Employment as a PhD student

With a Danish PhD scholarship, PhD students are employed for a fixed three-year term, during which they are paid full monthly wages. The salary is based on labour agreement between employer and relevant organisation and will cover living expenses. PhD students with a scholarship should not expect to supplement wages with work outside of the PhD programme. Employment cannot be extended beyond the three-year contract at the end of which PhD students must hand in their thesis.

While all PhD students in the Humanities are enrolled in the PhD School, their place of employment differ.

Employment at the faculty

PhD students may be employed by a department at the Faculty of Humanities on a fixed-term 3 years contract. In that case, PhD students will have the same rights and obligations and work under the same conditions as other employees at UCPH.

See the basic principles of the personnel policy (pdf) and the Personnel Policy Handbook.

External employment

PhD students may also be employed by an external, private or public sector company or research organisation. In this case, the external employer’s terms and conditions for employment apply.

In case of external employment, it is mandatory to draw up a collaboration agreement signed by the employer, the PhD student and the Head of the PhD School before the PhD programme begins. The collaboration agreement will regulate the collaboration on supervision, educational fee, limitation of workload, office space, intellectual property rights and other details.

You can contact the PhD Administration for help on collaboration agreements.