PhD elementary rights and duties

Elementary rights and duties of doctoral study programme students at the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

The rights and duties of the student are based on Act No. 111/1998 on institutions of higher education, the Study and Examination rules of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, and the Provision of the dean on the organization of study in the Doctoral Study programmes at the Faculty of Science USB and on student scholarships in doctoral study programmes. These regulations contain the full wording of all the rights and duties of the student.

1. After receiving the letter of acceptance to study, the student is to come to the department of student affairs at the set date to enrol in the study. At the same time, he/she is to establish a faculty e-mail address and USB student identity card. Instructions for the first login are at http://it.prf.jcu.cz/.
2. Students doing full-time study and not exceeding the standard period of study are eligible for a scholarship, the amount of which is specified by the dean’s provision.
3. No later than two months after the beginning of study, the student has to submit his/her “Individual study plan“ to the specialist board via the department of student affairs (electronic version), which has been elaborated in cooperation with the suggested supervisor on the basis of the conclusions coming from his/her admission procedure. The compulsory parts of the Individual study plan are a) a filled-in form which is available at the department of student affairs or on the faculty web pages, b) the analysis of the doctoral thesis assignment; the contents, form, and length of which is decided upon by the specialist board. The agreed Plan will be send to the department of student affairs by the specialist board chair and henceforth it is binding for the student.
4. Throughout the whole period of study, i.e. until the thesis defence, the student must be included in the student records – these records are renewed by an enrolment before the beginning of each semester, when the student enrols for the “Doctoral Practice“ course or other courses including language courses set by the study plan (students are to enrol semester by semester for courses in which they are planning to gain a credit or take an examination). At the end of the first semester and of the first year of study and at the end of each academic year, the student is to present himself/herself at the department of student affairs for a check of the fulfilment of study duties. Student’s evaluation of courses after each semester is obligatory for all students.
5. The individual work of the student is confirmed every semester by the supervisor by giving a credit for the course “Doctoral Practice“.
6. During the first year of study the student has to elaborate a critical literature review on the theme of the dissertation thesis and present the methods and the aims of the dissertation at a seminar. He/she has to submit an electronic form of the review approved by the supervisor to the department of student affairs before the end of 10^th month of study; the review is evaluated by the specialist board. The credits for the “Literature Review“ and “Doctoral Seminar“ courses are given by the chair of the specialist board.
7. The student has to make an annual presentation of his/her progress and results of his/her work at a seminar approved by the specialist board. The credit for the “Doctoral Seminar“ course is given by the chair of the specialist board.
8. Every year the student has to elaborate an “Annual report on study progress“ on the prescribed form in which he/she states the fulfilment of his/her duties and briefly describes the progress made in his/her scientific work (such as completed courses, the fulfilment of teaching duties, the presentation of results at conferences, the publication of partial results of the dissertation work, study stays abroad). The annual report in electronic form have to be submitted via the department of student affairs to the specialist board by 31 October of each year.
9. By the end of his/her fourth year of study the student has to prove (e.g. by being listed in annual reports or other written evidence) a) teaching activities of 42 hours in the course of the study (this duty does not apply to the students in the combined form of study and in the English-language study programmes); b) completion of set courses and English; c) presentation of his/her results at an international conference. By the end of the study the student has to complete his/her study stay abroad (with the option of fulfilling this duty by making a number trips which are to be no shorter than 2 weeks), and to publish at least a part of the results of his/her doctoral thesis in a journal with an IF higher than 0.5 and be a first author of at least one accepted paper.
10. The standard length of study in a doctoral programme is 4 years. Student has to pass the state doctoral exam by the end of the 5th year of study. The maximum length of study is 5 years (6 years in the combined form of study) and the student has to defend his/her dissertation thesis before the expiry of the maximum length of study. The overall length of study does not include the interruptions of study, which may total 2 years at maximum.
11. The student is to show due respect to the ethics of scientific work including the publication of results gained. He/she must state his/her affiliation to the faculty in all publications (or other published results) made in a connection to his/her work on the doctoral dissertation thesis:

Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia (FSci USB)
Branišovská 1760
370 05 České Budějovice