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Rules and procedures for the supervision of PhD candidates

Are you a supervisor for one or more PhD candidates? Or are you a PhD candidate? Here you will find the procedures, rules, and definitions you need to know.

Candidate and supervisor

Photo: Øystein Horgmo, UiO

In a PhD programme, both the PhD candidate (hereinafter referred to as the candidate) and the supervisors are expected to be familiar with the content, responsibilities, and rights associated with supervision, as well as what they can mutually expect from the supervisory relationship. Supervisors and the candidate must familiarise themselves with each other's duties.

The supervisors and the candidate must keep each other continuously informed about all matters of significance for the completion of the PhD programme.

Table of Contents

Regulation of the supervisory relationship

The relationship between the candidate and the supervisor is a key part of the PhD programme and is regulated by:

The candidate's supervisory team

All candidates must have at least two appointed supervisors. At the Faculty of Medicine (MED), it is customary to have one principal supervisor and up to two co-supervisors. It is possible to apply to the faculty for one additional co-supervisor. The application must be justified. A candidate cannot have more than one principal supervisor and three co-supervisors appointed at the same time. If a candidate has three co-supervisors and wishes to appoint a new co-supervisor, one of the three already appointed co-supervisors must step down. No dispensation is granted from this rule.

The appointed principal and co-supervisors constitute the candidate's supervisory group. At least one member of the supervisory group must have supervised a PhD candidate all the way to their public defence, and at least one of the supervisors must be employed in at least a 20% position as a researcher, associate professor, or professor at the faculty. At least one member of the supervisory group must have supervised a PhD candidate to the completion of their defence.

All supervisors must

  • Sign the project description (PhD Project Contract) before the application for admission can be submitted.
  • Follow up on and quality-assure the candidate's progress through the PhD programme.
  • Hold a PhD degree or equivalent academic qualification approved by the faculty.
  • Share a collective responsibility to adhere to the rules and frameworks governing the PhD education.
  • Be good role models in research ethics.

The principal supervisor

  • Must be able to document supervisory experience from previous PhD supervision, master's supervision, or supervision in specialist training for medical doctors.
  • Must be employed at a Norwegian institution.
  • Is responsible for conducting the candidate's mid-term evaluation, submitting proposals for members of the evaluation committee, and proposing a chair for the public defence.

Internal and external supervisors

  • A candidate may have both internal and external supervisors.
  • A supervisor employed at the faculty in at least a 20% position as a professor, associate professor, or researcher is referred to as internal.
  • For some PhD projects, it may be natural for one or more supervisors not to be employed at the Faculty of Medicine. These are referred to as external supervisors.
  • The general rule is that the principal supervisor must be employed at the faculty (internal). If this person is external, the candidate must apply to have them as their principal supervisor.
  • If the principal supervisor is external, the candidate must have at least one internal co-supervisor.

Emeriti

  • If a supervisor becomes an emeritus, retires, or passes away, the candidate and the remaining supervisory team are obliged to inform the faculty and propose a new supervisor.
  • A supervisor who becomes an emeritus cannot serve as an UiO-internal supervisor.

Impartiality (Conflicts of interest)

How many PhD candidates can a supervisor have?

To ensure that the candidate's supervisors have sufficient capacity to provide supervision, restrictions have been placed on the number of supervisory roles each individual supervisor can hold.

  • As a general rule, a supervisor cannot hold more than a total of six supervisory roles at the same time (principal and co-supervisory roles combined).
  • A supervisor can be appointed as a principal supervisor for a maximum of four candidates at the same time.
  • As a general rule, a supervisor can be appointed as a co-supervisor for a maximum of five candidates at the same time.
  • In exceptional cases, an application may be submitted to hold more than six supervisory roles in total. The application must have an academic justification.

Supervision from admission to public defence

The candidate and supervisors must keep each other continuously informed about matters relating to the PhD education. If situations arise that could lead to delayed completion or interruption of the PhD education, this must be followed up, and the faculty must be informed. The supervisory group and the candidate have different tasks and must familiarise themselves thoroughly with them. The principal supervisor has a particular responsibility for leading the supervision of the candidate.

Admission

The principal supervisor shall

  • Have academic responsibility for the content of the PhD project.
  • Be responsible for ensuring that the candidate possesses the relevant competence to complete the PhD project.
  • Provide guidance on questions of research ethics.

The candidate and the supervisory group shall together

  • Prepare the project description.
  • Formulate and define the scope of the project's topic and research questions.
  • Discuss and assess hypotheses and methods.
  • Orientate the candidate regarding academic literature and data sources.
  • Prepare a plan for the educational component.
  • Design a verifiable milestone plan for the PhD timeline so that the project can be completed within the admission period.
  • Conduct an start-up meeting where the collaboration and mutual expectations are discussed and clarified, and where the expected learning outcomes for the candidate and how they are to be achieved are established.

The candidate shall

  • Submit the application for admission to the PhD programme, including all appendices and necessary signatures.

Conducting the programme

The principal supervisor shall

  • Ensure that the candidate receives guidance on research ethics questions.
  • Ensure that the candidate has a good learning environment.
  • Conduct development meetings with the candidate, covering the following points:
    • Discuss how the supervision is working, identify opportunities for improvement and challenges.
    • Evaluate the candidate's learning environment and ensure that it is satisfactory.
    • Assess progress in relation to the original schedule.
    • Assess the achievement of learning objectives.
    • Discuss any need for adjustments to the project.
    • Assess the need for new or updated approvals.
  • Conduct the candidate's mid-term evaluation in accordance with the guidelines 
  • Provide academic supervision and hold academic responsibility for the candidate.
  • Help the candidate connect with relevant scientific environments.

The co-supervisor shall

  • Provide academic supervision and share academic responsibility for the candidate.
  • Help the candidate connect with relevant scientific environments.
  • Participate in development talks and the mid-term evaluation.

The candidate shall

  • Maintain regular contact with the supervisory group.
  • Inform the supervisory group if any circumstances arise that may delay or prevent the completion of the PhD education in accordance with the admission agreement.
  • Present reports or drafts of all or parts of the thesis to the supervisors.
  • Adhere to the research ethics principles applicable to the subject area.
  • Comply with agreed deadlines or, if necessary, adjust plans in consultation with the supervisory team.
  • Keep the supervisory group informed about course selection and completion of the educational component.
  • Participate actively in the research group they are part of.

Completion

The principal supervisor shall

  • Propose the evaluation committee and the chair of the public defence.

The co-supervisor shall

  • Propose the evaluation committee and the chair of the public defence in consultation with the external principal supervisor, if the principal supervisor is external.

Guidelines for proposing an evaluation committee

The principal supervisor proposes members for the evaluation committee (hereinafter the committee) to assess the candidate's thesis. The candidate must not be involved in this process. The committee shall normally consist of three members and be composed as follows:

  • One member from a foreign institution (normally the 1st opponent).
  • One member from an institution other than the University of Oslo and, as a general rule, with no affiliation to Oslo University Hospital (normally the 2nd opponent).
  • One member employed in an associate professor or professor position at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo (committee chair). As a general rule, the committee chair cannot be from the same department as the candidate or supervisor.
  • Both genders must be represented.
  • All members must hold a doctoral degree or equivalent academic qualifications, and possess research-based knowledge relevant to the topic of the thesis.

The principal supervisor must clarify that the proposed individuals are willing to serve on the committee.

There must be no contact between the supervisor and the committee regarding the candidate or the candidate’s work from the time the committee is appointed until the doctoral examination has been completed

The date of the doctoral examination is set by the Dean after the thesis has been approved for defence. In connection with holidays, separate deadlines apply for the trial lecture and public defence.

Impartiality requirements and academic justification

The committee must satisfy the impartiality requirements of the Public Administration Act (Forvaltningsloven). A signed declaration of impartiality (docx) from each of the proposed members must accompany the principal supervisor's proposal for the evaluation committee.

The faculty requires an academic justification explaining why the members should serve on the evaluation committee.

Submitting proposals for the committee

The thesis must not be sent to the committee before the Dean has officially approved and appointed the proposed committee. It is important that the fields for the committee members' titles, postal addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers are correctly filled out.

The form Proposal for Evaluation Committee and Chair of Defence (docx) should be sent to: postmottak@medisin.uio.no.

Proposal for chair of the public defence

The principal supervisor proposes chairs of the defence on the same form used to propose the evaluation committee. Two individuals who have agreed to act as the chair of the defence must be proposed.

The chair of the defence (Acting dean)

  • Must be employed as an associate professor or professor at the Faculty of Medicine.
  • Cannot be from the same department as the candidate or supervisor.
  • Emeriti affiliated with the faculty's institutes may be approved as chairs of defences if needed. They cannot be an emeritus at the same department (avdeling) as the candidate or supervisor.

The principal supervisor is obliged to inform the chair of the defence about the date of the public defence once it has been approved by the Dean and subsequently report to the Faculty who will be serving as the chair of the defence.

Challenges in the supervisory relationship

The supervisory team and the candidate must jointly take responsibility for ensuring that the supervisory relationship works well and should continuously assess whether the format and frequency of supervision are appropriate. If situations arise that make the supervisory relationship problematic, the supervisors and the candidate, either together or separately, must seek to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. It is important that a poor supervisory relationship does not persist.

In some cases, it can be difficult to resolve problems that arise. In such instances, the Head of Postgraduate Studies (forskerutdanningsleder, FUL) at the candidate's institute can be contacted for advice and guidance. In these cases, the management where the candidate is employed must be involved. If the challenges concern the working environment, the immediate superior of the candidate and/or supervisor must be involved. The working environment where the candidate works is a matter that the employer must resolve.

If the challenges relate to matters contractually agreed in the candidate’s admission agreement, it is natural to contact the Head of Postgraduate Studies at the institute, or alternatively the faculty administration at the Section for researcher education. Regardless of the type of challenge that has arisen, the PhD programme will need to involve the candidate's employer and potentially the HR department to find a solution to the issue.

If the parties do not reach an agreement, one or both parties may request to be released from the supervision agreement. This request must be sent to the faculty and must be justified. The faculty must approve the changes before they take effect.

If a candidate has engaged in academic misconduct or shown a lack of progress during their PhD course, the faculty may, as a last resort, decide on the compulsory termination of the candidate's admission, in accordance with Section 5.4 of UiO's PhD regulations.

Changing supervisors

If a situation arise that require the supervisory relationship to be changed or terminated, such changes must be approved by the faculty before they can take effect. The faculty must approve both the supervisor's stepping down and any appointment of a new supervisor. In addition, the faculty must approve any changes to the supervisory arrangement. A common example is changing from a principal supervisor to a co-supervisor, or vice versa.

What must the candidate and the supervisory team do?

Agreement for change of supervisors (docx) must be completed and signed. The agreement is not valid until all parties involved have signed. The agreement should be sent to the Faculty: postmottak@medisin.uio.no.

A supervisor cannot step down before a new supervisor has been appointed if the candidate only has two supervisors or if it is the principal supervisor who is stepping down.

Please note that changes to the supervisory relationship cannot be backdated and that the changes will only take effect from the Faculty's filing date. Furthermore, it is not permitted to change the supervisory relationship during the final six months before the planned submission date, unless quite exceptional circumstances warrant it.

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Published May 12, 2017 1:50 PM - Last modified Sep. 2, 2026 2:06 PM
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