Assessing applicants for PhD-positions: How to pick the right one?

This study focuses on the assessment and selection of applicants for doctoral positions. The empirical data was gathered through a survey among faculty staff at Lund University, Sweden. The findings are also contrasted against the literature within the subject area, which is surprisingly scarce. One interesting finding of the survey is the frequent use of interviews and infrequent use of other assessment methods, such as personality tests or tasks, to assess applicants. Further, interviews are believed by the respondents to have a high predictive value on the applicants’ performance in a doctoral program, despite doubts in the literature. These results seem to be in contrast with the experience and common practice outside academia. This might be attributed to the fact that all doctoral recruitments are carried out by supervisors and co-supervisors, who are usually not professionally trained in assessing and selecting applicants