Health Sciences (PHHLS)

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION FOR THE PhD PROGRAMME IN HEALTH SCIENCE 2011/2012

The programme description is founded on the Regulations concerning the philosophiae doctor degree (PhD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), passed by the Board of NTNU on 22 May 2003. The programme description for the PhD Programme in Health Science for the 2011/2012 academic year, was authorized by the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management on 10 February 2011.

The PhD Programme in Health Science is an inter-faculty study programme offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management (SVT) and the Faculty of Medicine (DMF). The Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management is the host faculty for the PhD Programme.

Joint Faculty procedures and administrative guidelines for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management - see the left column. For The Faculty of Medicine, on http://www.ntnu.edu/dmf/research/phd.

 

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME (§ 2 in Regulations)
The PhD Programme in Health Science consists of 180 credits (3 years). The individual student's curriculum and research plan are put together in collaboration between the candidate, supervisor and the Department, depending on the thesis area of research and the candidate's individual requirements and wishes.

Areas of study
As an inter-faculty Programme, the PhD Programme in Health Science covers a wide range of areas of study. Common to these areas of study is the focus on human health issues, both on a social, human-interactive and individual basis. Three university units contribute to the Programme: The Department of Social Work and Health Science, the Department for Human Movement Science and the Faculty of Medicine.

Objective of the PhD Programme in Health Science
The PhD Programme in Health Science aims to develop the candidate's qualifications in work that requires an advanced degree of scientific expertise. The most important element of the Programme is an independent piece of research achieving an advanced scientific standard. The candidate is to carry out course work which is to complement research work with the thesis, as well as contributing to necessary academic depth and width. The Programme is to provide the basis for an independent, creative and critical perception of one's own and others' research, as well as providing practice in communicating research results in academic and other forums.

 

ADMISSION (§ 5 in Regulations)
The applicant must have a Master's degree within the fields of Health Science, Medicine, Human Movement Science, Social Sciences or equivalent education. Admission may be given if the applicant can document equivalent qualifications. The applicant must have a weighted average grade of Master's or equivalent education with a grade B or higher in accordance with NTNU's grading system.

Applicants who are unable to meet these criteria may only be admitted if they can document that they are suitable candidates for the PhD education. In special cases, applicants with other backgrounds may be admitted to the PhD Programme. Applicants may be requested to take specific courses and/or pass specified tests prior to admission.

Application requirements
Applications for admission are to be made on the application form. Application requirements are stated in Regulations concerning the philosophiae doctor degree (PhD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). It is preferred that the PhD plan, including the project description, is drawn up in consultation with the main supervisor. The application is to be sent to the Department where the candidate and supervisor have their affiliation.

Admission procedure
The Faculty to which the student belong, will treat applications for admission after evaluation from the relevant department/unit and the recommendations from the Programme Committee. Normally, the candidate and the academic supervisor will belong to the same department. Procedures for admission and the follow-up of incomplete applications - see "Admission".

Decision of admission
The ranking of applicants will be based on the quality of the application, with emphasis on the project description, but the Department's expertise and supervision capacity will also be considered. The decision concerning admission is based on a collective evaluation of the application. Admission to a PhD Programme is formalised by a written contract, in accordance with § 6 of the Regulations concerning the philosophiae doctor degree (PhD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

 

PhD PLAN (§ 5.2 in Regulations)
The project plan should emphasis which themes and research questions that will be studied, preferably related to relevant theory and ongoing research. Further, an explanation is to be given of methods, implementation and possible ethical challenges in the research. The description of the research project should normally be between 5 and 10 pages.

 

FUNDING PLAN (§ 5.2 in Regulations)
For applicants who are not fully funded through scholarship schemes, it is normally required that 50 % of working hours during participation in the PhD Programme can be used for study, and that a minimum of 1 year can be allocated to full time studies. Candidates without funding must give an account of how they will complete the Programme without funding. An assessment of this will be made for each candidate upon application and compared to requirements stated in the paragraph above.

 

SUPERVISION (§§ 5.2 and 8 in Regulations)
Work on the PhD thesis constitutes active research under supervision. The supervisor's total use of time as a supervisor is stipulated to 210 hours for the entire period. This is equivalent to approx. 70 hours per year for 3 years. In addition to direct contact hours between candidate and supervisor, this includes preparation, reading, complementary work etc. If a second supervisor is appointed, the total number of supervision hours must be divided between the principal and second supervisor. Procedures for the appointment and changing of supervisor(s) - see "Supervision".

 

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT (§§ 5.2 and 7.2 in Regulations)
A plan for how the residency requirements will be met is to be presented in the application and in the agreement on supervision. The main intention concerning the requirement of residency is that the candidate is to actively participate in an academic environment at, or affiliated to, NTNU. In certain instances, the Department may grant dispensation from the residency requirements.

 

PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVE RESEARCH GROUPS IN NORWAY AND INTERNATIONALLY (§§ 4 and 5.2 in Regulations)
The cooperating university units in the PhD Programme in Health Science have a comprehensive network of contacts with both national and international research groups. Candidates are encouraged to participate in these groups in order to establish and make use of the contacts with acknowledged researchers nationally and internationally.

 

ACADEMIC DISSEMINATION (§§ 2, 4 and 5.2 in Regulations)
In addition to the publication of the PhD project, it is required that the candidate communicates PhD work in the form of a presentation at a national or international academic conference. A written version of the paper presented, normally in English, serves as documentation and the basis for approval. Approval is made by the Department, based on the recommendation of the supervisor.

 

REPORTING (§ 9 in Regulations)
The candidate and supervisor are to deliver separate annual reports on progress, in accordance with § 9 of Regulations concerning the philosophiae doctor degree (PhD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Procedures for submission and processing of candidate and supervisor reports - see "Reporting".

 

ORGANIZED ACADEMIC COURSE WORK (§ 7.3 in Regulations)

Objective of the organized academic course work
The organized academic course work is to complement the research work with the thesis, as well as provide scientific and methodical training.

Structure and implementation
The candidate is to state in her/his application, a plan for the organized academic course works in consultation with the supervisor(s). External courses/subjects that are to be part of the organized academic course work, must be approved by the Department before admission. For procedures concerning the sign up for courses and approval of external courses/subjects - see "Organized academic training" (SVT) and "Training component for PhD programmes" (DMF).

The mandatory organized academic course work equals one semester's full time work, i.e. a minimum of 30 credits, of which 20 credits are to be chosen from the courses on the curriculum in the PhD course catalogue at NTNU. As part of the organized academic course work, a minimum of 7.5 credits must consist of a "Theory of Science" component. At the Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, the course SFEL8000 "Theory of Science in the Social Sciences" is offered, and at the Faculty of Medicine, SMED8004 "Introduction to Research" and SMED8005 "Communication of Science" are offered. The candidates are free to choose among these courses, but equivalent courses at NTNU or at other universities may also be chosen.

In addition to choose among the courses listed below, the candidate may also include courses offerend at NTNU or other national and international universities. These courses must be professionally/methodically relevant for the candidate's research project.

External courses that are to be a part of the organized academic training must be approved by the Programme Committee. Application with documentation is to be submitted by the candidate/supervisor.

In special cases, also courses that are at Master's level can be approved. These cannot have been part of the candidate's Master degree. When taken at the PhD level, Master courses count for 2/3 of the Master credits. This use of Master's courses must be approved by the Department upon recommendation of the supervisor.

In a few cases, it may be pertinent to approve external courses provided that certain additional criteria are met, for example that an essay related to the course is submitted, even though this is not a requirement in the course itself. In these cases, the essay is submitted to the Department, and assessed by the supervisor.

The course work must be completed before the thesis is handed in for assessment.

 

Complete overview of all courses offered in the PhD Programme in Health Science:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester
HLS8006 HLS8007	Psychosomatics and health psychology I Psychosomatics and health psychology II	5 2.5	* *
HLS8008 HLS8009	Research on health promotion/    Positive health research I Research on health promotion/    Positive health research II	5 2.5	* *
HLS8012 HLS8013	Ethics and values in empirical research I Ethics and values in empirical research II	5 2.5	* *
HLS8014 HLS8015	Current issues I Current issues II	5 2.5	* *
HLS8018 HLS8019	Children of the Welfare State I Children of the Welfare State II	5 2.5	* *
HLS8022****	Individualle selected syllabus	5	A/S
SARB8008 SARB8009	Ethnicity and diversity I Ethnicity and diversity II	5 2.5	* *
SARB8010 SARB8011	Social exclusion I Social exclusion II	5 2.5	* *
SARB8012 SARB8013	Qualitative Analysis I Qualitative Analysis II	5 2.5	* *
SARB8014 SARB8015	Qualitative research methods I Qualitative research methods II	5 2.5	* *
SARB8016 SARB8017	Current issues I Current issues II	5 2.5	A A
SMED8002	Epidemiology II	7.5	A
SMED8004	Introduction to Research	5	A/S
SMED8005	Communication of Science	3	S
KLMED8004	Medical Statistics, Part I	7.5	A
KLMED8005	Medical Statistics, Part II	7.5	S
BEV8000	Research Seminar in Movement Science	3	A/S
BEV8003***	Signal Analysis with Matlab in Human Movement Science	5	S
BEV8004	Theory in Human Movement Science	5	A⇒S/ S⇒A
BEV8005**	Modern Measurement Techniques in Human Movement Science	5	S

 * The course is offered after further announcement
**The course is offered when sufficient persons are registered and teaching resources are available .
*** The course is normally reserverved for candidates enrolled in the PhD Programme in Health Science
**** The course is reserverved for candidates enrolled in the PhD Programme in Health Science

Be aware that the following PhD courses overlap with following courses:
BEV8000 – IDR8000, 3 credits
BEV8005 – BEV8002, 5 credits
KLMED8004 – HLS3550, 7.5 credits, KLH3004, 7.5 credits, ST3000, 5 credits and ST3001, 5 credits
KLMED8005 – ST2303, 3.5 credits and ST3000, 2.5 credits
SMED8004 – SMED8000, 5 credits and MEDT8001, 1 credit
SMED8005 – SMED8000, 3 credits

 

The organized academic course work at the Department of Social Work and Health Science
It is mandatory to take two of the courses at the Department, one of them by giving a presentation. This is to ensure contact with the Department and the rest of the doctoral candidates. The remaining credits are to be chosen freely depending on individual wishes and in agreement with the supervisor.

Be aware that the organized academic course work component consists of 30 credits and has 3 elements:

• Theory of Science (minimum 7.5 credits)
• Methodological courses (minimum 7.5 credits)
• Theoretical/substantial courses (minimum 7.5 credits)

The organized academic course work at the Department for Human Movement Science. Be aware that the organized academic course work component consists of 30 credits and has 3 elements:

• Theory of Science (minimum 7.5 credits)
• Methodical courses (minimum 7.5 credits)
• Theoretical/substantial courses (minimum 7.5 credits)

Mandatory course:
BEV8000 Research Seminar in Movement Science

The organized academic course work at the Faculty of Medicine
Note that the organized academic course work component consists of 30 credits. Theory of Science (minimum 7.5 credits) is a mandatory element. It can be either both courses SMED8004 and SMED8005 or the course SFEL8000. SFEL8000 will be the most adequate course for candidates who already have completed fundamental theory of science. For more and updated information about courses at the Faculty of Medicine, see the Faculty's web pages.

 

THESIS (§ 7.4 in Regulations)
Requirements for the thesis and rules for evaluation are given in Regulations concerning the philosophiae doctor degree (PhD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The thesis may be handed in as a larger collective piece of work (monograph) or a collection of articles. If the thesis consists of a number of smaller pieces of work, there should be at least 3-4 pieces as well as a summary. In this text, the candidate is given the opportunity to describe how he or she considers the thesis as a whole. The text summarizing the work, usually deals with how the thesis is placed within a wider theoretical field, and also, how the thesis answers the questions within this research area. This summarizing text is usually an introduction, a theoretical basis for all the work included - a summary of the problems addressed in the articles. The text gives an overview of the methods, a summing up of the main results and a discussion of the most important findings, and how theese should be understood, both empirically and theoretically. The articles may be a part of this text that summarizes the work, or they may also be placed at the back of the thesis.

Dependent on quality and scope, exactly number of articles is to be clarified with the supervisor.

The articles may be articles in scientific referee based periodicals or chapters in anthologies. It is assumed that at least 50 % of the articles is already published, or accepted for publishing when the thesis is handed in. All articles are demanded to have a standard that is appropriate for publication in scientific referee based periodicals. Whether the candidate is the single or primary author, follows the tradition of the research community where the thesis is handed in.

In special cases, dispensation from the directions above may be given. Dispensation is to be clarified with the supervisor.

 

FINALIZATION
Procedures for submission, appointment of an evaluation committee, the committee's report and assessment of the thesis, revision for new assessment, trial lecture and public defence, as well as awarding the PhD degree - see "Finalization".