Study funding during postgraduate education

As a doctoral student, you will normally be employed at the Department of Physics and receive a salary to be able to support yourself during your studies. Funding normally covers 4 years of full-time studies and includes e.g. vacation days and health insurance.

Terms for doctoral employment

Doctoral student employment is normally a succession of 12 month appointments. In order to extend the appointment for another year, you are required to undergo the annual development interview and get your individual study plan revised. Therefore, make it a habit each year to book the development interview well in advance. The salary follows a doctoral salary ladder pdf, 304.7 kB.("doktorandstege"), which is revised every year after negotiations between employer and trade unions.

Information about insurances, pensions etc.

Assistantship

Assistantship, i.e. teaching or other department duties, up to 20% may be included in the doctoral position. The total funding time will be extended accordingly.

If you are interested in teaching, please contact the director of undergraduate studies, Fredrik Hellberg, room B4:1055, phone 8133. All assistants have to take a pedagogical course at the university.

Contact

Prolongation of study funding

Sometimes study funding might be prolonged beyond 4 years. This can happen in case of illness, parental leave, change of subject etc. You can read more about this in the Stockholm University: Rules regarding doctoral studies (in Swedish). pdf, 335 kB.

Short time absence: The Science Faculty has decided that PhD students, who have PhD employments at Stockholm University (not grant or salary paid from other than SU), can have their support time prolonged in case of illness and care of child. PhD students with employment should report their short time absence to the personal division. Illness lasting longer than eight days must be confirmed with doctor’s certificate. Child care must be confirmed with certificate from day-care center.

You can also get prolongation when you are a member of Fysikum’s board, are a member of the PhD organisation board at the Department of Physics or other similar tasks at faculty or university level.

Stockhom university rules regarding prolongation (with details regarding central committee work) are found here:

Rules for education and examination at doctoral level 201217.pdf (su.se)

Rules regarding committe work at Fysikum are found here:

bil20191010-117.pdf (su.se) pdf, 646.6 kB.

Documentation of prolongation for the reasons above should be done once a year and written into the individual study plan.

Prolongation in other cases than above may be approved, but is decided by the dean. An application, with a detailed motivation regarding the cause of delay, supported by the supervisor, is handed in to the Director of PhD studies. Here you find information (in Swedish) concerning the procedure at the Science Faculty. More specifically for prolongations due to the corona pandemic, see the instructions on our corona information page.

Download and fill in the form (in Swedish)
Extention of study grant doc, 169.5 kB. (169 Kb)
Read more about how to handle sickleave

Vacation

As you will be employed with a doctoral position you will have a certain number of vacation days per year (28 days per year until you become 30 years old). You have to use all vacation days to which you are entitled during your employment time. Your supervisor must see to that you have the possibility to take your vacation each year. At the time when your employment ends, all your vacation days have to have been used.

Conferences, summer schools

During their research training PhD students will get opportunities to attend conferences and/or summer schools. The funding for these can be scholarships or other sources available to the research group/supervisor.
Bursaries, known as scholarships, are announced by the university and by the department every year. In late autumn the department announces travel grants. In March a block of scholarships (“donationsstipendier”) are announced by the university. Travel scholarships (Liljevalch’s and Wallenberg´s) are also announced every spring by the Faculty. For a more complete overview of scholarships handled by the university, see Stockholms university webpage (in Swedish though). At Swedish Council for Higher Education webpage you can get more information about scholarships.

Each student is encouraged to apply for scholarships which may enable a research or conference trip. You have to inform your supervisor in the event of you receiving a scholarship.

Last updated: 2025-10-21

Source: Department of Physics