PhD scholarships at the Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen

The Saxo Institute invites applications for two three-year PhD scholarships starting from 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

You can read more about the department and the different research environments here: Saxo – University of Copenhagen.

Introduction
The PhD programme is a study programme which aims at training PhD students, at an international level, to undertake research, development, knowledge dissemination, and teaching assignments. The main emphasis is on PhD students organising and conducting their own research project (under supervision). The programme includes the drafting of a PhD thesis which the student must defend at a public defence. The standard duration of the PhD programme is three years of full-time studies, which equals 180 ECTS.

A PhD degree opens a range of career opportunities in academia and elsewhere. As well as writing a thesis, PhD students work in active research environments in Denmark and abroad. They contribute to the academic environment, take research training courses, and convey the results of their research in teaching, at academic conferences and to the general public.

Qualification requirements
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to master’s level related to the subject area of the project. If you have completed your education in Denmark, you must have a master’s degree covered by the collective agreement for academics in the state sector.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, you must either have a master’s degree equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years) or as minimum a bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Danish bachelor’s degree (three years) and be assessed as having professional qualifications at master's level.

If you have completed your education outside of Denmark, we will obtain an assessment of your education from the Danish Research Agency.

Applicants must possess skills in written and spoken academic English at a high level. If deemed necessary, the department may request that applicants document their English or other skills.

Application
Please submit your application online. To apply, please click on the “Apply now” icon at the bottom of this page. Your application must be written in English or a Scandinavian language, and include the following attachments (with descriptive titles) in either PDF or Word format:

• CV (max. two pages). Please use this template: CV template.
• Cover letter (max. 1,200 characters incl. spaces). Kindly specify if there is a particular research environment you would like to be associated with.
• Diplomas, transcripts, and description of grading scale
  Please include the following documents: bachelor’s and master's degree - diplomas and transcripts, description of grading scale. Note: If your degree diploma is not available by the application deadline, please include your latest transcript of grades.
• Project abstract (max. 1,200 characters incl. spaces)
• Project description (max. 12,000 characters incl. spaces excluding bibliography).
  Please follow the guidelines on project descriptions available here: Admission requirements and application procedures – University of Copenhagen.
  If the academic purpose of the project requires special financial support (e.g. extended fieldwork abroad or investment in technical infrastructure) or special permission (e.g. access to archival material), this must be clearly described in the project description, including an approximate indication of costs or whether permission has been granted. No separate documentation should be uploaded.
• Other relevant material
  Please do not include suggestions for supervisors or commitments from supervisors, recommendations, theses, etc.

Applicants holding a degree from a university where the working language is neither English nor a Scandinavian language must include translated versions of their diploma and transcripts, verified by the issuing university. The documents must be translated into English, Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. In addition, an official description of the relevant grading scale (e.g. diploma supplement) must be included.

If you apply for more than one scholarship at the Faculty of Humanities, please disclose this information in your application as it may help the coordination between the departments.

Assessment criteria
The following criteria are applied when assessing PhD applications:

• The quality, originality, and feasibility of the PhD project
• Research qualifications, as reflected in the attached CV and project description
• Competencies and knowledge of relevant fields of academic research
• Level (grades obtained) of bachelor and master’s studies.

Please note that only a few scholarships are awarded at each call for applications and competition is intense.

Salary and Terms of Employment
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at approximately DKK 31,242 (EUR 4,184) + an 18.07 % pension contribution.

According to the agreement, the PhD student is required to carry out tasks at the relevant department to an extent corresponding to 840 working hours (6 months).

You can read more about employment as a PhD Fellow here: Employment as a PhD student – University of Copenhagen.

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

As an applicant to the University of Copenhagen, you should be prepared to undergo a security screening related to international research collaboration as part of the recruitment process. The security screening will be conducted in cases where the University deems it appropriate based on an overall assessment.

Enrolment
It is a prerequisite for employment that successful applicants enrol at the PhD School of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. Follow the links below for further information:
Structure of the PhD programme – University of Copenhagen.
PhD Programmes - Guide to studies and admission – University of Copenhagen.

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 our services at: For international researchers at the University of Copenhagen – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk).

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. To learn more about our diverse workplace and our participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in research, please visit HR Excellence in Research – University of Copenhagen.

Contact information
We kindly encourage you to consult our website, where most questions regarding the recruitment process as well as the academic content and structure of the PhD programme are answered:
Structure of the PhD programme – University of Copenhagen.
Recruitment process – University of Copenhagen.

If you do not find the information you are looking for, you can contact the PhD coordinator Daniel Steinbach, email: steinbach@hum.ku.dk, or HR South at hr-soendre@adm.ku.dk. Please remember to include the ID number 211-2345/25-2H #2.

To ensure the greatest possible transparency in the recruitment process, we kindly ask you not to contact potential supervisors either before or after the application deadline.

The deadline for applications is 15 February 2026 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.