1. Duty to provide information and duty to follow up matters during the course of the doctoral degree program
The doctoral candidate and the advisor(s) are entitled to regular contact, and obliged to keep one another informed of any and all factors of significance for the completion of academic advising and the program of doctoral education. The parties of the agreement shall actively deal with any situations that could threaten completion of the program.
The annual report
The doctoral degree candidate shall each year (closing date 1 October) submit a written report on the progress of the work. The electronic form of this annual progress reports shall be countersigned by the supervisor(s) and presented for approval to the Department.
Lacking or unsatisfactory reporting that reveals deficiency in the academic monitoring of the project and in the progress plan for the dissertation work may constitute grounds for terminating the agreement before expiry of the period of the agreement.
2. The supervisory relationship
The extent of the supervision in total is 180 hours (including preparation). The distribution of hours between the principal supervisor and any assistant supervisor shall be clarified at the commencement of studies.
During academic supervision the supervisor shall in particular:
- give advice on the formulation and delimitation of theme and the way in which problems are posed,
- discuss and evaluate hypotheses and methods,
- help the candidate to find his or her way in the literature on the subject and the data which forms its foundation (libraries, records etc.),
- discuss the design and implementation of the presentation (outline, linguistic form, documentation etc.)
- give advice on questions related to research ethics in his/her dissertation
(See the web page: The National Comittee for Research Ethics in Norway) - keep aware of the candidate's progress in his or her work and evaluate this in relation to the plan of work,
- help to guide the candidate into relevant academic communities, and
- discuss results and their interpretation.
The Senate at University of Oslo has adopted Professional ethical guidelines for supervision at the University of Oslo, see web page: http://www.admin.uio.no/opa/ps/ethical-guidelines.html (brutt lenke)
The candidate undertakes in particular:
- present reports or drafts of parts of the dissertation to his or her supervisor, or as the case may be, in connection with seminars, every half-year
- submit the annual progress report to the Department according to the regulations in force
- in his/her academic work live up to the guidelines for research ethics (see web page above)
3. Right of ownership in respect of results
If the candidate is the sole author of the doctoral dissertation, then he/she alone owns the copyright to the work.
If the doctoral dissertation consists of a collection of articles and a summary, the candidate alone will own the copyright to the parts resulting from his/her independent creative work.
Articles written by more than one person and in which it is impossible to ascertain the individual's contribution and thus their own work will be deemed co-written. For such articles, the co-writers own the copyright.
Parts of the doctoral dissertation for which the candidate alone owns the copyright, as well as other non-fictional work resulting from the dissertation work and for which the candidate alone owns the copyright, can be reproduced for use in the university's lecturing and research activities at no charge. In the case of such use, the candidate's name will also be provided, thus respecting laws and good practice.
Any financing unit shall have a gratuitous but not exclusive right to use in its own activity inventions that are the result of the production of the dissertation.
No restrictions may be placed on the publishing of the doctoral dissertation.
If during the conduct of the dissertation project the doctoral degree candidate produces a patentable invention on the basis of results in respect of which the research training institution has the right of ownership, the candidate has the right to apply for a patent. If the invention has been produced on the basis of academic assistance from a supervisor, the parties must define their shares of the patentable invention.
4. Equipments
Equipment necessary for the research program to be carried out will be placed at the candidate's disposal. The decision of which equipment is considered necessary will be made by the academic unit/faculty. For candidates with external working place, a contract may be negotiated for the individual research project.
5. Changing supervisor - termination of organized doctoral degree program before the agreed time
Appointing a new supervisor
If a supervisor finds that the doctoral degree candidate fails to fulfill his contractual obligations in a satisfactory manner, or if the supervisory relationship becomes problematic, the supervisor may on such grounds, and after discussions with the candidate, ask to be released from the supervision agreement. Correspondingly the doctoral degree candidate may, if he or she finds the supervision unsatisfactory, request that a new supervisor be appointed.
A request to be released from the supervision agreement shall be addressed to the Department with a copy to the other party in the supervisory relationship. If disagreements arise between the supervisor(s) and a doctoral degree candidate, the party who wishes to be released from the supervision agreement shall notify the other party of the matter in advance.
For other reasons as well variation of the supervisory relationship may be appropriate. In such cases both parties should be able to take the initiative for a change.
It is incumbent upon the Department to see to it that a new supervisor is appointed if a supervisor withdraws.
Voluntary termination
The parties may, on the candidate's or the other parties' initiative, agree that the organized doctoral degree program is to be terminated before the agreed time. In the case of voluntary termination of the doctoral degree program a separate agreement is to be prepared concerning how the parties are to deal with issues such as possible employment conditions, finance, rights to results etc.
In the case of voluntary termination resulting from the candidate's wish to pursue another project or commence another program, the candidate must submit a new application based on the new project. Transfer to an individual research project (PhD) is considered a voluntary termination.
Enforced termination
The faculty can decide on an enforced termination of the doctoral degree program before the agreed date of completion with the candidate. An enforced termination can be decided on if one or more of the following conditions are met:
- Recurrent and material breach of the candidate's duty to provide information, to follow up on important issues and to report on progress, as described in section 11 of this contract.
- Considerable delay in the progress of the research project to such an extent that it creates reasonable doubt as to whether the candidate will be able to complete the project by the agreed time. In order to form a basis for enforced termination, the considerable delay must be due to circumstances over which the candidate has control.
- Considerable delay in carrying out the training component, due to circumstance over which the candidate has control.
- Breach of the ethical guidelines for research which apply to the subject field.
- Behavior from a candidate which breaches the trust which must exist between the university and the candidate during the program, including punishable conditions in connection with the completion of the doctoral degree program.
A decision to carry out an enforced termination is taken by the admission authorities on the recommendation of the academic unit.
If the doctoral candidate is an employee, the contract can only be terminated if the conditions laid down in the Civil Servants Act have been fulfilled.