PhD Programme in Behavior Analysis Programme description

The product design programme is a three-year profession-oriented programme. Candidates who complete the programme in accordance with the programme description will be awarded the degree Bachelor of Product Design.

The programme’s profile is characterised by interaction between materiality and concept development. The programme will prepare students for work on material-related, process-related and aesthetic issues from a global, cultural, user-oriented and market-oriented perspective.

We live in a time where the aesthetics of everyday physical and immaterial design is crucial. This makes design an increasingly important profession in more areas than previously. On the programme, the traditions of the design discipline are characterised by specific workshop-based testing of materials and processes relating to the development of products for a sustainable environment. Sensory experience also plays an important part in this context.

Product design is a field that has long emphasised both tradition and history, user orientation and functionality in relation to the present, demands in the market, sustainability and trends. The changes that have taken place in the discipline in the past years allow for the possibility to use the knowledge acquired in more immaterial fields of design such as service design and systems design.

The course is adapted to the premises of the profession while at the same time creating room for the students’ individual development and reflection on their own progress.

The programme is research-based; research and artistic development work form the basis for continuous development of the programme’s content and structure, involving both research fellows and students.

The programme qualifies students for admission to the master’s degree programme in product design.

The programme is aimed at applicants who want to work as product designers or use their design skills for similar work in the private and public sectors.

Applicants must have achieved the Higher Education Entrance Qualification and passed the admission test, cf. the current Regulations on Admission to Universities and University Colleges, adopted by the Ministry on the basis of the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges Section 3-6.

Applicants older than 25 years who cannot document the Higher Education Entrance Qualification can be assessed on the basis of prior learning and work experience. Separate criteria have been defined for assessing prior learning and work experience. See OsloMet’s website.

Applicants are ranked on the basis of the admission test; see the applicable guidelines for the admission test to the three-year Product Design programme at OsloMet.

The Dublin Descriptors that signify completion of third cycle higher education (Doctoral awards) demand that graduates:

• have demonstrated a systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of the skills and methods of research associated with that field;
• have demonstrated the ability to conceive, design, implement and adapt a substantial process of research with scholarly integrity;
• have made a contribution through original research that extends the frontier of knowledge by developing a substantial body of work, some of which merits national or international refereed publication;
• are capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas; can communicate with their peers, the larger scholarly community and with society in general about their areas of expertise;
• can be expected to be able to promote, within academic and professional contexts, technological, social or cultural advancement in a knowledge based society.

Graduates of the Ph.D. program in behavior analysis will be required to show that they can:

• describe, discuss and use natural scientific research methods
• describe and discuss classic scientific concepts, and show how these concepts form the basis of an experimental and applied science of behavior
• distinguish description from explanation
• describe and discuss the relationship between theoretical, experimental and applied scientific knowledge
• analyze a practical problem with the theoretical knowledge from the relevant research literature
• justify their analyses with references to scientific literature of a high standard
• design, implement and manage a research project
• apply different strategies for measuring and recording the effect of experimental manipulations
• analyze the results of their research using relevant theory
• share their knowledge with others in a way that meets the requirements of scientific communication
• discuss ethical, practical and social implications of their own research and that of others

The Ph.D. program is a full time study. It runs for 3 years, or 4 years if academic duties are included. It includes a 30 ECTS educational component, and supervised research and doctoral dissertation work equaling 150 ECTS. The courses on philosophy of science and on research methods in the educational component are mandatory. One course is elective. 

The content of the program is partly educational, with mandatory and elective courses, and partly (mainly) research based, with students doing their own research under close supervision from faculty.

Educational component

The educational component consists of 30 ECTS from 3 courses. The program offers 8 courses, and two are mandatory:

(1) Research ethics and professional standards, and

(2) Research methods in behavior analysis.

The 6 elective courses are:

(1) The philosophical and conceptual basis of radical behaviorism and behavior analysis

(2) Learning and complex behavior: Advanced concepts - research and application,

(3) Complexity, science and society,

(4) Pervasive Developmental Disorders - diagnosis, aetiology, prevalence and intervention

(5) Complex stimulus control - research and application

(6) Empirically Supported Treatments - research, control and validation.

Research component

The students conduct an independent research project and report it in a doctoral dissertation for public defense, according to the regulations for the program. (Independent in this context does not exclude participation in ongoing projects, merely that the student's contribution can be separately identified.) This part of the program constitutes 150 ECTS. Students write a doctoral dissertation on the basis of their research.

The students submit their dissertation for evaluation, and defend it at a public defense. In advance of the defense, they hold two trial lectures, one on a topic decided by the evaluation committee, and one on a topic of their own choice. The procedures regarding dissertation submission and defense are described in the regulations for the Ph.D. program.

The educational component consists of literature studies, lectures, seminars, essays and reaction papers. Some courses may include laboratory exercises and / or simulations. The research component consists of finding and defining a research question, framing it in terms of investigative strategy and conducting the research with the tactics and tools that are signal features of behavior analysis: experimental design for demonstration of functional relations between variables, and conceptual rigor. Reports of the research are written according to the standards of the field, and observing the guidelines of the APA Publication Manual.

Ph.D. scholars, employed by the Department of Behavioral Science will supervise master students on their research projects and theses, and participate in the courses in the master program, under the supervision of core faculty. They will have encouragement and financial assistance in attending conferences to present papers, and in submitting research papers to scientific journals with peer review. Students financed by their external employer or otherwise are expected to have sufficient support so that they may attend relevant conferences.

Meeting students from different cultures can result in added know-how for later professional practice in our multicultural society. By actively including cultural knowledge in the programme, the students are prepared for the new reality – that globalisation of the labour market makes international experience, language skills and cultural knowledge and change competence increasingly important.

The department has an active exchange practice and facilitates internationalisation in that:

• students can take part of their bachelor’s degree studies at one of the department’s partner institutions abroad
• incoming exchange students can take part of their education at the department
• the fourth semester is an international semester where teaching and literature are primarily in English
• the fifth semester is adapted to student exchanges by both teaching and literature being mostly in English
• internationalisation at home is emphasised through e.g. integration of foreign exchange students in class
• cultural knowledge is an important part of the teaching.

Exchange procedures

The university has an international section that works on student exchanges. See OsloMet’s website. The department is responsible for granting students advance approval before they visit an institution abroad.

For an up-to-date overview of partnership agreements, see OsloMet’s website.

Examinations are regulated by the Act Relating to Universities and University Colleges, Regulations Relating to Studies and Examinations at Akershus University College, Supplementary Provisions to Regulations Relating to Studies and Examinations at Akershus University College and Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.d.) at Akershus University College.

Quality Assurance

The University educates professionals who in their studies have acquired skills, knowledge and attitudes which are important for their personal development and at the same time are relevant for the society and the professional area of which they will be part. The quality assurance system at OsloMet has the following functions:

• to ensure high quality teaching and learning
• to create a positive study and learning environment for the students
• to ensure that students complete their studies with good results and within the normal length of the study.
• to ensure a continuous quality improvement of the education the university offers
• to ensure that students will achieve the qualifications that are needed in the labour market for competent practitioners
• to ensure that demands and expectations from higher authorities are met.

Study programss are also evaluated in discussions and dialogue meetings between students, practice supervisors and teaching staff, as well as in written evaluations from students. At the end of every academic year an evaluation is carried out by means of a questionnaire based on

the defined aims of the study program. These evaluations may add valuable information for further developments of the program.

Principles for the quality management system.

Systems designed to document quality in the Ph.D. program ensure both the quality of the teaching, and the actual learning outcomes for the students.

Quality systems comprise:

• the scientific profile of the program
• the thematic and pedagogical coherence of the program
• study quality and learning outcomes
• procedures for tracking study progression and academic standing
• procedures for supervision and tutoring - including supervision contracts
• plans documenting the totality of the learning environment, including but not limited to core faculty with permanent positions at OsloMet, management procedures and chains of command, information systems and access, plans for the professional and scientific development of faculty, laboratory facilities and access, office space and lecture rooms.