Doctoral studies are in most cases carried out fully within the academic environment. However, some PhD students and supervisors are extramural, i.e. employed and based outside the university. This report presents characteristics of such PhD studies, based on an investigation of two research institutes (SP and VTI) and one authority (Lantmäteriet) having employees engaged in academic research. The study was carried out mainly through semi structured interviews with eleven PhD students and an additional six supervisors. The results show that the extramural PhD studies are carried out under specific conditions. Advantages are employment security and individual salary models, but also the opportunity of having a supervisor team from both academia and the institute/authority that provides broad expertise. Disadvantages are mainly timerelated, due to split responsibilities between the studies and ordinary work. In addition, there seems to be a lack of integration in the academic research environment, which could lead to some missing scientific aspects of the doctoral work.
