The purpose of the scheme is to reduce the time to completion and to increase the number of completed doctoral degrees in the Faculty. The aim of the Completion Grant is to broaden the candidates' skills.
How the scheme works
Eligibility
All PhD Candidates who submit their doctoral dissertation for assessment with a written recommendation from their supervisor within 3 years or 3 ½ years after the start of their PhD position, will be offered, respectively, a 12 or 6 month Completion Grant.
PhD Candidates for whom the Faculty of Humanities is responsible are eligible for the grant. This includes PhD Candidates funded by the Research Council of Norway and employed at the Faculty of Humanities. PhD Candidates employed in 4-year positions that include 25% required duties are ineligible for the scheme.
Dr. philos. Candidates are ineligible for the scheme.
Time to completion
The 3 or 3 ½ year time limits are fixed. This means that if the dissertation is submitted within 3 years + 1 week, the Candidate is eligible for a 6 month grant, and that a Candidate who submits after 3 ½ years + 1 week is ineligible for the grant.
Leaves of absence or reduced hours to enable the Candidate to teach or work within or outside the department during the grant period will be included in the calculation of time to completion. If the Candidate is interested in a Completion Grant, s/he must ensure that any such leaves of absence do not interfere with her/his eligibility for a Completion Grant from the Faculty The Candidates are free to accept any teaching position offered while working in a PhD position. If a Candidate undertakes teaching for a total of ½ year, s/he can still receive a ½ year Completion Grant, provided s/he completes within the 3 ½ year limit.
Periods of sick leave and leaves stipulated in law or collective agreements (parental leave, care work leave or other welfare leaves) will be deducted from the total time to completion. Such leaves will therefore not affect a Candidate's eligibility for the Completion Grant. If a Candidate works reduced hours in order to care for a child or a close family member, such work is also deducted from the total time to completion.
The Completion Grant is awarded for 6 or 12 months. The grant is not awarded for less than 6 months, for longer than 12 months or for 7-11 months.
The department must be notified 6 months before the dissertation is submitted.
Candidates who want a Completion Grant and believe they will submit their dissertation within the time limits, must notify their department (represented by the Research Consultant or Head of Department) in writing at least 6 months in advance of the expected date of submission.
Pedagogical training (Uniped)
Recipients of the Completion Grant can sign up for the pedagogical training course held by LINK: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The receiver of the completion grant might not be able to complete the entire course. LINK's course starts at the beginning of each semester. The entire basic training is stipulated to 200 hours of work, consisting of smaller modules.
The Candidates must plan the completion of the pedagogical training well in advance of submitting their dissertation. For further information and to sign up, see LINK's website.
Planning the Completion Grant period
The Heads of Department are required to keep informed about the progress of their Candidates, with the view to including Completion Grant recipients in their plans.
Examples of other tasks that may be included in the Completion Grant period:
- Teaching internship with another lecturer.
- Temporary teaching position.
- Participate in grading.
- Develop teaching plans or work on another academically relevant project.
- Develop and implement an evaluation system and conduct other quality assurance tasks.
- Participate in planning and implementing academic seminars and conferences.
- Participate in the design of relevant research projects and/or applications for external funding.
- Design post-doc projects or other research projects.
- Academic work that extends from the dissertation, such as writing an academic article.
- Disseminating the Candidate's own research to the general population, or other dissemination work.
It may be appropriate for the Candidates to do academically relevant work in other units.
The details of each Candidate's Completion Grant period plan must be agreed upon with the Head of Department. Due consideration must be made of which skill improvement measures that each department can offer, as well as the measures that are most appropriate for the Candidate. The main part of the work must normally be tied to tasks that improve the Candidate's pedagogical skills. At the end of the grant period, the Head of Department must certify the tasks that the Candidate has completed to improve his/her skills.
The Faculty assumes that these tasks will be academically relevant and meritable. At the beginning of the grant period, a written agreement must be made regarding the work to be completed.
As a rule, grant recipients start their grant period immediately after submitting their dissertation.
The Faculty fully funds the scheme.
Prior to submitting the dissertation
Prior to submitting the dissertation for assessment: Two weeks prior to the expected submission date, the department must alert the Human Resources Consultant and submit a) the agreement on the Candidate's work, and b) the supervisor's written recommendation. The supervisor's recommendation must include an explicit statement that s/he has read the complete dissertation draft and considers it ready to be assessed. The agreement and recommendation must be sent to HF, Postboks 1079.
Implementation of the Completion Grant period
The Faculty of Humanities' Human Resources Consultants administer the Completion Grants.
An employment contract is created for the Completion Grant period, or an extention of the existing agreement will be created if there is no pause between the original contract and the Completion Grant period. This contract starts the day after the ordinary PhD position ends. The Completion Grant Candidate remains at the pay grade s/he had prior to the end of the ordinary PhD position.
After the disputation, the Completion Grant Candidate is eligible for a higher pay grade if s/he remains employed in the Faculty of Humanities, cf. Reglement for lønnsopprykk for doktorgrad ("Regulations for pay grade increases for a doctoral degree"). The department's Head of Administration must be notified that the disputation has been completed, including dates for submission and disputation.