliated to the Graduate School, Arts.
Co-supervisor
Co-supervisors employed outside of the Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University are not compensated for supervision, unless the Head of Department has entered into a specific agreement thereon.
Company supervisor (only Industrial PhD Scheme)
In addition to a principal supervisor, the head of the graduate school will appoint a supervisor connected to the firm at which the PhD student is employed. The supervisor must be qualified within the relevant field.
Supervision Agreement
A proposal for a co-supervisor for the PhD project must be submitted to the Graduate School on the form PhD Supervision Agreement along with the head of the department’s statement no later than 3 months after enrolment.
Change of supervisor
Supervisors may be changed in the course of a PhD degree programme, or additional supervisors appointed. A request for a change of supervisor may come from the PhD student or from the principal supervisor, or the change may be initiated by the head of the graduate school.
A PhD student will be offered 180 hours of PhD supervision in total, i.e. normally 30 hours of supervision per semester, divided between the project supervisors. This amount includes supervisors' preparation work. No extra supervision hours are granted in connection with sick leave or maternity/paternity leave.
Further information
For further information about PhD supervision, please refer to item 3.2., 3.3. and 3.4. in the Rules for the PhD Programme or contact your PhD administrator if you have any questions.
