The aim of postgraduate studies, as indicated by the needs of the students and society in general, is to provide the students with additional knowledge in their subject area, competence in research methodology and research experience. Postraduate studies conclude with a doctoral degree equivalent to 240 credits or, as a stage in the progress towards that degree, with a licentiate degree equivalent to 120 credits.
Permission to submit a doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Medicine in Lund requires that a significant part (>50%) of the research should have its origins within our Faculty. Only those who have completed their postgraduate studies are eligible to present and defend a thesis.
Obtaining a doctorate requires that the candidate has passed the obligatory courses and other examinations included in the postgraduate medical programmme, and that the candidate has written a doctoral thesis that has been approved. The thesis must have been orally defended at a public examination.
Obtaining a licentiate requires that the candidate has passed the required examinations in the postgraduate medical programmme, and that the candidate has had a disseration approved. The dissertation must be orally defended at a public examination.
For PhD student admitted from June 1:st 2008 a basic package of courses are compulsory, in total 17,5 hp. In edition of the compulsory curses you ave to complete another postgradutate course equivalent to 1.5 hp and complete a portfolio of 9 hp. These courses must be completed before the halfway review, i.e. for full-time postgraduate students, as a rule, within two years after admission.
A number of voluntary postgraduate study courses are also held at intervals. A course in Laboratory Animal Studies is obligatory for postgraduate students who make direct use of laboratory animals in their research. Several departments arrange seminars as part of their graduate study programme.
Postgraduate studies are normally initiated when the candidate is invited to participate in an ongoing project under the supervision of the project director. Examples of such projects are in-depth doctoral studies or work at the laboratory, in the postgraduate school or on the degree project, financed by summer grants. Subsequently, the experience gained from such co-operation results in admission to postgraduate studies and thus in the candidate's involvement in a more limited and more independent project within the framework of a larger research programme.
A postgraduate programme may be completed by full-time or part-time studies. If studies are pursued on a full-time basis, they must be completed within 4 years. For a doctor, for example, who is pursuing postgraduate studies parallel with clinical work, studies may be pursued on a part-time basis, in which case they must be completed within 8 years. Postgraduate studies must therefore be planned so that the total time invested is the equivalent of 4 years of full-time studies. Postgraduate students have the right to supervision during this period. Postgraduate students in clinical subjects are also entitled to the supervision required for postgraduate studies while they are engaged in clinical work.
The Board of the Faculty of Medicine has stipulated certain subject areas within which postgraduate studies may be offered. The principle is that only subjects falling under the aegis of a full professor or other teacher qualified as a senior lecturer may be offered at the postgraduate level.
Summaries of ongoing research projects have been compiled in a project catalogue entitled "Current Research at the Medical Faculty in Lund." The catalogue has several objectives. One of them is to inform students and teachers about the great number of research projects in progress in different fields at the clinics and departments in Lund and Malmö, in part to stimulate interest in, and recruitment to, medical research. Another objective is to inform researchers currently active in various fields about other research projects that may be pertinent to their own work. The latest edition of Current Research is available in a database linked to LUCAT, the Lund University catalogue of staff and students. Current Research is available in two versions, a scientific one in English and a popular-scientific one in Swedish. The English version is supplemented with five links for abstracts. The most recent printed project catalogue was published in 1996, but the electronic catalogue is continuously updated by the researchers concerned.
The catalogue of current research can be used to advantage by students interested in research when choosing a subject for postgraduate studies. Although their choice may be influenced by such practical considerations as the possibilities of financing, the workplace environment, and plans for the future, the main consideration is to select a research field deemed both interesting and important. Students must also be prepared to work by trial and error at the outset, because only after a trial period is it possible to determine whether they are suitable for, and are properly motivated to participate in, the project in question.
Research is indispensable for the development of health care. It is thus quite natural that research experience is deemed to be an eminent qualification when considering applicants for senior medical positions. It is particularly important that the doctors in university medical departments and teaching hospitals, where research facilities are available, have research experience. Top medical appointments at county medical centres and other major institutions for health care and medical treatment should also be awarded to people with research experience, so as to make it possible to carry out highly qualified work, and to some extent research, in these establishments as well.
Furthermore, the rapid developments in medical care require that physicians in positions of responsibility be trained in critically reviewing, evaluating and documenting such aspects of their work as methods of treatment, medical products, and the changing panorama of disease. Let there be no misunderstanding on this point, however: research experience can never replace solid medical training; it is, rather, a mandatory additional requirement when the merits of candidates for senior positions with responsibility for health care are being evaluated.
Page Manager: Anna Arstam
Last modified: 2009-11-20
