The PhD schools must establish common requirements across UCPH for international PhD students’ English-language skills. These skills must be obtained before starting the PhD.
1. Employees' English-language skills
The UCPH language policy consists of 10 sections with principles divided into "Language and employees" and "Language and students". Below you can find our take on the principle 1.3 regarding Employees' English-language skills.
Principle 1.3
With this part of the language policy, the university is stating that international PhD students should have sufficient language proficiency in English to complete their PhD project, teach (if that is a requirement in the PhD contract), and disseminate their research internationally. Students should provide evidence of their English proficiency as part of their PhD application.
Typically, PhD candidates can fulfil this requirement by providing their grade from one of the existing international tests in English designed for student admission (e.g. TOEFL, IELTS, Aptis, Pearson). Although setting down this requirement may seem fairly straightforward, several points need to be taken into consideration:
- The overall test score may be misleading because the students’ language profile across the different language skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) may be uneven (e.g., they may score high on reading but low on speaking). Requiring students to submit the sub-scores for each skill may be more useful.
- Setting up minimum score requirements for each test should not simply be based on peer institutions’ practices. The minimum score requirements, both regarding the overall score and the sub-scores, should be established through a standard-setting procedure that involves input from a panel of different stakeholders (e.g., students, lecturers, management).
- The test score results should not be the only evidence of PhD students’ language proficiency. Students’ writing samples, research experience, and interviews, together with test scores, can help obtain a more complete picture of their English language skills.
We offer consultancy services to help set up English proficiency requirements (e.g., selecting appropriate international tests for admission, deciding on other types of evidence of English proficiency). Moreover, we provide assistance with establishing procedures for setting minimum English requirements for admission.
If you’re interested in knowing more about what we offer at CIP, please contact us at cip@hum.ku.dk or +45 35 32 86 39.