Ph.D. Programme
The Ph.D. programme at the School of Business is tightly integrated with the research activities of our faculty. It has the goal of graduating well-educated researchers and leaders in the field of business.
Programme Structure
The Ph.D. programme at the School of Business comprises 180 ECTS at the minimum, normally to be completed in 3-5 years and concluding with the award of a Ph.D. degree.
Students will generally take courses that amount up to 30 – 40 ECTS credits at minimum. Most of this course work will be taken abroad at our collaborating universities and research institutions.
Doctoral studies at the School of Business provide students with training in the application of scientific methods in acquiring and communicating new knowledge. In order to complete the Ph.D. programme, students must demonstrate:
- General knowledge of the basic principles of the field in question.
- Expert knowledge of their particular research field.
- Skills in the application of scientific working methods.
- Skills in delimiting, developing and carrying out independent research.
- Skills in communicating findings in speech and in writing in Iceland and abroad.
- An independent and recognised contribution to the creation of knowledge in their respective fields of research.
No later than 12 months after admission to the Ph.D. programme, candidates shall submit a completed research plan to the thesis committee. The research plan serves as the foundation of the doctoral thesis. It shall include:
- The delimitation of the subject.
- A summary of the state of the art in the subject.
- Research questions.
- A proposal for research as a response to the research questions.
- A schedule of the progress of the studies.
Doctoral candidates' research is completed with a doctoral thesis which constitutes an independent piece of writing based on their research work. A doctoral thesis shall in part or in whole be based on at least three works which, in the opinion of the thesis committee, are acceptable for publication in internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals. Moreover, at least one of the works shall already have been approved for publication in such a journal. Following a defence, a doctoral thesis shall be made accessible to the general public.
