Number of PhD students

PhD education is research training and advanced studies following a Master’s degree. Aalborg University offers PhD education within four different fields under four faculties.

A PhD programme comprises three years of full-time study and must be based on a Master’s degree. Within the tree years, sufficient time must be set aside for individual research work and preparation of the thesis. Furthermore, students must gain experience with teaching activities or other types of knowledge dissemination.

When the thesis has been submitted, an assessment committee will be appointed, and they will give their recommendation after the public defence. The PhD degree is awarded to scholars who have satisfactorily completed their research training and submitted a thesis.

The tables below illustrate the total number of PhD students and the total PhD student intake for each faculty. The numbers are calculated each year on 31 December.

PhD students	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Humanities and Social Sciences	126	123	113	114	110
Medicine	215	210	209	226	242
TECH	197	195	215	215	208
Engineering	283	292	289	294	235
Total	821	820	826	849	795

 

 

PhD student intake

The table below shows the number of PhD students intake at each faculty. The number is calculated on the basis of the entire calendar year.

PhD intake	2020	2021	2022	2023	204
Humanities and Social Sciences	24	33	33	27	27
Medicine	53	69	53	74	78
TECH	62	61	71	59	55
Engineering	92	96	87	80	47
Total	231	259	244	240	207

 

 

PhD degrees

The table below shows the number of PhD degrees awarded at each faculty. The number is calculated on the basis of the entire calendar year.

PhD degrees	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Humanities and Social Sciences	45	27	30	19	28
Medicine	53	56	50	49	48
TECH	30	42	44	56	43
Engineering	72	70	57	49	87
Total	200	195	181	187	206

 

Research publications 

The number of research publications is a key figure representing the production of the University. You may study the University’s many publications at the AAU research portal.

Research publications	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Humanities and Social Sciences	1,496	1,499	1,360	1,190	1,181
Medicine	1,352	1,504	1,634	1,712	1,702
Engineering	2,057	2,149	2,057	1,958	1,964
TECH	1,063	1,168	1,216	1,324	1,274
Total	5,968	6,320	6,267	6,184	6,121

 

Activities

Aalborg University’s knowledge exchange and cooperation with the surrounding world may be found in the national statistics on the commercialisation of research results published by the The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation since 2005.

Each year, researchers at Aalborg University generate world class inventions and research results with great commercial potential on the basis of research undertaken at the University and research collaborations with companies and other research institutions.

The focus of the Technology Transfer Office is the transfer of new technologies to the business community according to the Act on inventions at public research institutions, applying to inventions made after 2000.

Each year, the Technology Transfer Office receives a number of reports on new inventions, and a large part of these turn into commercial technology transfers.

Activities	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Reported inventions	66	58	41	47	41
Patent applications	7	6	12	4	15