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	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Humanities	118	98	85	76	64	53
Social Sciences	109	100	98	80	62	70
Medicine	178	200	216	216	215	210
TECH	181	174	169	194	197	195
Engineering	264	267	282	272	283	292
Total	850	839	850	838	821	820

 

 

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	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Humanities	26	20	23	11	10	12
Social Sciences	31	26	22	13	14	21
Medicine	61	70	58	54	53	69
TECH	41	60	52	60	62	61
Engineering	79	81	101	74	92	96
Total	238	257	256	212	231	259

 

 

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	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Humanities	28	31	29	13	17	14
Social Sciences	33	19	23	15	28	13
Medicine	45	40	36	33	53	56
TECH	71	55	35	35	30	42
Engineering	79	70	75	62	72	70
Total	266	215	198	158	200	195

 

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	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Humanities	1,031	1,022	1,074	874	834	670
Social Sciences	862	850	774	631	672	617
Medicine	1,243	1,314	1,288	1,342	1,500	1,786
Engineering	1,747	1,840	1,919	1,918	2,124	1,608
TECH	1,242	1,181	1,123	1,010	1,151	1,071
Total	6,125	6,207	6,178	5,775	6,281	5,752

 

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	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Reported inventions	68	71	81	57	66	58
Sold and licensed inventions	41	42	31	54	39	34
Spin-out companies	1	1	2	5	4	2
Patent applications	14	16	11	8	7	6