During your studies

For you who are admitted and registered to a course or a programme, here you will find important and useful information during your studies.

Tre studenter som sitter framför en Ipad och läser.
Foto: Niklas Björling/Stockholms universitet.
 

Schedule and literature

The Department of Political Science uses Athena as a course platform for communication between students and their teachers. There you will also find schedule, curriculum, literature lists etc.

Log in to Athena

You will also find the schedule and literature list on the course website.

 

Student support

During your studies a wide range of student support and services are available to you.

Stockholm University provides special pedagogical support to students with documented long-term disabilities. The goal is to give all students the opportunity to study under equal conditions.

Read more about studying with a disability.

For students taking the Political Science I course we offer a study circle continually throughout the semester. The layout of the study circle is based on a pedagogical method which has its base in collaborative learning, where students meet regularly in small study groups of between five to fifteen participants, led by a study circle leader.

Read more about the study circle

The Academic Writing Service provides English-language support for writing and study skills. We give talks and seminars and offer individual guidance.

Read more about the Academic Writing Service

 

Examination

Here you will find information that applies for written seated exams taking place in the centrally-administered examination halls at Stockholm University.

Examination schedule

Examination schedule Autumn 2023 (123 Kb)

In order to take examinations a student must be enrolled at the Department (in the appropriate course).

To make sure that you do not miss any information on the examination it is of utmost importance that you have access to the web-based collaboration system Athena and that you keep yourself informed through it.

Sign-up for all written examinations is compulsory (except for take-home exams) and should be made through Ladok, for both regular and re-take examinations. A message will be distributed through Athena when the exam is open for sign-up.

In case of several venues being used for the exam, the seating will be announced through Athena a few days before the date of the exam. Those students who have not signed up for the examination on Ladok have the right to take the exam only if there are available places in the venue.

For take-home examinations no sign-up is required.

Re-scheduled exams

Please note that the examination schedule is preliminary and there may be changes during the semester. Changes are announced in Athena.

Seating for written examinations

The list for seating for written examination (i.e. not take-home exams) is distributed in Athena a few days before the date of the exam.

Please note that results cannot be published on the home page due to the
Law on Personal Integrity. Students who have activated their student account can check their results on the web site Ladok.

In order to take a re-take exam in the same semester as your first-time enrolment in the course in question, you should sign up for the examination as described above.

If you want to take a re-take exam in a course in which you were enrolled for the first time a previous semester, you must, first of all, re-enroll in the course no later than one month prior to the examination date. Send an e-mail to the Office for Student Affairs at studentexpedition@statsvet.su.se and ask to be re-enrolled in your course, or visit the office (see opening hours). After having been re-enrolled you must sign up for the exam through Ladok (see above) no later than one week prior to the date of the examination.

Students with disabilities who are in need of supportive adaptations should contact the Disability Services well before the start of the studies, to ensure that proper support can be provided. You might need to apply for a Nais certificate to have access to these adaptations.

More information on this can be found here. 

If you have been granted special examination support it is your responsibility to contact the Department’s Accessibility coordinator no later than 10 days before the exam, in order to make sure that the necessary measures can be taken. E-mail: resurs@statsvet.su.se. In your contact, state your name, personal ID number and for which exam you wish to have the supportive adaptations.
 

 

A student who has arranged with her/his teacher to be examined on a course part according to a previous syllabus (i.e. with another list of readings) must report this by e-mail to studentexpedition@statsvet.su.se, no later than two weeks prior to the date of the examination.

An obtained grade cannot be appealed according to the Higher Education Ordinance, but a student always has the right to get it corrected if there is an obvious mistake, or to get a reconsideration.  Amending grades and reviewing grades (73 Kb) .

The department of Political Science does not upload essays or dissertations in the publication database DiVA. It is you (student) who can upload your file and fill in all the necessary information in DiVA after your essay/dissertation has been approved in Ladok. This is of course voluntary.

Instructions on how to do this can be found here: How to publish student theses in DiVA

If you have any questions you may contact the department's DiVA admin Sofie Trosell: sofie.trosell@statsvet.su.se

Plagiarism, cheating and disruptions of study activities are of course not allowed at Stockholm University and can lead to suspension from the university. It is therefore very important that you as a student stay informed about the rules that applies.

Plagiarism

With the easy access to information available online these days, it is quick and easy to search for material on a diverse set of topics. When it comes to your own writing at the university, it is important not to use such sources without clearly stating where the information comes from. Copying texts is called plagiarism and is not allowed. Even though you make some linguistic changes to a text, it is still plagiarism. Note that this also applies to shorter paragraphs from a text. If a sentence is written off, it must be stated where it comes from.

Using other students' examination assignments, in whole or in part, is also not permitted.

Using things that you yourself have written before is called self-plagiarism and is not allowed either.

Cheating and illicit cooperation

It is important to pay close attention to the instructions given before an exam. Unless otherwise stated, examination assignments must be done individually. Read the course instructions carefully and ask the teacher if you are unsure.

Cheating also includes having improper information or unauthorized aids on in-class exams. This includes mobile phones (and smart watches), so make sure that such digital aids and bags are left in the place designated by the exam guards. Read more about rules for exam writing:
Rules for in-class examination (Swedish)

Disturbance

It is also not permitted to disturb teaching, tests or other activities at the department. This also includes disobedience to teachers, supervisors and exam guards.

False attestation

For example, writing the name of an absent student on the attendance list at a compulsory study activity is a forgery of documents and must be reported to the police.

What happens?

All suspicions of cheating must be reported to the Head of department or Director of studies at the department by an examination supervisor or examiner for investigation. If cheating has occured, a report is made to the President of Stockholm University (SU), who forwards the matter to the Disciplinary Board at Stockholm University (SU). If the accused student is found guilty, it leads to suspension from studies for a certain period of time.

Rules and guidelines

More information can be found on the university's website and in the current governing documents:

Information about plagiarism and disciplinary matters at Stockholm University

Guidelines for disciplinary matters at Stockholm University

Regulations for education and examination at first-cycle and second-cycle level

 

Credit transfer

You can apply for credit transfer if you have previously read a course or module with content that overlaps the course you are admitted to (or will study within a program) and do not want to read the same course content again. You can also apply for credit transfer for political science courses studied abroad or at another university that does not directly correspond to courses given at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University.

You apply for credit transfer digitally via Ladok. Once you have logged in, click on "Credit transfer" under the tab "Apply for".

It is important that the application is complete

Only complete applications can be processed, with the correct appendices attached:

  • Excerpts from Ladok, certified copies of course certificates, study certificates or equivalent where it appears which university you studied at, time, level, scope of credits and grades.
  • Syllabus with bibliography for the course you studied at another university / department. If the course was read at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, the syllabus and bibliography do not need to be attached.

Please note that you must specify which course is to be credited and what course it corresponds too.

Processing time

The processing time is up to two months from the time a complete application is handed in. The decision is made by the Director of Studies responsible for the education in accordance with the rules and procedures for credit transfer at Stockholm University.

If you application is rejected, the decision can be appealed. A granted credit is documented in Ladok and cannot be undone.

Possible consequences of a credit transfer

In a degree, the same course cannot be included twice, therefore the credited course is counted only once. If you study independent courses, you may therefore need to study additional courses to get the total credits required to be able to apply for a degree.

Please note that CSN does not grant study grants for credited higher education credits.

When crediting in programs that follow a specific course of study, the actual training time cannot always be shortened due to individual credits. Read more about this under "Questions and answers about credit transfer, programs and degrees".

There are a number of different types of credits that you can be granted upon application:

  • You can credit sub-courses that you have read before and are admitted to and do not want to read the same course content again.
  • If you have not completed a course of 30 higher education credits, you have the right to apply for partial courses where you have received a final grade credited as independent courses in political science. If the application is approved, the courses can be included in a degree.
  • If you have studied courses at other higher education institutions that are not given at the Department of Political Science at SU, you have the right to apply for these courses to be credited as independent courses in political science. Such a credit, however, presupposes that the applicant can document (through a syllabus, study plan, etc.) that the course falls within the scope of political science. If the application is approved, the courses can be included in a degree whose main subject is something other than political science.
  • If you have studied courses at higher education institutions abroad, you can apply for these courses to be credited.

Many students contact the Department of Political Science with a request to credit entire courses of 30 higher education credits that they have studied at another university in their degree or within their program. The Department of Political Science seldom grants credit transfers for entire courses of 30 credits at program level, as the course can still be included in your program degree, provided that the course corresponds to one of the courses given within our programs. The degree title will then also be the same as if you have read all the courses at SU. You can read more about what applies here.

Credit transfer is entered in Ladok with the credit rating (TG). More information about how credit transfers are valued can be found in the course syllabus for each course.

 

The Department of Political Science has  a local council for work environment, equal treatment and equality, which consists of representatives of teachers, administrators, Ph.D. students and undergraduate students.

If you want further information or have questions you are welcome to contact the council's chairman Lenita Freidenvall or the Student Council.

More information about the Council for work environment, equal treatment and equality at the Department of Political Science.

More information about equal treatment at Stockholm University.

If you have been harassed

If you feel you have been subjected to harassment, there are a number of points that are useful to remember. You will find more information about this here.

 

The Political Science Student Council (SVÄR)

The political science student council (SVÄR) is formed by students enrolled at the Department of Political Science. Their work consists of looking after the interests and issues that are important to students, and thereby influencing the Department.

Read more about SVÄR

 
The Society of Social Science

The Society of Social Science is one of the biggest faculty societies at Stockholm University. Most of the students within the Faculty of Social Science are members of the Society of Social Science. It is run by students and its activities are above all of a study social character such as parties, pubs, evenings of discussion, and a number of other activities that may be of interest for the members.

Read more at the Society of Social Science website.

 

Here, you can order archive material which belongs to the institution which fall under the definition of public document. This may be old exams, syllabi and literature lists, thesis etc. 

Orders are made here

 

Do you have questions about your studies at the department?

Here we have gathered frequently asked questions.

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