The procedure to award the degree of doctor (Ph.D. procedure) is an administrative process separate from education in a doctoral school. It needs to be commenced by the Candidate having a complete and final Ph.D. dissertation, and all other required documents.
Ph.D. procedure step-by-step
The following overview applies to Candidates completing a doctoral school affiliated with CAMK (GeoPlanet).
- The Candidate graduates from a doctoral school with final Ph.D. dissertation.
- If necessary, an English exam should be taken before commencing a procedure.
- Graduation means the end of the formal student status in Poland.
- The Candidate commences Ph.D. procedure with application to the Scientific Council.
- the Council meets ~once per month, for application to be considered at the next meeting, it should be commenced at least 15 days in advance.
- The Council appoints a 7-member Doctoral Committee, including 3 Reviewers.
- The Reviewers are given 2 months to complete reviews.
- It takes about 2 weeks between the appointment of Doctoral Committee and the begin of review process (CAMK makes a contract with each Reviewer specifying a deadline to submit a review).
- The astrophysics exam should be conducted during the review process by a 4-member Subcommittee (usually excluding the Reviewers).
- The date of the exam should be agreed with the Candidate.
- Each Subcommittee member asks one question written in the report.
- The Scientific Council formulated a list of general topics recommended to prepare for the astrophysics exam (PDF). However, each Subcommittee member may ask a question of their choice (e.g., more specific; from their field or around the field of the Candidate; a basic question that every astronomer should know).
- The answer to each question is graded on the scale of 2 (insufficient), 3 (sufficient), 3.5, 4 (good), 4.5, 5 (very good). The final grade (usually the average of grades) determines the final result of the exam: positive (3 or higher) or negative (2).
- In case of negative result of the exam, the Candidate is allowed to take it once more (to avoid delays, the first exam should be scheduled well before the review deadline).
- Once all reviews are received, they are posted with the thesis on the public BIP website.
- The Doctoral Committee decides by vote whether to admit the dissertation to a public defense.
- At least 2 reviews need to be positive (in case of 2 negative reviews, the Committee cannot admit the dissertation, and the Council refuses awarding the degree).
- Mandatory 30-day waiting period begins, during which the defense cannot take place.
- Public defence takes place during a meeting of the Scientific Council.
- The date must be announced with at least 10-day advance.
- The advisor(s) and at least 1 Reviewer must be present.
- Online participation is possible.
Candidates who have not completed a doctoral school affiliated with CAMK will be considered in the extramural mode. They will first need to have an advisor appointed. They are not exempt from covering the costs of the Ph.D. procedure (consisting of renumerations of doctoral committee members), which can be waived by decision of the CAMK director.
Please note that it takes at least 4 months from the commencement to the defense.
Commencing a Ph.D. procedure
- Application to commence (wniosek o wszczęcie):
- should be prepared in Polish;
- should be printed, signed and delivered to the CAMK Secretariat;
- should be e-mailed with all attachments to sekretariat@camk.edu.pl.
- Mandatory attachments:
- Ph.D. dissertation (PDF file with text layer, < 28 MB; 1 printed copy);
- abstracts in English and Polish;
- positive opinion of your advisor(s);
- master diploma;
- statement of the Candidate indicating a published article (which may, but does not have to, be included in the dissertation) to which the Candidate contributed at least 20% of work;
- foreign language certificate or exam report;
- in case of multi-author articles (even unpublished) included in the dissertation, statements (from the Candidate and up to 4 co-authors) detailing their contribution to that work (they may, but do not need to, include an estimate of percentage contribution).
- optional attachments:
- Doctoral school or 8PRK certificate.
Please note that the application must be complete and final to be considered.
Legal framework
General regulations concerning the scientific degree of doctor (along with the degree of doktor habilitowany and the title of professor) are defined in the Polish Act of 2018 "Law on Higher Education and Science" (in effect since 2019). The Act of 2018 defines eligibility conditions for scientific institutions to have the right to award the degree of doctor, in case of institutes like CAMK it identifies the Scientific Council as the authority that awards the degree. As a collective organization, the Council awards the degree by secret vote following the public defense.
The Act of 2018 defines conditions that must be satisfied by the Candidate for the degree of doctor:
- to have a degree of master, engineer or equivalent;
- to satisfy education requirements at level 8 of the Polish Qualifications Framework (PRK) (provided by a doctoral school);
- to communicate in a modern foreign language at least at the level B2 (without a proper certificate, even foreign students are asked to take an exam organized by CAMK);
- to publish at least 1 peer-reviewed article (in a journal included in a list published by the Ministry of Science) or monograph;
- to present and defend a doctoral dissertation.
The Act of 2018 defines requirements for a doctoral dissertation:
- to present an original solution to a scientific problem;
- to present the Candidate's general theoretical knowledge in their discipline;
- to present the Candidate's ability to conduct scientific work independently.
The form of a doctoral dissertation is described very generally to be a written work, including (but not limited to) a scientific monograph, a collection of published and thematically related scientific articles, an independent and isolated part of a collective work.
All dissertations are processed through a mandatory anti-plagiarism test (JSA). The result of such a test needs to be approved by the advisor.
The Act of 2018 defines Ph.D. procedure as an administrative procedure, to which provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure apply. This puts many additional requirements on the Scientific Council, in particular regarding proper documentation of the procedure. One consequence is that commencement of the procedure requires a complete application. Another consequence is that at the end of the procedure, the Council issues an official decision document. In most (hopefully all) cases, it will be a decision to award the degree. In an unfortunate case that the Council would decide to refuse awarding the degree, it is obliged to provide in writing a detailed justification for such decision. The Code of Administrative Procedure guarantees certain rights of the Candidates, e.g., to appeal decisions of the Council, to be informed how to do that.
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