By Graduates Corner · Updated
A salaried Swedish PhD position normally follows the employing university's local doctoral salary agreement, often called doktorandstegen or a lönestege. There is no single salary ladder for every Swedish university. Compare the current agreement, your proposed starting step and how progression is assessed, rather than treating a salary from another institution as your own offer.
Read this guide as MarkdownStart with the employing university's agreement
Ask the department for the current doctoral salary agreement and confirm its effective date. Check the full-time gross monthly amount, your employment percentage and the proposed starting step. Gross salary is pay before deductions; it is not the amount that will reach your bank account.
KTH states that its revised salary progression model took effect on 1 October 2026 and uses accumulated net study time. That is a KTH arrangement, not a national rule. Other universities may use different progression criteria, so read the agreement for the actual employer.
Ask how progression is recorded
Before accepting, ask which events move you to the next step, who checks them and when a change reaches payroll. If progression depends on recorded study activity, ask how leave, part-time study and departmental duties are represented. Keep the relevant agreement and written HR explanation with your employment documents.
For an existing appointment, compare your recorded activity with the applicable agreement and raise a discrepancy with HR or your employee representative. Avoid assuming that every calendar year produces the same increase at every university.
Compare the complete offer
Read the research project, supervision, contract duration, employment percentage, departmental duties and funding type together. A stipend or external scholarship is a different arrangement from employment and should not be compared with gross salary as though the conditions were identical.
Prepare a budget using the specific offer and your own housing and household circumstances. Ask the employer how deductions and any benefits will be handled; do not rely on a generic online net-pay estimate as a guaranteed take-home amount.