The institute follows the general guidelines established by the Faculty of Social Sciences. The guidelines state that "an approved doctoral course taken in the same field of study at another institution shall be credited to the candidate with the same number of credits." Thus, a PhD course in Psychology at the University of Bergen will be approved with the credits determined by UiB. However, credit transfer may be reduced if the course significantly overlaps with other courses you have taken in the training component.
We encourage candidates to present their research internationally. Presentations can be included in the training component for up to 3 credits in total. There will be some degree of professional discretion in the assessment of applications, but the institute uses the following as a starting point:
Conference participation:
Presenting a lecture at international conferences - 2 credits
Presenting a lecture at national conferences - 1 credit
Presenting a poster at international conferences - 1 credit
It is required that the presentations/posters have been peer-reviewed.
This credit transfer applies when the candidate is the first author. To receive credits multiple times, different individual projects must be presented.
The Faculty's indicative guidelines assume that 3 credits correspond to 2 weeks of full-time work. As a candidate's full-time work hours are 37.5 per week, 25 hours would correspond to 1 credit. We are aware that candidates often put in more hours of work for a conference presentation than 25 or 50 (which corresponds to 1 or 2 credits), but we consider these extra hours as part of the research work.
Clinical courses:
Courses/conferences focused on clinical skills in Psychology are not considered research courses and therefore do not provide credit transfer.
Other courses, etc.:
Evaluated in accordance with the Faculty's guidelines and the research leader's discretion. Please remember to request our prior approval for external courses you wish to take - email a link to the subject/course description and indicate whether you want to apply it under elective credits, academic theory, or methodology.
Application procedure:
We accept applications for approval av external courses or conference presentations/posters on a continual basis. The guideline procedures for approval of applications, as well as a link to the online application form, can be found here: Approval of PhD courses - Faculty of Social Sciences
Approximately 2 weeks processing time.