PhD Courses in Denmark

This PhD course is organised by TEACH  and offered by the PhD schools at Faculty of Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, and Theology at University of Copenhagen.

Date and time: 9 November 2026 from 9:00 – 15:00

A good working relationship with your supervisor is central to a successful PhD programme. In this course the doctoral supervision relationship is reflected on from the PhD student’s perspective with the purpose of examining how candidates might engage in the supervisor relationship in active ways and preparing participants for working with supervisor. At the course participants will explore ideas, assumptions and expectations regarding the supervisor-supervisee relationship, they will be working with roles and responsibilities, feedback as a core activity, as well as there will be time set aside for working on participant’s own experiences and dilemmas.

Academic aim
 - Knowledge about the context and conditions for doctoral supervision and typical challenges with regards to supervision.
 - Reflect on dominant ideas about supervision and discuss participant’s own ideas and assumptions and how to align expectations with supervisor.
 - Discuss roles and responsibilities in supervision and how these change throughout the programme.
 - Reflect on feedback as a key activity in supervision and discuss what ‘good’ feedback practices might be.

Course organiser and lecturer: Signe Skov, Educational Adviser, TEACH 

Language: English (unless all participants prefer Danish)

Programme (provisional):
9.00-10.10: Context and conditions for doctoral supervision
10.10-10.20: Break
10.20-11.15: Roles, relationships, and aligning expectations in supervision
11.15-11.25: Break
11.25-12.10: Feedback: What is ‘good’ feedback practices?

12.10-12.45: Lunch

12.45-14.05: Workshop: Working with participants own cases
14.05-14.15: Break
14.15-14.45: Sharing insights and ideas from the case-workshop
14.45-15.00: Wrap-up and evaluation of the course

Assignment / reflection paper
After the course participants must submit a paper reflecting on doctoral supervision as a pedagogical practice and discussing possible implications for their own practices. Please submit the reflection paper by email to phd@hrsc.ku.dk no later than 10 December 2026.

Workload
Preparation: Reading texts on PhD supervision: 4 hours
Attendance: 6 hours
Reflection paper: 10 hours

ECTS: 0.7 for participation including preparation and submission of reflection paper.

Max. number of participants:  25

Admission: PhD students enrolled at one of the four PhD schools offering the course will be given priority in allocating places.​ PhD students from other PhD schools will be put on a waiting list and may be admitted to the course a few weeks before course start, if places are available.

Course fee: Copenhagen University participates in Denmark’s national network for PhD courses. This course is free of charge for PhD students enrolled at a one of the participating PhD schools (PhD students enrolled at a Danish University, except from Copenhagen Business School). Other PhD students will be charged a course fee of DKK 1,200 per ECTS for participation in the course (PhD students enrolled at Copenhagen Business School or at a University outside Denmark).

Registration: Please register via the link in the box no later than 6 October 2026.

Further information: For more information about the PhD course, please contact the PhD Administration (phd@hrsc.ku.dk) or the course organizer.

Literature: TBA