The PhD Council offers PhD scholarships within educational research that focus on the Danish primary and lower secondary school system. The PhD projects must concentrate on practice-relevant research, with the goal of improving  learning outcomes for all pupils. The applicants must be able, both during their studies and subsequently, to teach at university colleges and to engage in research and development in the educational field. It is important to ensure a close coupling with practice and the PhD projects must therefore be conducted as a collaboration between at least one university and one university college.

You will find the call, guide for applicants and budget template to the right (under Important Documents).

This year's application deadline is set to Wednesday, May 26 at 12:00. 

The overall objective of the PhD in Educational Research is to improve the learning outcome of all students in primary and lower secondary school and, in this way, their prerequisites for further education and employment. An improved learning outcome of the primary and lower secondary school can e.g. be achieved by strengthening the subject-specific didactic knowledge and capacity and through increased educational and social-pedagogical competencies. 

The PhD projects may cover issues relating to subject-specific didactics as well as general didactic and educational topics. For the 2020 call, the PhD council will take particular interest in applications within:

• Subject didactics, literacy, bildung, tests and assessment
• School development, organization and management, including collaboration with parents
• Students' democratic participation, learning and well-being, segregation and inclusive learning environments as well as social background
• Education for sustainability (from an environmental, social, and cultural perspective)
• Teaching, learning and participation in a digital world, including technological understanding

Interdisciplinary applications and applications within other fields are also welcome.

The application is evaluated based on the following criteria:

• The research quality and feasibility of the PhD project
• The relevance of the PhD project in relation to the objectives of the call for proposals
• The PhD project’s plan to make the project relevant to the field of practice including a plan for knowledge transfer through education, knowledge dissemination or development activities
• The PhD candidate’s reflections over ethical aspects with particular concern to the applied project
• The academic basis of the PhD project at the university and university college
• The PhD candidate’s qualifications