Remember to notify your Department every time you are absent due to illness. You must report this on your first sick day. Please note that you must notify the Graduate School, if you are on long-term sick leave, i.e. more than twenty full-time and consecutive days altogether. Find your contact person at the Graduate School here.
Please also note that you must have been either full time og part time ill for a minimum of thirty consecutive days altogether before the Graduate School, after an individual special assessment, can grant an extension of study period.
If you are ill for more than twenty days, you should report your sick leave via e-mail to either the contact person responsible for sick leave (find your contact person here) with Cc to your main supervisor and Department.
The e-mail must include information about your first day of sick leave, whether you are on full-time or part-time sick leave, and – if possible – how long you expect to be on sick leave.
If you are on part-time sick leave, it is important that you remember to send a report each month of the number of working hours per week to the contact person responsible for sick leave and the Department secretary.
If you are planning to go on holiday or out of the country when you are on sick-leave, it is important that you remember to report this both to the municipality and to the contact person responsible for sick leave.
You will be invited to an interview no later than four weeks after the first day of your sick leave, and the interview should be held before the end of the fifth week of sick leave. During the interview, a certificate of fitness for work (PDF file in Danish only) is drawn up, and the following points should be dealt with in this connection:
Your main supervisor often holds the interview in connection with sick leave. However, the contact person responsible for sick leave can hold the interview or assist at the meeting, and you can also request a companion or observer to attend, if you so wish. Follow-up meetings will be held at suitable intervals.
Please note that once your doctor has certified the certificate of fitness for work (PDF file in Danish only), you are responsible for sending it to the Graduate School as soon as possible after your interview, as the Graduate School needs to use it in connection with drawing up a case report and applying for reimbursement. When you get salary during your sick leave, please note that it is very important that you follow up on enquiries from your municipality, as we will otherwise lose the right to reimbursement for your period of absence due to illness. The same goes for leaving Denmark. If you want or plan to leave Denmark, you need to make an agreement with your social worker and let us know about the agreement.
Please note that the municipality will send all enquiries to you electronically, and that the law regulating sick pay includes an obligatory requirement stating that all citizens must use the “Digitale selvbetjening” system (in English: the digital self-service system). This means that the information sheet you receive electronically from your municipality must be filled in electronically and answered electronically as well.
The digital self-service in connection with your sick leave must be carried out in the digital system “Mit sygefravær”, which can be found at the following link: www.mitsygefravær.dk
If you are on full-time sick-leave or part time sick-leave, the extension cannot be made until you have been reported well again.
In case of illness beyond your enrolment and employment period, the extension can be made when you have reached the deadline of your enrolment and employment.
Concurrent it is important that you get in touch with your contact person responsible for sick leave, since every case is a special assessment.
When you are well again, you must report this by sending an e-mail including the final date of illness to the contact person responsible for sick leave, with a Cc to your main supervisor and Department. Remember to contact the municipality and tell them that you are well again.
After an individual and specific evaluation the Graduate School will subsequently prepare and send a letter to you regarding an extension of study period and containing a new completion date and possibly a new date for the qualifying examination.
All PhD students at Aarhus University are entitled to psychological help for up to five hours. Please note, however, that Aarhus University has a contract with Dansk Krisekorps. This means that you are referred to Dansk Krisekorps and are unable to personally choose another psychologist. To get a referral, you should contact the PhD partner responsible for sick leave. Dansk Krisekorps will then contact you within 24 hours to identify the problem.
Dansk Krisekorps can provide psychological counselling in connection with stress, working relationships or similar matters that have an influence on your work.
Please note that it might be necessary to apply for an extension of your work and residence permit if you take long-term sick leave and are granted an extension of your study period. You should therefore check the expiry date of your work and residence permit, and contact the Graduate School, if you need help in applying for an extension of your work and residence permit.
