At SLU, all subject courses are organized by our research schools. General basic courses are organized by the Council for Doctoral Education (Fur). Depending on which course you want to organize, there are different financing options. Contact your faculty or research school for more information on this.
All courses at SLU must have a syllabus describing entry requirements, scope, learning outcomes, purpose, content, form of teaching, timetable and pass grade requirements. Courses must include an element of personal performance, where newly-acquired knowledge and proficiency are tested and applied in a suitable pedagogical form.
SLU has a template syllabus for doctoral courses.
All syllabuses for doctoral subject courses must be approved by the faculty board, and all syllabuses for basic courses must be approved by the Council for PhD Education (FUR). Syllabuses must then be registered in the on-line searchable database SLUkurs forskarutbildning. The course date must be registered no later than six months before the start of the course.
Courses (examinations) are assessed with the grades pass or fail.
All students who do not have citizenship in the EU, EEA countries or Switzerland must pay for courses at Bachelor or Master level. This also applies to doctoral students, even though postgraduate education is free in Sweden.
SLU does not want to charge fees for course participation from its doctoral students. Therefore, the following is recommended:
In order for a doctoral student to be able to read a course at Bachelor or Master level free of charge as part of his / her education at doctoral level, the corresponding course must be established as a course at doctoral level. That is, the Faculty Board shall approve a syllabus in which learning objectives and examination form and level have been adapted to the level of postgraduate education. The student can then read the course together with the other students.
Basic courses in transferable skills in a doctoral programme are intended to support the student's personal development and foster general knowledge and proficiency in for example statistics, philosophy of science, research ethics, communication and pedagogy. The aim of the subject courses is to give broader or deeper knowledge of subjects.
Model for economic compensation for general basic courses funded by FUR
During a doctoral education at SLU, the student is required to acquire both subject knowledge and more general skills that are not bound to a particular topic. These more general skills are offered through general basic courses, and these courses can be given by departments/units with economic compensation from the Council for doctoral education (FUR).
"The general basic courses support the doctoral students' personal development and foster general knowledge and proficiency in statistics, philosophy of science, research ethics, information competence, communication and pedagogy, for example. The aim of third-cycle subject courses is to inculcate broader or deeper knowledge of subjects." From SLU Guidelines for third-cycle (doctoral) education DNR: SLU ua 2015.1.1.1-2467.
Requirements for economic compensation for a basic course
Economic compensation model
A course can never get more than 180 000 SEK per year from FUR.
New courses can apply for a one-time planning grant of 50 000 SEK.
Courses can apply for one-time development grant of 50 000 SEK, for example for developing a course into a distance learning course.
Some major, recurring courses receive compensation according to negotiation.
Report
After the course is finished a report should be sent to Lotta Jäderlund. The report should contain schedule, list of participants and a summary of the course evaluations.
Application to FUR
The application for a basic general course with a remuneration from FUR shall contain a description of the intended course, including syllabus, preliminary schedule, budget and a motivation for why the course should receive compensation from FUR. The application is sent to FUR (Lotta Jäderlund). FUR decides on budget in the autumn next year, the application must be submitted to FUR by 1 August. A selection will take place.
SLU has a university common template for evaluations of doctoral student courses and a university common template for evaluations of educational activities arranged within the framework of a research school.
Templates contain mandatory questions that cannot be changed. The individual course leader can add supplementary questions.
Those who want a web-based evaluation and where the results are automatically compiled and reported on the web, send an email to lotta.jaderlund@slu.se with a link to the course's page in SLUkurs. The course leader will get permission for an evaluation form intended for that course or training activity, including instructions. Assuming that the Course Manager has a Google Account, they can add any own questions and see the results summary. After that, the course leader can send a link to the participants. Those who respond do not need a Google Account. The respondents' identity is not registered. The respondents can see a summary of the answers to the evaluation they themselves have answered. The administrator has permission for all web-based evaluations.
At https://www.google.com/intl/en/forms/about/ there are general information about the web platform that we use for the course evaluations.
Anyone who wishes can download the course evaluations template in the form of a word document on the university common forms webpage and send out, collect and compile the answers themselves.
Those who do not choose to do evaluations using the web-based template must report a summary of the answers to the course evaluation for the faculty board, if it is a subject course, or for FUR if it is a basic course (the course managers of the LTV faculty reports to the faculty education officer).
SLU is one of the founding members of the Nordic Forestry, Veterinary and Agricultural University Network - NOVA. Since the start in 1995, the main activity within the network has been jointly organised PhD courses.
LTV-faculty: Lotta Malmborg forskarutbildning-ltv@slu.se
NJ-faculty: Charlotta Eriksson or Sabine Sampels
S-faculty: Charlotta Bergström
VH-faculty: Anette Wichman (fun-vh@slu.se)
General information: Lotta Jäderlund or Eva Stening (FUR-sekr@slu.se)