Basic information

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The candidate does not become a student until he / she is enrolled. It is necessary to announce an absence in the day of the enrolment the latest. If the candidate does not apologize before the enrolment date and do not prove a serious reason of the absence within five working days, the right to enrolment in studies expires.

The proper fulfilment of study requirements in a doctoral programme calls for the simultaneous fulfilment of the following conditions (under section 30, subsection 1 of the SER):

• meeting the requirements of an individual study plan
• successfully completing all repeated courses registered in an immediately preceding semester
• meeting the credit requirement
• not exceeding the maximum duration of studies

A student must utilize the relevant IS MU application to electronically enrol in an upcoming semester within a period prescribed by the academic year schedule. If a student does not fulfill the conditions of enrolment in the following semester his/her right to enrolment in studies expires and his/her studies are subsequently terminated in accordance with section 56, subsection 1, letter b of the Act.

In advance enough before the end of the interruption of studie a student has to declare his / her decision to continue with the active study, or ask for further interruption of studies. Re-enrolment in studies must be communicated electronically by e-mail (from an authorized mail address in IS MU) to the address phd@econ.muni.cz.

Persons unable to enrol in studies in the prescribed period may apply for an alternate date no later than on the last day of the period prescribed for enrolment in studies. Should an applicant fail to enrol in studies in the prescribed period or at an alternate date and subsequently fail to provide compelling reasons which prevented him/her from doing so in a period of five workdays, his/her right to enrolment in studies expires.

In accordance with their Individual Study Plan a student registers in courses for the upcoming semester, using the relevant application in the IS MU and adhering to the period designated for course registration.

Should a student fail to fulfil the requirements of course completion, he/she is entitled to fulfil them by an alternate date set during the examination period of the same semester; a student enrolled in a course for the first time may make use of two alternate dates while a student repeating a course may only make use of one alternate date.

In case a student does not complete an enrolled course successfully, he/she is automatically re-enrolled in the first semester when the course is offered again. A student who fails to complete a repeated course, exhausting all possibilities loses the right to enrolment in the following semester (section 12) and his / her studies is terminated.

At the beginning of the first year of study the student in co-operation with his / her supervisor prepares a Plan of entire studies, specifying the timetable for the fulfillment of the basic study and research obligations. At the beginning of each semester, he / she prepares a concrete plan of the term content and at the end of it the feedback to the term content. Outputs of the courses supervised and evaluated by the supervisor (Study of Literature, Research Workshop, Internship, Preparation of the Dissertation) is uploaded by the student into the IS MU, application "Homework Vault", where they are accessible to the supervisor and to the Doctoral Study Board / Commission.

The student's evaluation is prepared by the supervisor based on the materials prepared by the student and is discussed annually by the Doctoral Study Board.

Doctoral State Examinations are organized always in spring and autumn term. The application for a DSE in the spring semester must be submitted by March 31, at the latest, in the autumn semester by 15 October (see Academic Calendar). The specific term for each DSE is proposed by the Doctoral Study Board and confirmed by the Dean of the Faculty.

In accordance with the Sample Study Plan, the student of the full-time study form is obliged to submit the application for the DSE at the latest in the 4th semester of study, the student of the part-time form of study is obliged to submit the application for the DSE at the latest in the 8th semester of PhD studies.

The application for a DSE is submitted to the dean of the faculty through application Topic Lists in IS MU (Application for the Doctoral State Examination - programme).

 Part of the application for the DSE is An Overview of the Student’s Research and Scientific Activities, created according to Annex No. 3 of FEA MU Directive No. 2/2020 Studies in Doctoral Degree Programmes and their Organization.

Along with the DSE application, the student also submits the dissertation proposal in the extent of 20-30 pages, electronically in the IS MU here.

Requirements of dissertation proposal are specified in Guidelines of the Vice-Dean for Reserach of the FEA MU No. 1/2022.

The DSE examines a student’s theoretical and methodological knowledge related to the field of study. The extent of the examination is determined by the Doctoral Board and the aim is to demonstrate the student’s readiness for independent research work in the given discipline. 

General DSE requirements are covered by the content of the doctoral programme; specific requirements involve thematic theoretical areas related to the dissertation proposal. 

The examination takes place in the form of a debate over the presented dissertation proposal; questions are asked in a wider context of the particular scientific discipline. 

You can download the dissertation proposal template here.

A foreign internship of the recommended length of one semester (minimum length is 1 month) is a compulsory part of doctoral studies, but above all a great opportunity to make contacts and gain experience. The internship is primarily carried out at a prestigious foreign university or research institute. Students choose the foreign institution in cooperation with their supervisors, according to the focus of their research. Ideally, the internship should be at a university with a research team dedicated to the dissertation topic. The length of the placement and the quality of the workplace at which students complete their internship can have a major impact on the kind of work they will be able to obtain after completing their PhD.

Most academic departments are open to PhD students internships once they have secured funding. The internship may be supported by a specific research project, a faculty scholarship programme, or other sources, or a combination of these.

The ideal time to complete an internship is during semesters 3-7, i.e., after successful completion of all courses.

As PhD students work on their individual research projects and dissertations, the placements abroad are usually 'traineeships'. In the context of doctoral studies, 'study stays' as defined by ERASMUS+ tend not to occur (semester-long study visits, during which students enrol in courses at the host university, are particularly relevant for BSc and MSc students).

The main focus of the internship is on activities related to dissertation research or the doctoral student's broader scientific development. Ideally, research activities that are directly related to the research topic will be carried out during the internship and the results of the internship will be used by the PhD student in his/her dissertation.

The PhD student and his/her supervisor will draw up a plan for mobility abroad. It is best to prepare at least an outline plan at the beginning of the study, preferably in the first year, as part of the completion of the ISP plan of the entire study. A detailed plan should be drawn up before the actual implementation of the internship. The above requirements should be taken into account when drawing up the plan.
In particular, the plan shall include the following items:
- Location: target workplace (in accordance with the priorities of the workplace - strategic partnerships, MU priorities -
TOP300 international universities)
- Objectives of the internship and related duration - relation to the research topic, relevance and needs development of the PhD student
- Expected term (semester, specific timeline, etc.)
- Plan of activities - an overview of the specific activities in which the student will participate.

Before leaving for a foreign internship, the student creates a record of the stay in IS MUNI - Student section, Internships and stays application. Instructions here. The student uploads the contract on cooperation/document related to the placement, the Training Agreement (record on admission) or the invitation letter/Acceptance letter to the placement record.

And register the course DX%_ZSTA Internship abroad.

After returning from the internship, he/she then uploads the document confirming the successful completion of the placement, Confirmation of Placement Period (confirmation of completion), to the placement record in the IS MUNI.

In order to receive credit for the course DX%_ZSTA Internship abroad, students upload the confirmation of completion and the final report to the course homework vault. The grade is awarded by the supervisor.

The dissertation is the final work of the PhD studies. 

The dissertation must contain original (it means new findings that represent the contribution of doctoral students for the development of scientific knowledge) and published findings of research carried out by the candidate, or findings already accepted for publication. 

The dissertation is submitted as a monograph or as a collection of essays/articles.

A monograph is a single text that deals in detail with a single topic and is written by a single author.

A collection of at least 3 essays/articles constitutes a publication consisting of an introductory chapter and published or unpublished individual essays that address a common research problem or belong to a common area of research. Each essay/article explores a separate research question or contains separate findings. Essays included in the dissertation should be published, accepted, or suitable for publication (i.e., ready for submission) in a respected, peer-reviewed journal.

The student should be the principal author of the dissertation in that if he/she is submitting the results of a collective scholarly work for defense, he/she must have substantial authorship of any jointly produced work and indicate his/her estimated percentage of the work. The parts of the thesis that have been worked on by the student must be clearly indicated in the thesis. The thesis must be accompanied by a statement from the supervisor confirming the student's authorship of the marked parts of the thesis and assessing the student's contribution.

An article co-authored by students may be used in only one set of articles submitted as a dissertation.

The recommended minimum length of the dissertation is 100 pages of the text; the recommended maximum length is 160 pages. The formal requirements for the length, structure and format of the dissertation are defined in Guidelines of the Vice-Dean for Research of the FEA MU No. 1/2022.

Requirements for the publication of dissertation results specifies Directive of the Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University No. 2/2020 Studies in Doctoral Degree Programmes and their Organization, Article 6, par. 3, letter c):

During the course of their studies, PhD students are required to prepare at least 3 publications in English that are thematically relevant to their research focus. Of these, at least one publication must be published or accepted for publication in a journal indexed in the WoS or Scopus database at the time of submission of the dissertation; the remaining publications may be published as a working paper or as part of the dissertation.

The internal defence is a defence of the first (complete) version of the dissertation. It is held in the presence of employees of the supervising department and guest experts, and is organized by the Head of the department. Student completes the internal defence in the 7th semester of his/her studies or in the semester immediately preceding the semester in which the studies are completed by the dissertation defence.

The application is submitted by the student to the chair of the doctoral board and the head of the department via email, to which he/she attaches the text of the dissertation by the deadline set in the department's internal schedule or by mutual agreement. At the same time, the dissertation is submitted electronically in the Information System here (folder according to the study programme).

The head of the department, on the proposal of the chair of the doctoral board, appoints one reviewer from among the members of the department who will evaluate the quality of the dissertation and the degree of fulfilment of the requirements set for dissertations in the given scientific field. The chair of the doctoral board may also appoint one external dissertation reviewer.

The date of the internal defence is set by the head of the department in agreement with the chair of the doctoral board. The internal defence of the dissertation shall take place without undue delay.
Proceedings of the defence includes:
(a) presentation of the dissertation content (the research problem addressed, the objectives of the dissertation, the procedure solution, results and conclusions) for 20 minutes,
(b) a statement by the supervisor on the progress of the doctoral student's work on the dissertation,
(c) the opinion of the reviewer (or external reviewer), the doctoral student's comments on the opinion of the reviewer (and the external reviewer, if appointed),
(d) questions and discussion.

Minutes of the internal defence is taken and made available to the student. If the dissertation does not sufficiently meet the requirements for dissertations in the research area, the minutes shall include an explicit conclusion as to whether the student is recommended:
(a) to make partial modifications/refinements (including a statement of the nature of the modifications desired),
(b) to carry out a revision (including the formulation of the main reasons).
The conclusion of the internal defence is of a recommendatory nature for the student. If the student wishes to carry out reworking of the submitted dissertation, he/she is obliged to do it in such a way as to meet the requirement of the deadline for submission of the dissertation for the final defence.

Recommendations for the writing of the dissertation can be downloaded here.

You can download the dissertation template here.

The template in LaTeX format can be found here. Information on editing and working with the template can be found here.