Admission

Application procedure

CBS has a coordinated intake of new PhD students twice a year. The enrolment dates are 1 February and 1 September but allowing for flexibility in special cases.

Applications for enrolment as a Research Fellow or 4+4 PhD student must be submitted online via the advertised PhD positions. Application for enrolment as an Industrial or Independent PhD student is submitted directly to the relevant department. Please note that applicants for the Industrial PhD programme must obtain a pre-approval for enrolment in the CBS PhD School before submitting an application to the Innovation Fund Denmark. You can read more about the different PhD types here. 

Application

All applications must include the following:

• Copy of diplomas and transcripts (both bachelor and master degree, including any grades obtained at the time of application if a degree has not been completed)
• Documentation for being in the top 40% of the class (only if grade requirements are not met)
• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• List of written works (if relevant)
• Sample of a written work (e.g. master’s thesis)
• Brief project description (maximum five pages)

Together with the diploma, transcripts and CV, the project description is the most important basis for assessing the application. It describes the research project that will form the core of the PhD programme.

The project description should give the reader an outline of the applicant’s proposed PhD project and should provide information about the applicant’s motivation for choosing the subject. It should contain clear research questions and give the reader a clear-cut impression of how the applicant intends to approach them. Finally, the project description should convince the reader of the originality of the project and demonstrate in which way it contributes to the existing literature and research in the respective field or fields.  

The project description may not exceed five pages and should include the following:

• a brief explanation of the aims of the project
• an explanation of the issue and the hypotheses or issues that the PhD student will work with
• a positioning of the project in the research field of the department
• a description of the “state-of-the-art" research within the project’s research field
• an explanation of the theories on which the project is based
• an explanation of the methods to be used
• an indication of the project’s potential contribution to scientific development
• a work plan (brief), which describes the main phases in the project including scheduling the elements of the PhD programme
   

The project description should not be written in popular terms, but in such a way that it is informative to a researcher in the relevant field of the project. The project description should not suggest that the applicant already knows all the answers to the questions posed, but precisely reflect the fact that it describes a project that needs further research. The project description should demonstrate that the candidate is most likely able to contribute significantly to an answer or clarification of the research questions asked within the framework of the PhD programme. It must be visible from the project description that the project is going to have a clear focus. The project description should be written in a concise technical language – in either English or Danish – and both its content and form will be taken into consideration in the assessment of the suggested research project and the applicant.
 

The assessment procedure

The assessment of applications takes place at the relevant department. The applications are checked to ensure that all formalities are in order before they are considered for assessment. Shortlisting may be used. Applications sent for assessment will be assessed by an assessment committee consisting of at least two members of the academic staff employed at associate professor level or higher. The assessment committee will assess, whether the project has research quality and whether the applicant seems capable of carrying out the project. In connection with this, the CV, diplomas and transcripts as well as other documents will be examined. A joint written assessment is prepared for each application which will also be sent to the applicant for their information.

The decision, whether to offer enrolment, does not only depend on the assessed individual skills of the applicant, but also on whether the necessary financial resources and the necessary supervisory capacities are available for the PhD student and the research project.

The departments send the applications and assessments of suitable applicants to the PhD committee for approval of enrolment in the CBS PhD School. The applicants are informed of the result of their applications by the departments.
 

Educational requirements