Demography

Annotation

The state doctoral examination should be successfully passed before the end of the second year for the students in the full-time study programmes, before the end of the third year for the students in the combined study programmes. For the registration for the exam, the students need to have completed the study requirements in their individual study plans and to have submitted part of their dissertation.

The state doctoral examination is taken before the examination committee and it always consists of two parts: the oral examination (verifying the knowledge in the area related to the dissertation) and defence of a part of the doctoral thesis. The defence of the dissertation process (presentation using technologies, max. 15 minutes) is aimed at a wider discussion of preliminary results and at discussing the methods used before the dissertation is finished. Apart from knowledge, the examination focuses on the following skills: critical and systematic thinking, explanation of problems, distinguishing important issues, state arguments, discuss problems in a wider context, distinguishing between specific and general, provide relevant empirical examples, deduce and formulate general conclusions.

Defence of the dissertation: The student has to submit the dissertation and register for the defence in such manner that the defence can be done before the standard period of study. The aim of the defence is to show the student’s capacity to defend own research methods used and results in the dissertation and to discuss them in a wider scientific context. To register for the defence, the students must pass the state doctoral examination and to complete all the requirements included in the individual study plan. The student prepares a PowerPoint presentation which should not be longer than 30 minutes.