OrvarLog

@foxy 0) Sweden. 1) 4 years of study (see further comment) Master 'or eq.' assumed. 2) Technically the whole degree is counted as a total of 240 credits (8 semesters full time study) where exactly what proportion is the thesis work or others depends on the specific PhD program (see below). In my case I need 60 credits defined as 'courses' where 20 credits should be 'broadening' and 30 credits 'specialisation' within my field of study. In practice these credits can all be made very research adjacent. The last 10 credits should be in ethics, pedagogic, writing skills or similar. 3) The PhD program is a full employment for 4 full years of study. Any other tasks outside of this (teaching or representation in councils or hiring committees etc.) is compensated in prolonged time and cannot exceed tasks corresponding to more than one year prolongation (i.e. 20% non-study tasks through a total of 5 total years). Depending on the program this may be more or less mandatory. In my case I have chosen to teach, and get compensated 60 hours for preparation of 8x2h lectures + creating and grading exams. Note the general rules are regulated university wide in 'doctoral education rules' ( eg https://www.gu.se/sites/default/files/2025-11/Rules%20for%20Doctoral%20Education.pdf ). The details on course work and teaching obligation is different for every PhD program and is regulated in a 'general study plan' for the program. Furthermore (maybe of interest), being employed to study, any reported sick day (or day taking care of sick children) is seen as a day not studying and leads to a further day prolongation of your time. You also have the right to reduce the study pace (I think down to 50%) making it possible to make the study time longer, but with equally reduced pay.

@foxy@blahaj.zone Correct, No teaching required in my program. And to clarify: it is not possible to increase the monthly salary by teaching, only to prolong your employment. It is thus compensated in 'hours' rather than money. The salary as a PhD student in Sweden is a bit complicated to explain as it depends on faculty intended to correspond to your labour market viability. This is somewhat arbitrary as me being a logician at a philosophy department in the humanities faculty would have 10% higher wage doing exactly the same research at a math or computer science dep. , but I digress... However, even my lower end PhD salary is good enough to live on (+- housing crisis in some cities) but don’t expect collecting too much for any future down-payments or other long term economic security.