More about doctoral studies in mathematics and mathematical statistics
Here you can find information about the content of the education.
Mathematical Sciences is an integrated department within the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, and to be employed as a doctoral student you must first be admitted to either a third-cycle subject at the University of Gothenburg or a graduate school at Chalmers University of Technology. It works almost in the same way at both universities.
Doctoral student positions
We look for new doctoral students every year. Most often the positions are announced some time in December or January, with last application date in February. Occasional doctoral positions could also be announced at other times during the year.
Vacancies (choose Mathematical Sciences under Organization)
Research project
The most important part of a doctoral education is the research project. Sometimes it may be part of a larger research project with several other researchers involved, both senior researchers and other doctoral students, but in pure mathematics it is more common for the doctoral student to work on a project of one’s own. There is always a supervisor involved, who may have suggested the research problem, and who participates in some extent in solving the problem, but projects with many people are more unusual.
The Department of Mathematical Sciences has active researchers in many areas of mathematics and mathematical statistics. Anyone interested in becoming a doctoral student should take a look at the pages of the research areas and think about which areas seem to be the most attractive ones.
Research areas at Mathematical Sciences
The scope of the education
A doctoral position lasts five years at most. The doctoral education takes four years, but most students use 80% of the time to the education and 20% to other activities at the department. Most often this is to take part in the graduate education at Chalmers or the University of Gothenburg, but there are other tasks as well.
Third-cycle subjects at the University of Gothenburg
Mathematics, with the possible specialisation applications
Mathematical statistics, with the possible specialisation applications
In addition, there is a third-cycle subject in mathematics specialising in educational sciences.
Graduate schools at Chalmers University of Technology
Applied mathematics and statistics
In addition, a doctoral student in mathematics or mathematical statistics may be admitted to the graduate school in Bioscience, which is an interdisciplinary graduate school.
Industrial doctoral student
Industrial doctoral student projects are a special type of collaborative projects between the department and a company. An industrial doctoral student is admitted to one of the graduate schools, and performs the education within the employment with the company.
Postgraduate courses
A quite large part of the doctoral education involves taking courses, mostly in mathematics or mathematical statistics, of course, but also some other courses in, for example, pedagogy and research ethics, which are taken together with doctoral students in other graduate schools/third-cycle subjects. These obligatory courses differ between the universities.
Doctoral students may also study individual courses in other subjects if their examiner certifies that the course is relevant to their research.
The courses in mathematical statistics and mathematics are aimed partly at providing a general education in advanced mathematics, and partly at providing a basis for the research work. Some doctoral courses are given regularly at the department, while others are planned based on requests from doctoral students and teachers. The range of courses offered consists of two categories of courses:
1. Advanced level courses common to undergraduate and doctoral education.
2. "Pure" doctoral courses. Those that are given by Mathematical Sciences can be found in the course data base of the University of Gothenburg, search for "mathematical sciences".
You can read more about course rules in the syllabi under Third-cycle subjects and Graduate schools.