1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1. System of academic degrees
1.2. General information on the doctorate
1.2.1. Definition of the doctorate
1.2.2. Levels and types of doctoral degrees
2. INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. National regulations on doctoral studies
2.2. Management and/or administration of doctoral studies
2.3. Planning procedures
2.4. Funding of doctoral studies
2.5. Routes leading to the doctor's degree(s)
3. THE MAIN ROUTE LEADING TO THE FIRST DOCTOR'S DEGREE
3.1. General remarks
3.2. Admission
3.2.1. General prerequisites for admission
3.2.2. Restrictions on admission
3.2.3. Selection and registration
3.3. Organization of doctoral studies
3.3.1. Forms and duration
3.3.2. Supervision
3.3.3. Selection procedures for theses and individual
planning of studies
3.3.4. Rights and compensation of doctoral students
3.3.5. Entitlement to future employment
3.4. Programme
3.4.1. Composition of the programme
3.4.2. Composition of courses
3.4.3. Evaluation of courses
3.4.4. Intermediate degrees
3.5. Dissertation
3.5.1. Requirements for the content of a dissertation
3.5.2. Form of the dissertation
3.5.3. Other required presentations
3.5.4. Official opponents
3.5.5. Specialised body for the evaluation of dissertations
3.5.6. Evaluation procedure
3.5.7. Failure on the final defense
3.5.8. Copy of the disertation
4. OTHER ROUTES LEADING TO THE FIRST DOCTOR'S DEGREE
5. SECOND DOCTOR'S DEGREE
5.1. General remarks
5.2. Admission
5.3. Requirements
5.4. Organization
5.5. Form of presentation
5.6. Defense
5.7. Resulting benefits
5.8. Other routes
6. RECOGNITION
6.1. General remarks
6.2. Evaluation of foreign qualifications for the purpose
of gaining admission to doctoral studies
6.3. Evaluation of doctoral degrees obtained abroad
B - Bachelor's degree (Bc);
M- Master's degree (Mgr., Ing., MUDr., MVDr);
D1- Doctor's degree (Dr. or CSc.);
D2- Doctor of Sciences degree (DrSc.).
Note: This Table illustrates the present situation of the transitional period in academic degrees.
Doctoral studies are regarded as a form of postgraduate research training.
The system of research training was implemented in 1951. In the course of its more than forty years of existence it has had a fairly complicated development. Up to 1990, these studies took place at two levels:
Since 1990, there have been three alternative routes for research training leading to advanced degrees: postgraduate doctoral studies leading to a doctor's degree (Dr. - equivalent to the PhD) - a new route of increasing importance and the two former routes, the aspirantura and the doctorantura, which are decreasing in importance. These three routes are gradually converging. The new Higher Education Act which will bring the transition period to a close will implement only one route for postgraduate research training, that of doctoral study leading to the advanced degree of PhD.
Postgraduate studies leading to the doctoral degrees are regulated according to the following legal dispositions:
The first, the second, and the fourth of the above dispositions lay down principles and establish procedures for research training in the form of aspirantura and conditions for the award of the CSc. and the DrSc. degrees. The third disposition specifies the general principles of postgraduate doctoral studies. Specific procedures for doctoral studies are elaborated in the statutes of the individual higher education institutions.
The universities themselves are authorized to set up doctoral studies and to award degrees. The right for them to do so is granted by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports upon the proposal and the recommendation of the Accreditation Commission of the Government of the Czech Republic. The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports undertakes methodological guidance, providing the universities with recommendations for organizing and managing doctoral studies.
Doctoral studies are organized in individual departments or in specialized training centres, the creation of which has been authorized by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports upon the recommendation of the Accreditation Commission, to conduct doctoral studies in particular fields, to hold doctoral examinations, and to award doctoral degrees.
Institutions of higher education are empowered to organize doctoral studies on the basis of two criteria: the level of academic/scientific qualification of teachers and the academic/scientific reputation of the institution or of the faculty. Fifteen institutions of higher education out of twenty-three (i.e. sixty-five percent) have, so far, been granted the right to organize doctoral studies and to award doctoral degrees. The following disciplines are involved: the humanities (theology, philosophy, history, philology, pedagogy, psychology), social sciences (sociology, politics, law, economics), natural sciences (mathematics, physics, geology, geography, chemistry, biology, ecology), engineering (technical sciences, agriculture, forestry), the arts (history of the arts, theory and history of literature, history of music, aesthetics and the theory of artistic activities), and medical sciences (pharmacology). In medicine and veterinary sciences, the doctorate is a professional degree.
Each group of disciplines consists of fields of studies and specializations, the list of which is officially approved by the Accreditation Commission. Individual faculties derive from these specializations the subjects of studies, curricula, and the programmes of examinations, as well as the topics of dissertations. Everything else concerning the organization and the contents of doctoral studies is determined by the institutions and faculties and regulated by their statutes.
At the level of departments or of training centres, doctoral studies are managed by the Boards of Guarantors for Postgraduate Studies which are organized for each individual field of study. The president and the members of each Board are approved by the Academic Council of the faculty and are appointed by its dean. They are responsible for the quality of studies in a particular field of study.
The financing of doctoral studies comes from the state budget in the case of full-time and certain foreign students. Research grants, scholarships, and part-time employment as teaching or as research assistants are also possibilities. Part-time and some foreign students must cover their own expenses through the payment of prescribed study fees.
Only candidates having a university-level degree (Mgr., Ing., MUDr., MVDr.) may be admitted to doctoral study programmes.
Admission is competitive, based on a selection procedure. The departments and training centres announce the opening of admission procedures, stating the available fields of study and other relevant information. Applicants submit their application forms which must be accompanied by a university-level diploma, relevant documents on previous professional experience (if any), a list of publications (if any), and a curriculum vitae. Some departments will also accept letters of recommendation. Applicants must then take entrance examinations in their subjects of specialization and in a foreign language. These examinations are administered by an admission commission of the given training centre. The admission commission proposes the enrollment of those applicants who meet the admission requirements. If the number of applicants with positive results in the entrance examinations is larger than what the centre can accept, the admission commission selects the best applicants on the basis of their results on the entrance examinations, their publications, and their previous scientific or student research activities. Successful applicants are enrolled by decision of the dean upon the proposal of the Board of Guarantors.
Doctoral studies can be both full-time and part-time. The nominal duration of full-time studies is three years (in some fields, four years) and that of part-time studies, four or five years. The real duration, however, is usually longer. It is possible to interrupt both these forms of study for a certain period of time if some serious reason exists. The results of examinations are valid up to the seventh year of study.
A supervisor, a holder of the academic title of Professor or of Associate Professor, is appointed for each doctoral student. The supervision of doctoral studies is considered to be prestigious, but it does not entail extra remuneration. It is considered to be a part of the normal teaching and research load. Doctoral students can have meetings with their supervisors as many times as needed. They can also receive advisory help from other persons in the given university as well as from specialists in the Academy of Sciences or from academics from other countries.
The dissertation topic must be approved by the supervisor and by the Board of Guarantors. Doctoral students work according to their individual plans of study, the progress of which is assessed by their supervisors (annually) and discussed in seminars and in the meetings of the Faculty Academic Councils.
During their periods of doctoral study, students may interrupt and resume studies, carry out parts of their required research in other institutions, attend international seminars or courses as part of their training, and participate in the teaching and research activities of their departments as tutors or as research assistants.
The award of the doctor's degree entitles its holder to further employment both in higher education and research and in industry. Students who have completed a postgraduate study programme have an advantage when applying for teaching positions at higher education institutions or for research positions in research institutions. For someone who is already employed, the award of the doctor's degree leads to a salary increase or to a better paid position in a higher education or a research institution.
Doctoral study programmes include both postgraduate courses and research. Doctoral programmes are divided roughly into three periods of varying length. The first is that of theoretical studies, the second, the preparation period for a dissertation, and the third, the conclusion of studies. Theoretical studies lead either to in-depth studies (e.g., law - constitutional law) or to interdisciplinary specialization (e.g., agronomy - economics of agriculture). Study programmes can be individual or collective. They consist of modules, the contents and sequences of which may change according to the needs of the student. Some of these modules prepare students for the doctoral examination; others are oriented towards the theoretical background of the dissertation. Postgraduate studies at some faculties, mainly in the natural and the technical sciences, start with the selection of the dissertation subject. The curricula are designed to be close to the subjects of dissertations. In the humanities and in the social, the medical, and the veterinary sciences, doctoral studies begin with the theoretical background. The expectation is that students will find themselves in these programmes and will orient themselves in their research. In making decisions as to what speciality they wish to develop in doctoral studies, students may be influenced by teachers whose personalities and research orientations they respect and upon whose work they wish to pattern their own. In such cases, doctoral students become the students of eminent teachers or scientists, members of scientific schools. This approach to doctoral studies occurs sporadically in Czech institutions of higher education.
The courses which must be taken by doctoral students include both compulsory and optional subjects. Doctoral students must attend lectures and seminars and take part in consultations.
Students pass examinations in compulsory and optional subjects which are a part of their curricula. The number of subject examinations is set up by the departments. Examination periods are not fixed but set individually (ad hoc). In addition to subject examinations (if any), doctoral students must take doctoral examinations (rigorosum) administered by a commission which is approved by the Academic Council of the given faculty. At some institutions, it is possible to pass the examination immediately upon completion of theoretical studies; at others, just before the defense of the dissertation.
There is no intermediate degree.
A dissertation must be a scholarly work based upon original research. It should make a contribution to a field of knowledge. It must also demonstrate the abilities of the student to solve a scientific problem. In any case, it must contain new information, irrespective of how it was acquired - in a laboratory through experiments, by generalization of practical experience through measurement, by study of archival materials, or theoretically. This new information should contribute to the development of knowledge as well as to practice and should be statistically or otherwise objectively documented. The new information should also be compared to the state of knowledge at the input, i.e., the period during which work on the dissertation was begun. It is recommended that the results of the dissertation be at least partly published or otherwise publicized (e.g., at conferences), so that the dissertation can be supported by the scientific and research community, not only by the opinions of the opponents.
A dissertation can be presented in the form of a monograph, a project, or another form of material output. If the subject of the dissertation is so complex that it requires the co-operation of several postgraduate students, the contribution of each must be clearly identified.
Along with the dissertation, an abstract of it is presented and distributed to the institutions concerned. The abstract should reflect the basic ideas and outcomes of the research, indicate its degree of originality, and assess possibilities for practical application. The abstract should also include a list of the student's publications. The results of the evaluation of the dissertation undertaken by the training centre and by the supervisor are also submitted.
The dissertation is evaluated by three opponents, one of whom must be a professor and the others, Candidates of Sciences, holders of doctorates, or associate professors. At least two of these persons must be from outside the training centre and from outside the supervisor's workplace. The opponents are proposed by the Board of Guarantors, approved by the Academic Council, and appointed by the dean.
The defense of the dissertation takes place before a commission which is set up ad-hoc to accept each dissertation. The commission is proposed by the Board of Guarantors, approved by the Academic Council, and appointed by the dean.
The defense is public and open to anybody who wishes to attend it. It is advertised in the given department or university. The defense of the dissertation takes place in the form of a scholarly/scientific discussion. The commission takes a decision through a vote at the final closing meeting. In case of positive results, the president of the commission forwards a proposal to the Academic Council of the faculty for the award of the doctor's degree.
In case of failure, the dissertation must be revised and the defense may be repeated.
A copy of the dissertation must be deposited in the library of the awarding institution and in the central library of the given university. Further copies of the dissertation are available at the training centre.
At present, the other route for postgraduate research training is the aspirantura. It is undertaken in some institutions of higher education and in the research institutes of the Academy of Sciences. There are no essential differences between aspirantura and doctoral studies; however, the management of doctoral studies is more autonomous and more independent from state intervention than the management of aspirantura.
The degree of Doctor of Sciences (DrSc.) can be earned through long-term research and the publication of a dissertation which contributes to the development of scientific knowledge. The preparation of the dissertation is carried out independently.
The Doctor of Sciences degree can be awarded only to the holders of the first doctor's degree (Candidate of Sciences).
The qualifying requirements for the dissertation for the Doctor of Sciences degree are higher than those for the dissertation of the CSc. degree. The dissertation must to be a scholarly work which makes a significant contribution to knowledge or to the solution of important practical problems.
Along with the dissertation, its abstract and a list of publications are also submitted. In addition, a review of publications and a reference to the dissertation of the applicant's employer are also presented. A relevant defense commission reviews the documents presented and gives permission for the defense to take place. No less than three opponents are appointed. At least two of them must be holders of the Doctor of Sciences degree or of the title of Professor, and two of them must be from outside the awarding institution.
The dissertation is usually presented in the form of a monograph. A topically coherent set of publications or university textbooks may also be presented as a doctoral dissertation if they meet the prescribed requirements set for the Doctor of Sciences degree. Discoveries or inventions can constitute a part or a core of the doctoral dissertation.
The defense of the dissertation is in fact the defense of a lifetime work which must be documented not only by publications but also be accepted by the academic/scientific community. The defense is public and takes place before defense commissions which are set up in higher education and research institutions by the Czech Commission for Scientific Degrees. Any objections to the award of the degree can be filed within a three-year period following the defense.
There is no other routes.
In the Czech Republic, doctoral degrees obtained abroad are automatically recognized if an agreement on the mutual recognition or the equivalence of diplomas exists. In this case, the university determines the equivalence of the diploma and certifies its recognition by issuing clauses of verification.
In other cases, the nostrification of the foreign diploma is required. The applicant must present:
The Czech Republic has concluded multilateral and several bilateral agreements on the mutual recognition or the equivalence of diplomas with Afghanistan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cuba, Hungary, India, Poland, Romania, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia.
Last Modified January 29, 1997