Competitive PhD's must strengthen Danish research

The first structured PhD programme in business economics in Denmark

Is Denmark being taken seriously by our foreign colleagues, if we fail to adapt to international standards? Professor Keld Laursen, head of CBS' World Class Research Environment on Open Innovation, is trying to answer this question by testing a new structured PhD programme launched in October 2010.

Varying quality in Denmark


The programme breaks away from the traditional Danish structure and leans more against the American formal PhD models. As something completely new, the seven new PhD students will be offered a set of mandatory courses with exams through the first semester in order to prepare them better for their dissertation. This will make the Danish PhD students more competitive within international research.

- The competitive leverage is in the quality. At this stage, the quality in Denmark is varying a lot because of different demands for the Danish PhD students. A formal education, in which you are assessed several times by means of exams during the programme motivates the PhD students to study hard. In this way, we hope that the PhD students will be strengthened within methodology in particular, says Keld Laursen.

Needs a quality seal

With this new course, Denmark can offer researchers a quality seal, which is essential to participate in international research.

- By teaching PhD students in state-of-the-art theory and methodology, we provide them with a quality seal, which will gain international recognition. A degree certificate from CBS should be equivalent to a high standard, says Keld Laursen.

Interdisciplinary and international sparring


The seven new PhD students have been recruited from Canada, Brazil, Iran, Germany, Holland, Italy and China and are therefore contributing to an international and diverse collaboration. Traditionally, PhD students are appointed one at a time, but appointing seven in the same programme, who actually have a common research interest, provides an opportunity to use everybody in the group for support and sparring. Apart from geographic diversity, the seven students have different backgrounds in terms of education, which gives them an interdisciplinary perspective on their research.

Read more about the PhD programme on cbs.dk.