Faculty rules for advertising PhD positions

• The assessment of applicants is done by the respective supervisors or, in the case of broad advertisements, by appointed experts. The academic assessment is prepared according to the rules in the Ministerial Order on the Employment of Academic Staff at Universities and the supplementary faculty rules for the employment of PhD students. The assessments are subsequently approved by the chair of the respective department’s PhD study committee on behalf of the entire committee.
  
  
• An appointment committee is established, consisting of the head of the department, the chair of the department’s PhD study committee, and the supervisor, who jointly select the best qualified candidate for the PhD position.
  
  
• Funding must be in place when requesting an advertisement. The funding must be agreed upon with the head of the department.

Based on the above, the Science Faculty Administration has established the following procedure:

1. The department sets up the position in HCM, attaching a project description and a funding overview. The advertisement and funding overview must be signed by the supervisor (or the grant holder, if different from the supervisor) and the head of the department. The dean approves the advertisement.
   
   
2. The complete advertisement is posted on www.sdu.dk in English, and in some cases also in Danish. The job advertisement must be posted for a minimum of four weeks.
   
   
3. PhD positions must be advertised internationally (via Signatur). At a minimum, a shortened version of the advertisement is sent to Nature Online.. The short advertisements always refer to the full advertisement on www.sdu.dk – applications cannot be based solely on the short advertisement. The short advertisement is also posted on Jobnet.
   
   
4. At a minimum, applicants must submit the following:
   • Motivation/background for applying for the project
   • Detailed CV
   • Copy of degree certificate
   • Two reference letters, or alternatively, names of referees
     
     
5. Applicants are informed in the advertisement that failure to submit the mentioned materials will result in the application not being assessed.
   
   
6. After the application deadline has passed, the applicants are asked whether they can approve of the assessor as regards impartiality, with a deadline of one week.
   
   
7. After having been approved by the applicants, the assessor is notified about access and shortlisting of applicants in HCM. The deadline for the assessment work is the weeks from the end of the applicants’ deadline to submit objections against the assessor. The head of the department and the department secretary are informed. Reference letters received on time are uploaded in HCM on the individual applicant’s profile under Attachments – Internal documents.
   
   
8. The assessor conducts the academic assessment of each applicant and provides an individual assessment for each applicant for the appointment committee, in accordance with the supplementary faculty rules for the employment of PhD students. When assessing PhD applicants, it is sufficient to indicate “qualified” or “not qualified” and provide a brief motivated, non-prioritised assessment of each applicant.
   
   
9. The assessor sends the final assessments to the Science Faculty Administration.
   
   
10. The Science Faculty Administration sends the assessments and any additional material to the respective department’s PhD committee for their approval of the assessments.
    
    
11. The Science Faculty Administration sends the assessments to the respective applicants, who have one week to comment on the assessments.
    
    
12. The Science Faculty Administration gives the appointment committee access to the qualified applicants. The appointment committee has a deadline of 14 days to select the best qualified applicant. After the deadline has passed, the head of the department (department secretary) sends a request for employment to the Science Faculty Administration. The request must be signed by the supervisor (grant holder, if different from the supervisor) and the head of the department. The head of the PhD school approves the enrolment, and the dean approves the employment request.
    
    
13. The appointment committee may decide to invite a number of the qualified applicants for an in-depth interview.
    
    
14. The PhD secretariat prepares an enrolment letter.
    
    
15. Based on the enrolment letter, SDU HR prepares an employment letter.