A National Graduate Research School in Product Realization
Paper i proceeding, 2007
The education of Ph.D. students in Sweden has changed during the last decade. Earlier a student
used to take most of his/her courses - which make up about one fourth of the total work in a Ph.D.
programme - at the home university and participate in research projects that were based there and
mainly involved local researchers. Today’s students are much more active at the national level in
both respects. With support from research foundations, universities have begun to offer joint courses
for all doctoral students within a specific subject area nationwide, and cooperate in research projects
that often involve partners not only from several universities but also from industry. There are
several advantages with this approach to Ph.D. student education. Not only are national resources
more efficiently used when courses are offered by the leading researchers and research groups to all
students in a particular field, the students also get tremendous opportunities to develop personal
relations with each other across institutional borders, something which simplifies and is expected to
substantially stimulate cooperation between them also after they have graduated and taken up
positions in academia or industry. This paper describes the organisation of and activities in a national
graduate research school in product realization which has been in operation since 2003. The
ProViking National Graduate Research School offers courses on subjects ranging from customer
needs to ways of manufacturing competitive products. The school is in turn part of the ProViking
programme, which is financed by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. The students in the
school also participate in research projects organised by the ProViking programme and with
members from both academia and industry. One of the authors is the Managing Director of the
programme and the other is the Director of Studies of the research school.
realization
graduate
school
product
national
research