How

to apply for PhD in Norwegian universities (including NTNU)?

Mohsen Anvaari
There are two main recruitment ways for PhD studies in Norway:

1) Norwegian universities announce salaried positions (either in their vacancy
page or in jobbnorge.no). These kinds of positions have predefined project
topic. If you are interested in the project, you should follow the instructions
of application in the announcement page. Usually they have common
requirements that more or less include Master degree and grades (usually
your Master average grade should be B or A in ECTSgrading scale), CV, one
academic publication (can be your Master thesis), one or two letter of
recommendations and finally letter of motivation (or state of purpose or a
short research plan). For some positions the graduated students from
universities of outside of EU or English spoken countries should show the
proof of language but it is not very common. If you get a position through this
way you will be a temporary employee for 3-4 years with a unified salary in
the whole country. Currently the salary is about 68,000 USD per year before
reducing tax that means around 4000 USD per month after reducing the tax.
As a result, your resident permit type will be work permit not student permit
and after 3 years if you desire, you can apply for permanent resident permit.
3 years fellowship does not have teaching duty while in 4 years fellowships
you should spend 25% of your time on teaching duties. Usually the 4 years
one is more convenient and you have more time for your project. The last
important point about this kind of recruitment is that there is not any specific
time for it and the positions can be announced at any time of the year. So
you should keep your eyes on the vacancy pages of the universities or this
page of jobbnorge.no:
http://www.jobbnorge.no/search.aspx under category of
Education/Teaching/Research

2) You should write a complete research proposal, find a related professor at
one of the Norwegian universities and convince him/her about your
proposal. Then by the help of him/her you should find a fund resource.
Although PhD studies do not have any tuition fee in Norway but you should
have a resource to cover your living costs. When you find such a resource you
should apply for the PhD programme to the desired university. If they
approve your proposal, your supervisor and your fund resource then you will
become a PhD student at that university. Therefore your resident permit type
will be student permit. Different universities have different forms and
policies for this kind of recruitment, so it is better to look at their website and
contact them for more clarification.

Note: Here is the website of the main universities in Norway:
The Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU)
The University of Bergen (UiB)
The University of Oslo (UiO)
The University of Tromso (UiT)

The University of Stavanger (UiS)

The University of Agder (UiA)
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Science(UIOA)