General Curricula and Individual Study Plans
The general syllabus in biology describes the frames that apply to all doctoral students in biology at Lund University and contains information about the content and degree requirements of the education.
The individual study plan (ISP) is the plan for the individual doctoral student’s research studies and it specifies the undertakings of the department and the doctoral student and includes a general time plan. The individual study plan can start from the preliminary plan that the supervisory committee made before admission.
The supervisor initiates the individual study plan and makes, together with the doctoral student, a suggestion, which is finalised together with the departmental representative. The Head of the department approves the study plan.
When you have discussed the individual study plan at a PhD student progress meeting and it have been fully updated, it is locked in the electronic system, printed, and signatures collected by the PhD student, supervisor and IR. This can be done using the electronic signing system used by Lund University called EduSign (external website). The signed ISP is sent to the administrator (Charlotta Thomeaus) who gives it to the head of department for signature and then archives it.
Information about the general syllabus and the individual study plan can be found on the faculty website. There you will also find a manual and a link to the electronic system for handling the individual study plans.
How to fill in an individual study plan
Under each heading, we describe what is important to bear in mind and what can easily go wrong when filling in the individual study plan. In the fold-out areas, you will find examples of a completed fictitious individual study plan.
Doctoral student
The admission date should be the date when the employment starts.
Name: Daphnia Magna
Swedish civic registration number: XXXXXX-XXXX
Email address: daphnia.magna@biol.lu.se
Department: Biology
Admission date: 2018-05-02
Supervisory committee, director of studies and head of department
- It is important that the right person is added as the departmental representative assigned to the PhD student so that they get access to the electronic version of the study plan.
- Add Klas Flärdh or Dennis Hasselquist as Director of studies.
- The electronic system also asks for administrators. Add Anna Grahn and Annika Hecktor, who are responsible for registration in LADOK.
Main supervisor: NN
Supervisor: CC
Supervisor: -
Representative of the department: name of the examiner QQ
Scientific mentor: MM
Director of studies: Klas Flärdh
Head of department: Jessica Abbott
Administrators: Anna Grahn and Annika Hecktor
The third-cycle (doctoral) programme
- Under the heading Mandatory courses or other activities eligible for credits, the courses and other activities should be listed that are compulsory, according to the General Curriculum of the subject that the student is admitted to.
- Try to specify what the field of research is within which the student should develop broad expertise. This will facilitate the work of the departmental representative.
Third-cycle programme subject: Biology (MNBIOL00)
Course requirements: 60 hp
Thesis requirements: 180 hp
Half-time evaluation or similar: Half-time seminar or similar
Mandatory courses or other activities eligible for credits
Introductory course, Faculty of Science (0.5 credits)
Graduate studies in biology: the science and its philosophy (1.5 credits)
Evolutionary processes (2 credits) Introduction to teaching methods (3 credits)
Research Ethics (3 credits)
Studies that provide breadth in the field of research (at least 5 credits) The field of research is in this case XXX
Conferences (at least 3 credits but maximum 12 credits),
Midway review (15 credits)
Resources
- State how the employment of the PhD student will be funded and how the costs will be distributed between different sources of funding (as agreed with the head of the division).
- Indicate what basic resources are provided, like workplace, computer, and laboratory facilities. Please also indicate specialised resources and equipment that are important to the project and how they will be made available. Also, specify sources of funding for running costs, travel, conference fees, publication, etcetera. There should be sufficient funding available for the basic costs of the project. If there are plans to seek additional funds for extra costs, this can also be indicated.
- Describe the forms of supervision and interaction between the supervisors and the PhD student, including the roles of the main supervisor and assistant supervisor and the division of work between them.
Funding of the position as doctoral student
State type of funding for the position (e.g. employment based on external grants; employment through faculty funding; industry funding; stipend) and the proportions in per cent if several sources of funding are used.
Year 1: VR
Year 2: VR
Year 3: Aquatic Ecology
Year 4: Aquatic Ecology
Basic resources and project funding
Simplified example: Workplace, computer, laboratory facilities will be provided. Source of funding for running costs, travel and conference fees will be provided from NN’s VR grant. Costs for travel, conferences, publications will be covered from XX grant YYY. The PhD student and supervisors will apply for further funding.
Supervision
Brief example: Main supervision from NN, strong contribution of co-supervisor CC. Supervision consists of one-hour joint research group meetings once a week. Individual meetings with NN every two weeks, 1-2 hours. Co-supervisor joins for discussions on experimental design and interpretation of data approximately 2-3 times per semester.
Latest doctoral student progress meeting
Specify when the defence is planned to take place, based on, for example, the estimated end of the education period, including extensions.
Date: 2021-02-03
Participants: NN, CC, MM , examiner
Year/semester for the planned degree of doctor: 2023/VT
Activity
- The workload should be 100% if you work full-time.
- Teaching and administration is more than 0% only if the salary is partly charged to teaching, for example.
- In the table, you write in an estimate of your planned teaching, and then in the ‘actual’ column, you later write in a follow-up of how much teaching was carried out. The percentage is the proportion of working hours spent on teaching and other departmental duties per six months. For guidance, the annual working time is 1756 hours up to and including the year you turn 29 years old, 1732 hours from the year you turn 30, and 1700 hours from the year you turn 40. The calculation is primarily aimed at facilitating planning and follow-up for all involved.
Workload: 100 %
Teaching/admin/other (portion in relation to full-time): 10 %
Activity third-cycle programme (portion in relation to full-time): 90 %
Activity third-cycle programme and departmental duties/student union commissions (% of full-time)
| Term | Postgrad studies planned | Postgrad studies actual | Departmental duties planned | Departmental duties actual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VT 2018 | 60% | 60% | 0% | 0% |
| HT 2018 | 90% | 90% | 10% | 10% |
| VT 2019 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| HT 2019 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| VT 2020 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| HT 2020 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| VT 2021 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| HT 2021 | 85% | 85% | 15% | 15% |
| VT 2022 | 85% | 0% | 15% | 0% |
| HT 2022 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| VT 2023 | – | – | – | – |
Completed courses and other credit-awarding components
- Under Credited courses (attended prior to admission), only courses that you want to count towards your education should be listed. Your admission period as a PhD student will then be shortened accordingly. For example, for a course of 1.5 credits taken before admission, your PhD student admission time will be 1 week shorter.
- Under Courses and other credit-awarding components within the thrid-cycle programme courses that have been completed be listed, and they should be entered as they are completed. The note about LADOK registration needs to be updated manually when the courses have been entered into LADOK.
- The completed course credits from the list are automatically summed up.
Credited courses (attended prior to admission)
Name:
Slutdatum: Antal hp: Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Courses and other credit-awarding components within the third-cycle programme
Name: Introductory Course
Slutdatum: 2019 Antal hp: 0.5 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Evolutionary Processes
Slutdatum: 2019 Antal hp: 2 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: The science and its philosophy
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 1.5 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Statistics for biologists
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 7.5 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: literature course: "Animal Eyes", MF Land & DE Nilsson, Oxford U
Slutdatum: 2019 Antal hp: 3 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Pedagogic introduction
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 3 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: conferences
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 15 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Halftime Seminar
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 15 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Applied Project Management
Slutdatum: 2021 Antal hp: 2 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Name: Sensory Ecology
Slutdatum: 2020 Antal hp: 6 Registrerad i LADOK: Yes
Total, within the third-cycle programme: 55.5 hp
Total, all completed courses and credit-awarding components: 55.5 hp
Remaining courses and other credit-awarding components: 4.5 hp
The doctoral thesis
- Under Overview of the planned thesis work, give an overall description of the thesis project, with background, questions and the hypotheses to be investigated, central concepts, etcetera.
- Comments can also be made here about overall planning and other things that are relevant for planning and follow-up on an overview level.
- As the education progresses, updates and additions can also be made to the overall planning.
Type of thesis: Collection of articles
Language of the thesis: English
Title of the thesis (preliminary): Adaptations for dim light vision in hawkmoths
Overview of the planned thesis work
Simplified example: The thesis investigates adaptations for underwater vision in aquatic insects. The main focus is neural adaptations, which increase visual sensitivity, and in addition to this, optical adaptations, as well as the behavioural performance of aquatic insects, are investigated in order to obtain a comprehensive picture from neuron to behaviour of how these insects manage to see well in dim light.
Evaluation and planning
- Give a brief background and description of the sub-project.
- Then a rough plan should be created, focusing on what the PhD student is expected to do, but also possible clarifications of whether there are parts where the project depends critically on the efforts of other people, access to certain instruments, or other relevant aspects.
- It should be particularly clear what is planned for the next 6 (or 12) months.
- Descriptions of projects and planning can deal with how the PhD student is expected to develop the project and should not be seen as a detailed technical description of tasks and experiments to be carried out.
- Follow-up of the progression is entered in connection with each doctoral progress meeting.
- It is natural that the project plans are revised and updated as the project progresses.
- The text should not be too long, and it should be possible to be understood even by partial outsiders such as the Departmental Representative, Director of Studies and Head of Department.
- From the outset, there should be a rough and preliminary overview of which courses or other credit-giving activities are planned for the entire education. In addition, it must be stated in more detail which courses, etcetera, are planned for the next 6–12 months.
- Planned departmental duties can be planned teaching, for example.
NOTE! The examples below are for simple illustration but are incomplete and too brief.
Evaluation and planning of research (sub-projects of the thesis work)
Sub-project 1
Title: Adaptations for nocturnal and diurnal vision in aquatic insects.
Author(s): Daphnia Magna, XX, ZZ, CC, NN
Data collection: 100 % Analyses: 100 % Writing: 100 %
Manuscript submitted: Yes Manuscript accepted: Yes
Planning: XXXXXX
Sub-project 2
Title: A comparative analysis of neural adaptations for vision in different light environments.
Author(s): Daphnia Magna, NN
Data collection: 85 % Analyses: 85 % Writing: 50 %
Manuscript submitted: No Manuscript accepted: No
Planning: XXXXXXX. Finish data collection (if the supply of animals allows) by April, and submit manuscript latest in May (material & methods, introduction already written).
Sub-project 3
Title: Flight performance in damsel flies reveals adaptations for dim light vision.
Author(s): Daphnia Magna, SS, NN
Data collection: 100 % Analyses: 70 % Writing: 20 %
Manuscript submitted: No Manuscript accepted: No
Planning: XXXXXX. Finish flight data analysis by end of February, SS will finalize the modelling part of the manuscript, NN will write a manuscript (material & methods written) by June (deadline for submission, as work is part of a special issue)and SS and NN will comment.
Sub-project 4
Title: Optical adaptations for vision in different lake environments in aquatic insects
Author(s): SS, Daphnia Magna, NN
Data collection: 50 % Analyses: 25 % Writing: %
Manuscript submitted: No Manuscript accepted: No
Planning: XXXXXXX. Both anatomical and physiological data collection necessary by SS and Daphnia Magna. This will be done during the spring of 2016. SS will analyse the data and present result in August.
Planned courses or other credit-awarding activities
Microscopy - Bioimaging, 7.5 credits
Woods Hole summer school 2022
Literature course: Book title
Darwinian medicine (broadening course; 5 credits)
Planned participation at conferences
Symposium on Animal Vision, xxx, xxx.
Planned departmental duties
Teaching in Aquatic Ecology VT 2022
Popular Science Communication Workshop VT 2022
Planning of other tasks
–
Activities (carried out or planned) to achieve the learning outcomes stated in the higher education ordinance
- Use this section as a basis for reflection and discussion about how the goals of the doctoral education are planned to be achieved.
- As training progresses, this section should be updated with what has been done and what more can be done to achieve the goals.
- The approximate time covered of the third-cycle programme is updated automatically, depending on what is written in the other sections.
Knowledge and understanding
Demonstrate a broad knowledge and systematic understanding of the research field, as well as advanced and up-to-date specialised knowledge in a limited area of this field
Carried out: half-time essay (approved), 2 submitted & 2 published manuscripts
Planned: dissertation
Demonstrate familiarity with research methodology in general and the methods of the specific field of research in particular
Carried out: half-time essay (approved), 2 submitted & 2 published manuscripts among those one 1 published methodology paper, course: Graduate studies in biology
Planned: dissertation
Competence and skills
- Demonstrate the capacity for scholarly analysis and synthesis as well as to review and assess new and complex phenomena, issues and situations autonomously and critically
Carried out: reviewed 1 paper, half-time essay
Planned: more manuscript reviews, dissertation - Demonstrate the ability to identify and formulate issues with scholarly precision critically, autonomously and creatively, and to plan and use appropriate methods to undertake research and other qualified tasks within predetermined time frames and to review and evaluate such work
Carried out: 4 manuscripts published/submitted as the first and corresponding author
Planned: more manuscripts and research projects to be conducted and finalised - Demonstrate through a dissertation the ability to make a significant contribution to the formation of knowledge through his or her own research
Carried out:
Planned: dissertation planned - Demonstrate the ability in both national and international contexts to present and discuss research and research findings authoritatively in speech and writing and in dialogue with the academic community and society in general
Carried out: work presented at three national and two international conferences, popular scientific outreach (short video, science slams)
Planned: dissertation - Demonstrate the ability to identify the need for further knowledge
Carried out: half-time essay completed, future and present projects approved in doktorandsamtals
Planned: - Demonstrate the capacity to contribute to social development and support the learning of others both through research and education and in some other qualified professional capacity
Carried out: teaching as lab assistant and seminar teacher in a number of graduate and undergraduate courses, popular science outreach, supervision of project student
Planned: supervision of master student
Judgement and approach
- Demonstrate intellectual autonomy and disciplinary rectitude as well as the ability to make assessments of research ethics carried out: introduction to research ethics as part of the course graduate studies in biology, collaboration and exchange with other researchers in related disciplines
Planned: ethics workshop - Demonstrate specialised insight into the possibilities and limitations of research, its role in society and the responsibility of the individual for how it is used and carried out: popular science outreach, course: graduate studies in biology
Planned: organization of "Science and Society" workshop within the annual biology PhD student conference in Lund in March 2022
Approximate time covered of the third-cycle programme (at the end of the latest completed semester) corresponding to 6.6 out of 8 semesters, or 82.5%.
Approximate remaining time of the third-cycle programme (at the end of the latest completed semester) corresponding to 1.4 out of 8 semesters, or 17.5%.
Directors of Postgraduate Studies
Klas Flärdh
Professor
Telephone: +46 46 222 85 84
E-mail: Klas.Flardh@biol.lu.se
Dennis Hasselquist
Professor
Telephone: +46 46 222 37 08
E-mail: Dennis.Hasselquist@biol.lu.se
Biology Doctoral Students Council
BDR – Biology Doctoral Students Council
Graduate research school
The graduate research school in integrative biology on our external website.