About the Workplace
University of Gävle is one of Sweden's most popular universities. We offer approximately 60 educational programs and 330 independent courses within humanities, healthcare and medicine, social and natural sciences, and technology. We have 19,000 students, 750 employees, and an integrated campus in beautiful surroundings.
The University of Gävle has four strategic research areas that focus on societal challenges: Sustainable Urban Development, Health-Promoting Work, Innovative Learning, and Intelligent Industry.
At University of Gävle, doctoral education leading to a doctoral degree in social work is offered within the framework of the thematic doctoral degree right of health-promoting working life. The doctoral education in social work thus has both a focus on the discipline's specific areas and an orientation toward the thematic area of health-promoting working life, which includes health aspects in working life from a physical, mental, social, and existential perspective.
University of Gävle hereby announces two educational positions at the doctoral level (240 credits) with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Social Work as the goal. Within the department there are, among other things, social worker, master's, and doctoral programs in social work. The doctoral student will be affiliated with the degree authorization area of Health-Promoting Working Life and will be admitted to the doctoral program in social work.
The announced positions will focus on social work within municipal Social Services.
Responsibilities
The person admitted to an educational position shall primarily conduct scientific projects and complete courses of at least 60 credits. The education also includes the doctoral student writing a scientific doctoral dissertation corresponding to 180 credits. A person who receives an educational position may, to a limited extent, also work with teaching and administrative work. The person admitted to a study position is expected to perform the majority of their work on-site in Gävle and regularly participate in the department's, academy's, and the strategic research area of Health-Promoting Working Life's activities, such as seminars and meetings.
Both doctoral projects focus on social work within the framework of municipal social services, for example, individual and family care, children and youth, substance abuse and addiction, residential care, mental disabilities and comorbidity, or social services' restructuring work related to the new Social Services Act (2025:400). The structure and specific content will be discussed with supervisors after admission. The doctoral dissertation will consist of four separate works.
Qualifications
Basic eligibility for doctoral-level education is held by a person who has completed an examination at an advanced level, or completed course requirements of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits at an advanced level, or in some other way within or outside the country has acquired substantially equivalent knowledge. The University may grant an exception from the requirement of basic eligibility for an individual applicant if there are special reasons.
Eligibility must be achieved by the same date as the final application deadline.
To be admitted to this doctoral education in social work, the applicant should have completed course requirements of at least 90 credits in social work or another subject relevant to social work, of which at least 30 credits at an advanced level. It is particularly meritorious if the applicant has a master's degree in social work, a social worker degree, and experience in social work within municipal social services.
The responsibilities require a well-developed ability to work independently and together with others in teams as well as strong communication skills in Swedish and English, both written and oral. As a doctoral student, you should have a desire to seek new knowledge and be able to discuss and explain the research with individuals who are not active in your own field, both nationally and internationally.
The selection of applicants for a study position is made on the basis of an overall assessment of the applicant's ability to benefit from the education. The selection procedure is based on the following criteria for evaluating applicants:
formal eligibility for admission to doctoral education
relevance and scope of educational background
quality of the applicant's essays, degree projects, or equivalent
experience of research-related work, with regard to both quantity and content
work experience relevant to the doctoral education
competence and orientation in relation to the specific study position
ability to benefit from doctoral education based on submitted documents and interview
possible work samples/tests
ability to contribute to the scientific environment where the doctoral education will take place
references from referees
However, the mere fact that an applicant is assessed to be able to have previous education or professional activity credited toward the education may not give the applicant preference over other applicants in the selection (HF Chapter 7, Section 41).
Information
Josefin Westerberg Jacobson, Department Head, 026-64 82 33, [email protected]
Stefan Sjöberg, Professor in Social Work, 026-64 81 90, [email protected]
Applications for an educational position must be accompanied by:
curriculum vitae
documents verifying the applicant's basic eligibility
personal letter of maximum one A4 page describing the motivation for applying for the doctoral position
brief outline of a research plan of maximum two A4 pages for a potential doctoral project within the framework of the announcement, focused on municipal social services
a list of reference persons
attested copies of previous work (e.g., degree project, any scientific publication) and other documents cited
For applicants with degrees from foreign educational institutions, an authorized translation into Swedish or English of all documents is required, unless they are in Norwegian, Danish, or English.
The employment is a doctoral position, HF, SFS 1993:100, Chapter 5.
Other Information
University of Gävle strives for a balanced gender distribution and active work on equal conditions in all parts of the organization.
We do not welcome contact from media sales representatives and similar.About the Workplace
University of Gävle is one of Sweden's most popular universities. We offer approximately 60 educational programs and 330 independent courses within humanities, healthcare and medicine, social and natural sciences, and technology. We have 19,000 students, 750 employees, and an integrated campus in beautiful surroundings.
The University of Gävle has four strategic research areas that focus on societal challenges: Sustainable Urban Development, Health-Promoting Work, Innovative Learning, and Intelligent Industry.
At University of Gävle, doctoral education leading to a…