By Ida Hammerich Nielson
ihn@adm.au.dk
Why not study for your Master’s degree and your PhD at the same time? That’s what more and more PhD scholars are doing on the so-called 4+4 scheme. The scheme means that students start their PhD studies one year after starting their Master’s degree programme, and finish the last part of their degree while still studying for a PhD.
The Faculty of Science has been using the scheme for many years, but it is relatively new for the other faculties. For instance, the very first 4+4 PhDs from the Faculty of Humanities will graduate within the next year. And so far the faculty is pleased with the scheme, explains Niels Overgaard Lehmann, Head of the Department of Aesthetic Studies.
“It’s too soon to make a proper evaluation. But according to all reports so far, they’re doing really well. The academic level is high, and one big advantage is that the 4+4 scholars produce much more text at an early stage of the process than the old 5+3 scholars,” he says.
Talented researchers lost
Jørgen Bang, an associate professor at the Department of Information and Media Studies, agrees that the new 4+4 scholars display a high academic level and are very efficient. But he thinks the success of the 4+4 scheme at the expense of the traditional 5+3 scheme is problematic.
“Lots of students of the humanities don’t realise they want to go on researching until they’re actually writing their Master’s thesis. And the problem is that their chances of getting a grant are very poor because there are so few 5+3 grants left,” he says.
