PhD scholarship at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship in ‘Ideologies of education and educability’ with the at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics The chosen candidate will be employed and enrol at the Faculty of Humanities under the PhD School at the Faculty of Humanities.

The scholarship is for 3 years starting on 1 April 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter. It is connected to the collective research project EDUCABLE: Educational Socialisation in Contemporary Digitalised Societies, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and directed by Professor Lian Malai Madsen.

The EDUCABLE project takes seriously digital media as social domain in the investigation of educational socialisation. From a linguistic ethnographic approach, the project studies young people’s engagement in digital communities alongside their everyday practice at school and their reflections on educational influences and experiences. Thereby, it explores how digital publics, influencers and alternative schooling communities possibly impact youths’ educational and occupational aspirations, or potentially disrupt assumed connections between social background and education.

The PhD project will be supervised by Lian Malai Madsen and contribute to the collective project through a focus on ideologies of education and educability. Based primarily on focus group interviews, policy and social media texts, the project should focus on studying how students articulate their experiences with educational guidance and choice, which educational ideologies they express and how these ideologies relate to political and digital public discourses on educability. The aim of the project is to uncover: How do the students directly or indirectly express influence from digital encounters, school and family on their educational choice and future aspirations? How is educability constructed from different ideological perspectives across the different social and communicative domains, possibly in conflicting ways? The attached project proposal should cover how these aims can be met and demonstrate the candidate’s ideas about how to design and carry out the study.

Introduction
The PhD programme is study programme which aims at training PhD students, at an international level, to undertake research, development, and teaching assignments. These qualifications open a window of opportunity to a variety of careers within the private and public sectors. The programme includes the drafting of a PhD thesis, active participation in research networks and the Department’s scholarly life, PhD courses, teaching, and other forms of knowledge dissemination. The standard duration of the PhD programme is three years of full-time studies, which equals 180 ECTS credits.

Qualification requirements
Applicants must have a two-year master’s degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent and, as minimum, have submitted a master’s thesis for which they have received pre-approval at the time of application.

The qualifications of applicants with non-Danish master’s degrees will be assessed to decide whether they correspond to the Danish level. For further information, please refer to the website of the Ministry of Education and Research: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/general-assessments-for-specific-countries/?set_language=en.

Applicants must possess skills in written and spoken academic English at a high level. Fluency in Danish language is required for conducting fieldwork and analysis of data. If deemed necessary, the department may request that applicants document their language skills.

For further information about the guidelines for PhD studies at UCPH, please refer to: https://phd.ku.dk/english/.

For further information about the structure of the PhD programme, please refer to: https://phd.humanities.ku.dk/phd-programme/structure/.

Applicants are also invited to familiarize themselves with the EDUCABLE project: https://nors.ku.dk/english/research/projects/educable/.

Equal Opportunity Workplace
University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the diversity of society, and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their personal backgrounds. For more information on the diverse working place environment at the University and the University’s participation in the HRS4R, please see: https://employment.ku.dk/working-at-ucph/eu-charter-for-researchers/.

Application 

• To be awarded a PhD scholarship, the applicant has to enroll as a PhD student at the Faculty of Humanities, cf. the rules of the Danish Ministerial order No 1039 of 27 August 2013.  
• Please note that normally there is strong competition for these scholarships, and only a few can be awarded each term.

How to apply
Applications must be submitted online. Click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of this advertisement to apply. The application must be written in Danish or English, and include the following enclosures in Adobe PDF or Word format:

• Project abstract (Please fill in the “Project abstract” box in the application form. Must not exceed 1,200 characters).
• Cover Letter detailing your motivation and background for applying for the specific PhD project.
• Project description (recommended no more than 12,000 characters not including bibliography) 
• CV   
• Diploma and transcripts of records (BSc and master’s degree)   
• Suggested time schedule
• Other information for consideration, e.g. list of publications, documentation of English language qualifications (if relevant)  

Please note that it is only possible to upload one document per attachment category. If more than one document must be uploaded in the same category, please make sure that they are scanned and collected into one file.  

On the website of the PhD School, you will find information about the enclosures to include with your electronic application: https://phd.humanities.ku.dk/how-to-obtain-a-phd-scholarship/admission-requirements/.

The recruitment process 
The following criteria are applied when assessing PhD applications:

• Research qualifications as reflected in the project proposal as well as its relation to the EDUCABLE project. 
• Quality and feasibility of the project.  
• Qualifications and knowledge in relevant disciplines such as linguistic ethnography, language psychology, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis or related disciplines. 
• Performance (grades obtained) in graduate and post-graduate studies. 

After the deadline for applications, the Head of Department considers advice from the appointment committee and then selects applicants for assessment. All applicants will be notified whether they have been shortlisted. After this, the Head of Department sets up an expert assessment committee to assess the shortlisted applications.The selected applicants will be informed who is serving on the committee. Each shortlisted applicants will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment of their application before the appointment is announced.

For further information about the application procedure, please refer to the University of Copenhagen website: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

Terms of employment
PhD Fellows are paid a salary in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 28,900 DKK/roughly 3,880 EUR (October 2023 level) plus 17.1% pension. The PhD Fellow has a work obligation of up to 840 hours over the 3-year period without additional pay. The work obligation can include for instance teaching.

International applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about these services as well as information on entering and working in Denmark here:  https://ism.ku.dk/

Contact information
For further information about the structure and rules of the PhD programme, please contact the PhD Administration at South and City Campuses, email: phd@hrsc.ku.dk.

Information about the recruitment process is available from HR South and City Campuses, email: hrsc@hrsc.ku.dk. Please refer to case number: 211-1980/24-2H #1.

If you have any questions about the academic content of the PhD programme, please contact Professor Lian Malai Madsen, email: lianm@hum.ku.dk.

The deadline for applications is 9 December 2024 at 23:59 CET.

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered. However, changes may be made to the submitted application right up until the deadline.