PhD elementary rights and duties

Elementary Rights and Duties of Doctoral Study Programme Students at FSci USB in České Budějovice

The rights and duties of the students are based on Act No. 111/1998 on Institutions of Higher Education, the Study and Examination rules of University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, and the Provisions of the Dean on the organisation of study in the Doctoral Study Programme FSci USB and on student scholarships in Doctoral Study Programmes. These regulations contain the full wording of all the rights and duties of the student.

The Doctoral student has the right:

1. to nominate their own supervisor;
2. to enroll in study within the set deadline on the basis of the notification of admission to study;
3. to receive a scholarship for the standard period of study in full-time form, the amount of which is determined by a provision of the Dean;
4. to request a change in the topic of their thesis, which is to be approved by the supervisor and the specialist board (SB);
5. to request a change in their individual study plan (ISP), which is to be approved by the supervisor and the SB;
6. to request the Dean for a transfer from one form of study to another form of study in which the study programme is also accredited;
7. to request the Dean for an interruption of their studies for up to two years;
8. to interrupt their studies due to maternity/parenthood (recognized parenthood is not to be included in the maximum interruption period) or, if they continue to study, to request an adjustment of their ISP;
9. to submit a reasoned request to the Dean with a statement from the SB on a change of supervisor, conditional upon the student's fulfillment of their study obligations. In the case of a request for a specific new supervisor, the consent of the proposed supervisor is required;
10. to request that the SB sets out the scope of requirements and focus of their State Final Examination (SFE);
11. to withdraw from the defense if they have not received the opinions of the opponents at least six days before the date of the defense;
12. to repeat a failed SFE and defense, if the maximum time for their completion has not expired (for the SFE by the end of the fifth year, for the defense by the end of the maximum study period);
13. and obligation to be in regular contact with their supervisor;

The doctoral student has a duty:

1. after receiving the letter of acceptance to the study to come to the Department of Study Affairs to enrol in the At the same time, they are to establish a faculty e-mail address and USB student identity card. Instructions for the first login can be found at www.prf.jcu.cz/en/faculty/other-facilities/it-office. Student is obligated to use the faculty e-mail address for communication with the faculty and for carrying out their study duties (Rector’s Ordinance R 436);
2. to submit their "Individual Study Plan" (ISP) to the SB (electronically through the Department of Student Affairs) within two months from the start of their study. The ISP must be developed with their supervisor on the basis of the conclusions of the admission procedure. The ISP consists obligatorily of a) the completed form, which is available on the website of the Faculty of Science; b) the analysis of the doctoral thesis assignment; the content, form, and scope of which are to be determined by the SB. Attached to the ISP is to be the Thesis Project Proposal, which the student used for the admission procedure. The plan approved by the SB is to be sent electronically to the Department of Student Affairs by the Chairman of the SB. This makes the ISP binding to the student;
3. to renew their student status in the form of electronic enrolment in the announced period before the beginning of each semester (beginning of June for the winter semester, mid-January for the summer semester), when they enrol in IS STAG upon the course "Doctoral Practice" and possibly other subjects, particularly the subjects specified in the ISP and language courses (enrolling in them gradually, semester by semester, for courses for which they wish to take the credit or examination). At the end of their first semester of study, at the end of their first year of study, and at the end of each academic year, the Department of Student Affairs is to check the fulfilment of study obligations according to IS STAG; it is in the student's interest to deliver the required documents to the guarantors of non-teaching courses (internships, conferences) in time and to check the assignment of credits and exam results by the course guarantors;
4. to work systematically on their dissertation project. The fulfilment of this obligation is to be confirmed by their supervisor every semester by granting a credit from the subject "Doctoral Practice";
5. to prepare a critical literary review on the issues of their thesis and to present the methodology and intentions of the thesis at a seminar, both during the first year of study. They have to submit an electronic form of the review approved by the supervisor to the Department of Student Affairs before the end of the 10^th month of their first year of study; the review is evaluated by the specialist board. Credits for the completion of the subjects Literary Review and Doctoral Seminar are awarded by the Chairman of the SB;
6. to present annually the progress and results of their work at a seminar approved by the SB. Credit for the completion of the Doctoral Seminar course is awarded by the Chairman of the SB;
7. to complete annually the "Annual Progress Report" form, in which they are to state the fulfillment of their duties and briefly describe the progress of their scientific work. The supervisor is to complete the annual report with their opinion on the student's progress on the thesis project and send it in electronic form by 31.10. to the Department of Student Affairs, which is to supplement it with completed courses specified in the ISP and forward it to the SB.
8. to perform, by the end of the standard study period a) pedagogical activity in the range of 42 hours during the study period (the obligation of pedagogical activities does not apply to students in the combined form of study and in English study programmes); b) the successful completion of specified courses, c) a presentation of their results at an international conference. By the end of the study, they must further publish at least part of the results of their Doctoral Thesis (in a journal with an IF of over 0.5 and to be the first author of at least one article) and complete an internship abroad (this can be completed as multiple stays of at least 14 days, the overall minimum length is one month, the recommended length is three months);
9. to register for the State Doctoral Examination during the fifth year of study at the latest, so that they complete it by the end of the fifth year of study. The student is to submit the thesis and other requisites for the defense of their thesis so that it does not exceed the maximum length of study, which is 6 years. The standard length of study in the doctoral study programme is 4 years. The overall length of study does not include the interruptions of study, which may be 2 years at the maximum;
10. to pay close attention to the ethics of scientific work, including the truthful publication of the obtained results. On all publications created in connection with the work on the PhD thesis and on possible other outputs, they are always to state their workplace as the Faculty of Science USB:

Přírodovědecká fakulta Jihočeské univerzity (PřF JU)
Branišovská 1760
370 05 České Budějovice

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

Students with supervisors at FFPW USB are to list affiliation to FSci and FFPW USB.