doctoral degrees without supervision Norway

I find it interesting in Norway there is a format to submit an "unsupervised" dissertation, defend it and receive a doctorate.

The University of Bergen offers two doctoral degrees: The “organised” doctoral degree is called PhD (philosophiae doctor). This degree includes obligatory formal training and supervision in addition to the Thesis which is the main focus of the PhD.. The PhD is given at all faculties and all research fields at UiB

There is also a “free” doctoral degree which is called Dr. philos. (doctor philosophiae). No formal training or supervision is included in this degree, and this is not part of the formal PhDprogramme or Research schools at UiB. The scientific status of the two degrees is the same.

Candidates who are not citizens of Norway or any other Nordic country may apply for admission to the Dr. philos. examination provided that their application is supported by the relevant academic unit.

Some of the universities as BERGEN and OSLO allow the thesis to be in Languages other than Norwegian.
"The thesis should be written in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, German or French."

From Higher Ed in Norway
Doctoral studies
Graduate degree studies may be followed by a doctoral study programme (dr.scient., dr.art., dr.polit. etc) lasting 4 years. This assumes a successful application to the doctoral programme, which is essentially a research programme. In addition to completing a doctoral thesis under contract-bound supervision, the candidate has to undergo obligatory training in scientific theory and method. There is also a "general" doctoral degree, doctor philosophise (dr.philos.) requiring no obligatory training, but with even higher requirements for the doctoral thesis.

Don''t know if the thesis defense can be done in a non- Norwegian language but if it can be written in another language I suppose accomodation could be made.

Any other countries where one can submit a thesis written in one of five languages, defend it and receive a doctorate?

http://www.uib.no/ur/aktuelle_dokumenter/drgrphilfor_engelsk.html

 

Hi,

As I understood from the link, the defence is on the language of the thesis (e.g. English).

 

Nordic Universities

From what I understand, Nordic universities haven't discovered tuition, yet. Also, they generally do not expect foreigners to speak their languages, and use English as their primary language with outsiders. <digression>English is the official corporate language at Nokia.</digression>

With Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, this is not such a big deal, as their languages are relatively easy to learn. However, when it comes to Finland, you might as well be on mars. Mercifully, the Finns spontaneously switch to English when there are foreigners around, and use Finnish only when they are making fun of your haircut or talking about your date.

Since Nordic universities do not auction access, they have other filters in place. Note the statement:

Candidates who are not citizens of Norway or any other
Nordic country may apply for admission to the Dr. philos.
examination provided that their application is supported
by the relevant academic unit. Preferential treatment will
be given to applicants with a valid residence permit in
Norway, or applicants whose thesis either:

• covers topics or makes use of material directly related
to Norway;
• is closely related to Norwegian research within the
discipline; or
• has been carried out at a Norwegian university or research
institute, or in close contact with Norwegian researchers.

If your interest is in oil, whaling, or Old Norse sagas, you're pretty much in. The northern part of the country is very sparsely populated, so there might be a distance education angle to be found in there.

The secret is in getting your application "supported by the relevant academic unit." If you can capture and hold the attention of a professor there, then you stand a much better chance of getting in.

One route is to search Find Articles, using keywords relevant to your field, look for authors whose names have dots over the vowels, slashes through the o's, and more k's than you would expect, and strike up a conversation.

I have found Finns to be receptive, and Swedes to be cordial. I have not had much contact with Danes or Norwegians. Your mileage may vary.

Ce

 

They say that a candidate must have a masters degree or a professional degree in-order to be admitted into the Dr.Philos. So would a candidate with an LL.B. be admitted into the program?

What exactly is the "dr.philos. examination" that they are talking about?

 

I didn't see anything about the length of the Thesis. Just wondering how long it has to be?

How well are degrees from schools in Norway accepted in North America?

 

This seems to be a very promising idea. Thanks, laferney.

 

due diligence

A quick call to a couple NACES members would be a good place to start, in determining if UiB is legitimate.

http://www.naces.org/members.htm

Happy hunting,

Ce

 

This is a public Norwegian university.

 

I read this line, “Anyone who has obtained a higher degree may apply for permission to submit a thesis for the Dr. philos. Degree”. And went through the article and found no indication to a period of completing the doctorate.

Do you see that too?

 

Re: Nordic Universities

Hey, very nice post. I read Beowulf once upon a time, do you think that would qualify?
Jack
(I never got into it deep enough to read any of that Volsunga/Thidrekssaga stuff)
(besides, what's wrong with my haircut?)

 

The Dr. Philos. degree is not at comparable to a North American PhD and has nothing to do with "distance learning". This is a higher doctorate comparable to the British D.Litt. or D.Sc. or the German Habilitation, and is primarily an accolade for established scholars, most of whom are (full) professors, typically in their 50s. You traditionally first obtain a PhD or equivalent degree, such as a Magister's or a Candidate's degree, then you find employment at a university and after 20 years as a researcher, you write your Dr. Philos. thesis. Dr. Philos. is a "strictly research degree and very demanding" and you need AT LEAST 5 years of full-time research to write it (if you have no experience with research, it might take you a lot longer).

The degree is only awarded to citizens of the Nordic countries, or people with a permanent residence permit and/or affiliation with a Norwegian university.

For more on this Danish/Norwegian degree, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Philosophiae_(Danish_and_Norwegian_degree)

The Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation describes the degree in this way: "Mature researchers may obtain the traditional higher Danish doctoral degree (doktorgrad), usually after a minimum of 5-8 years of individual and original research (following a candidatus degree, a mag.art. degree or a ph.d. degree in the relevant field of study) and public defence of a dissertation".