Vacant job

About the Workplace

The University of Gävle is one of Sweden's most popular universities. We offer around 60 degree programs and 330 standalone courses within the humanities, health and medicine, social and natural sciences, as well as technology. We have 19,000 students, 750 employees, and a unified campus in beautiful surroundings.

The University has four strategic research areas focusing on societal challenges: Sustainable Urban Development, Health-Promoting Work, Innovative Learning, and Intelligent Industry.

At the University of Gävle, doctoral education leading to a PhD in Social Work is offered within the framework of the thematic right to award degrees in Health-Promoting Worklife. The doctoral education in Social Work thus has both a focus on the subject's specific areas and a direction towards the theme area of Health-Promoting Worklife, which includes health aspects in working life from physical, psychological, social, and existential perspectives.

The University of Gävle hereby advertises two doctoral study places (240 ECTS credits) with a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work as the final goal. Within the department, there are, among other things, social work, master's, and doctoral education programs. The doctoral student is affiliated with the degree awarding area Health-Promoting Worklife and admitted to the doctoral education subject of Social Work.

The advertised positions will focus on social work within the municipal Social Services.

Responsibilities

The person admitted to a study place shall primarily engage in conducting scientific projects and taking courses totaling at least 60 ECTS credits. The education also includes the doctoral student writing a scientific doctoral thesis equivalent to 180 ECTS credits. The person who receives a study place may, to a limited extent, also work with teaching and administrative tasks. The person admitted to a study place is expected to perform the majority of their work on-site in Gävle and to regularly participate in the department's, the academy's, and the strategic research area Health-Promoting Worklife's activities, such as seminars and meetings.

The two doctoral projects focus on social work within the framework of the municipal social services, for example, individual and family care, children and youth, substance abuse and addiction, residential care for children and youth (HVB), mental disabilities, and comorbidity, or the social services' restructuring work linked to the new Social Services Act (2025:400). The structure and specific content will be discussed with supervisors after admission. The doctoral thesis will consist of four articles.

Qualifications

Basic eligibility for higher education at the doctoral level is held by those who have completed an advanced degree, or fulfilled course requirements of at least 240 ECTS credits, of which at least 60 ECTS credits at an advanced level, or in some other way within or outside the country have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge. The University may, for an individual applicant, grant an exemption from the requirement of basic eligibility if there are special reasons.

The eligibility must have been achieved no later than the same date as the last day of application.

To be admitted to this doctoral education in Social Work, the applicant should have fulfilled course requirements of at least 90 ECTS credits in Social Work or another subject relevant to Social Work, of which at least 30 ECTS credits at an advanced level. It is particularly meritorious if the applicant has a master's degree in Social Work, a social worker degree (socionom), and experience of social work within the municipal social services.

The tasks require a well-developed ability to work independently and together with others in a team, as well as good communication skills in Swedish and English, both written and oral. As a doctoral student, you should have a desire to seek new knowledge and also be able to discuss and explain the research with people who are not active within the own subject, both nationally and internationally.

The selection of applicants for a study place is based on the combined assessment of the applicant's ability to benefit from the education. The selection procedure is based on the following criteria for assessing applicants:

• formal eligibility for admission to doctoral education
• relevance and scope of educational background
• quality of the applicant's essays, theses, or equivalent
• experience of research-related work, regarding both quantity and content
• work experience relevant to the doctoral education
• competence and direction in relation to the specific study place
• ability to benefit from doctoral education based on submitted documents and interview
• possible work tests/assessments
• ability to contribute to the scientific environment where the doctoral education will take place
• judgment from references

However, the fact that an applicant is assessed to be able to have previous education or professional activity credited for the education must not in the selection give the applicant preference over other applicants (Higher Education Act Chapter 7, Section 41).

Information

Josefin Westerberg Jacobson, Head of Department, 026-64 82 33, [email protected]

Stefan Sjöberg, Professor in Social Work, 026-64 81 90, [email protected]

The application for a study place must be accompanied by:

• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Documents proving the applicant's basic eligibility
• Personal letter of max one A4 page describing the motivation for applying for the doctoral position
• Brief sketch of a research plan of max two A4 pages regarding a potential doctoral project within the framework of the call, focusing on the municipal social services
• A list of reference persons
• Notarized copies of previous work (e.g., thesis, possible scientific publication) and other documents cited

For applicants with degrees from foreign universities, an authorized translation into Swedish or English is required for all documents, unless they are in Norwegian, Danish, or English.

The employment is a doctoral employment, HF, SFS 1993:100, Chapter 5.

Other

The University of Gävle strives for a balanced gender distribution and active work with equal opportunities in all parts of the organization.

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