Rules and rights for PhD students

Rules of procedure Doctoral Program: everything on doctoral students’ rights and duties (e.g., right to supervision, changing supervisor, when to schedule your licentiate, etc.)
Syllabus for the Microtechnology and Nanoscience Graduate School (English): requirements on credits, courses, passing grades, etc.
Allmän studieplan för forskarskolan Mikroteknologi och Nanovetenskap (Swedish)
Salary agreement (löneavtal) 2021-2024 (Swedish)

Your wellbeing as a PhD student

Doktorandombudet (DOMB): get help with problems that may arise in the course of your research or employment (big or small).
Occupational health service (Pe3): get help with problems related to work (e.g., contact an ergonomist, or get psychological help–first 3 sessions are for free–)
Tools to improve communication with your supervisor: manage expectations, measure your development as a researcher and draw a development plan, etc.
A beginner’s guide to Swedish Academia
Other resources

Useful courses

Here is a downloadable non-comprehensive spreadsheet of courses that may be useful for MC2 PhD students to take, both at Chalmers and at other universities. It includes master’s-level and PhD-level courses, summer schools, courses that give GTS credits, both presential and online. This list has been gathered by MC2 PhD students and it is continuously being updated, so if you have suggestions on new courses or find outdated information, please let the council know!

Thesis review committee (TRC)

All students at MC2 must get their research and publications evaluated by the Thesis Review Committee (TRC) before they are allowed to defend their thesis. The committee looks at your entire list of publications, journal articles, conference papers etc., and decides whether you are ready to defend or if more work is needed. There is no official minimum number of publications required in order to pass the TRC, although very few students pass without at least 4 first author publications, or can show an equivalent amount of work. Multiple second or third author publications can make up for fewer first author publications.

There is sometimes a debate among students whether following the recommendations of TRC is a must or not, since there is no general Chalmers rule that requires a certain amount of publications in order to graduate. However, the department has decided that passing TRC serves as a necessary quality control of our research and is written as a requirement in the statues of our graduate school. Passing TRC is thus mandatory in order to graduate from the graduate school in Microtechnology and Nanoscience.

For detailed information about TRC, check out the TRC’s Intranet page.

Wellness grant

Every Chalmers employee, including PhD students, has the right to a wellness grant of up to 2000 SEK per year. This grant covers expenses of activities as e.g. sports, gym membership and massage, and it is managed by Epassi. If you want to use your wellness grant on a supplier affiliated with Epassi, you can either
(a) order what you want through the Epassi website or app. When visiting the wellness supplier, show your digital receipt.
(b) identify yourself when visiting the supplier and state that you want to pay with Epassi. The wellness contribution will be deducted directly at the check out.
If the wellness supplier is not affiliated with Epassi, you can send your receipt via email through Epassi’s website.

You can find more information about Epassi and the wellness grant on the Intranet page.

International staff mobility office (ISMO)

The International Staff Mobility Office (ISMO) offers Chalmers’ staff support when migrating to or from Sweden. At ISMO’s Intranet page, you can find their contact information as well as information about tax and benefits, accommodation, migration, and introduction to work and everyday life in Gothenburg and Sweden.

Travel information

Below are documents and links with useful information about traveling as a Chalmers employee:

Travel insurance information
Regulations for business trips
LRS – How to fill in travel bills
LRS – Meal benefits
Primula travel bills – Quick reference guide
Egencia – Chalmers’ travel agency