Contract education at Karolinska Institutet

What is contract education?

Contract education is education/courses that take place on behalf of an employer and for a fee. It is usually an employer who buys some form of skills development for their employees. The person who buys the education is the client and appoints who will participate.

A participant thus attends contract education as part of their work. A participant in contract education does not count as a student. This means that the participant does not have access to student health, study guidance or study grants.

Who can buy contract education?

An employer (legal entity) can purchase contract training for its staff. The education must be relevant for the participant's work with the employer. Private individuals are not allowed to buy places contract education, however, companies (but not sole proprietorships) and other organizations have the right to do so.

Can a private individual buy a commissioned education?

No. Only employers/legal entities can purchase contract education. An individual can instead apply to Karolinska Institutet's regular courses and programs.

How do I combine studies with work?

When you study at the same time as you work, it is important to agree with your employer how much you are expected to study during working hours and leisure time, respectively. How much time you need to complete studies is individual as it depends on study habits, family situation and workload, etc.

The extension of the course is stated in higher education credits (hp) and you can study at different study rates; full speed, half speed and quarter speed.

• For full speed, you should spend about 40 hours a week on studies. Full-time studies during a semester give 30 credits.
• For half speed, you are expected to spend about 20 hours a week on studies. A semester with studies at half speed gives 15 credits.
• Quarter speed means that you should spend about 10 hours a week on your studies. One semester of studies on quartz speed gives 7.5 credits.

Does all education take place at Karolinska Institutet?

In our customized courses, the client in many cases has the opportunity to influence where the contract education is to be carried out. It can be at Karolinska Institutet or in the client's own premises. It is also possible to choose whether the courses are to be carried out in seminar form, given as a workshop or as distance education via the internet.

Academic credits

Many courses give academic credits after passing the examination. At the examination, the same requirements are set as in the regular education. The course certificate will state that the course is a contract education. Contract education is not education at the undergraduate or advanced level but can be credited as such.

Eligibility

Contract education can be both credit-bearing and non-credit-bearing. Anyone who has passed a credit-awarded contract education with a passing grade has the right to credit the education as basic higher education.

A credit-awarding contract education must follow the syllabus in accordance with the regulations that apply to education at the undergraduate and advanced level at Karolinska Institutet.

Anyone who has received credits for contract education must, when applying for admission to regular studies at KI, meet the requirements for both basic eligibility and special eligibility in accordance with the rules that apply to admission to higher education. Credited education then applies as a special qualification in the same way as if the education was approved within the framework of the ordinary higher education.

It is the employer who appoints the persons who will participate in the contract education.

Examinations

The education includes an ordinary exam. A re-examination or completion of assignments must be carried out no later than 6 months after the end date of the education if the opportunity is offered and unless otherwise agreed. When it comes to credit-bearing courses, there is information in the syllabus about the examination and what is required to pass.

Cheating

Just as for students at KI, it is not allowed to cheat on an examination.

Examples of what KI has judged can be seen as cheating are:

• to copy text from the internet or other sources without citing sources
• to collaborate with a fellow student without permission (for example, that fellow students' answers are identical even though the task is individual)
• to copy another student's essay or other written work
• to bring other aids/things to the desk when writing the exam than what is allowed according to KI's rules for exam writing

If cheating has been established, the participant will fail the course and KI also has the right to decide that the participant may not return to the course for a decided period of time.

Attendance

Some courses require attendance at compulsory parts for passing. If a participant must be absent from compulsory elements in the course, contact the course management or the course coordinator.

Course certificate

When a participant has completed and passed a course, it is possible to print a course certificate. In the case of a credit-awarding course, the participant can print out a result certificate via the study administration system Ladok, but in most cases the department's course administrator prints the result certificate. In the case of a non-credit course, in some cases certificates can be printed out by KI Executive and Professional Education. Contact epe@ki.se for questions about certificates for non- and credit-bearing courses.

Student account

Everyone who attends a credit-bearing education at Karolinska Institutet receives a student account. The account gives you access to a number of services such as the Canvas learning platform, e-mail, KI's wireless network, the web-based system for study documentation (Ladok), and remote access to the library's resources.