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on PhD study

The Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, pursuant to § 35a letter a) of the Higher Education Act No. 172/1990 of the Law Code as amended by the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 324/1996 of the Law Code, sets up:

§ 1

Scientific disciplines and fields of art of PhD study

PhD study shall be carried out in the established scientific disciplines and fields of art (hereinafter "PhD fields of study"). The PhD fields of study shall be divided into specializations. The PhD fields of study and their specializations are shown in Annex 1.

P r o c e d u r e i n a d m i s s i o n t o P h D s t u d y

§ 2

(1) The training institute¹ shall notify of the start of admission procedure on PhD study in the daily press at least three weeks before commencement. In the notification of the admission procedure for PhD study it shall show, particularly

a) the number and name of the PhD fields of study and forms of PhD study,

b) place of submitting the application form for PhD study and the place where the applicants may inform themselves of the themes of dissertations, supervisors and conditions of admission to PhD study,

c) deadline for submitting application form.

(2) In the application for PhD study the applicant shall show

a) his or her name and surname, date and place of birth, birthday registration number and address of place of residence,

b) the number and name of the PhD field of study and the theme of dissertation selected,

c) the form of PhD study for which he or she submits the application.

(3) The applicant for PhD study shall supply the application form with

a) curriculum with certified copies of documents on education received,

b) a list of his or her published and non-published works, experts’ statements on these works, if available, and a list of results of other professional or artistic activities.

§ 3

(1) The applicant for admission to PhD study shall be invited by the training institute for the admission interview not later than fourteen days before commencement; at the same time, the training institute shall notify the applicant of the content orientation of the admission interview.

(2) The admission interview shall be carried out at the training institute before a selection board which is made up of at least three members. It shall be composed of a chairperson and at least two members who shall be appointed and recalled upon the proposal of chairman of the joint subject commission ² by the head of the training institute so that as a rule one of them is a supervisor of the announced dissertation theme for which the applicant applied.

(3) The selection board shall evaluate the result of the admission interview at a non-public session. In case that more applicants of PhD study in the same field participate in the admission interview, the selection board shall announce the order of success according to results of the admission interview. When defining the order, the selection board shall also consider the professional publishing or artistic activity as well as the results achieved in the contests of student scientific and professional works or in exhibitions of student artistic works or artistic performances.

(4) The results of admission interview shall be recorded in minutes and the proposals for acceptance of successful applicants of PhD study shall be submitted by the selection board to the head of the training institute.

(5) The head of the training institute shall make a final decision about admission or non-admission of the applicant upon the proposal made by the selection board within eight days from admission interview.

P r o c e d u r e o f P h D s t u d y

§ 4

Professional supervision of the PhD student

(1) Professional procedure of PhD study in the PhD field of study or specialization shall be provided by teachers who are professors, visiting professors, associate professors or visiting associate professors, doctors of sciences or scientific workers who were acknowledged the scientific qualification degrees of I and IIa.³

(2) The training institute shall, upon the prior recommendation by the selection board, confirm for the newly-admitted PhD student a teacher or scientific worker (hereinafter "supervisor") approved by the Scientific Council of the training institute who shall provide all-round supervision of the PhD student. The supervisor may be a professor, visiting professor, associate professor, visiting associate professor or scientific worker with the acknowledged scientific qualification degree of I or IIa in the PhD field of study or a relative field of PhD study. A supervisor may be also a person that is employed or in similar labour relations with other employer, or a self-employed person. A supervisor may supervise a maximum of five PhD students.

(3) A supervisor shall

a) supervise professional and scientific training of the PhD student during his or her PhD study,

b) set up in a cooperation with the PhD student and in harmony with study programme of the PhD study, the individual study programme and scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student and after discussing it with the head of department (institute) or head of division of external educational institution at which the PhD study will take place, he or she shall submit it for evaluation to persons according to section 1,

c) provide for the scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student, shall specify the theme of dissertation after agreement with the PhD student and shall define the orientation of the project of dissertation,

d) be a member of the examination committee for the dissertation examination before which the PhD student shall hold the examination, and shall participate in the defence of hir or her dissertation,

e) submit to the head of the training institute an annual evaluation of the PhD student and shall prepare a written statement on the dissertation submitted for the defence,

f) submit to the head of the training institute the proposal on withdrawal of the PhD student from PhD study and shall express his comments to the PhD student’s request to suspend the full-time form of study,

g) propose to the head of the training institute the study period of the PhD student in other home or foreign institutions of science, education, research, technology or art,

h) prepare a statement on the dissertation of his PhD student which will be added to the application of the PhD student for the permit of the defence of a dissertation,

j) provide, if necessary, consultations with other experts.

(4) If appropriate, the training institute may also provide for a PhD student an instructor of consultant who shall help the supervisor to supervise the PhD student to the extent set up by the individual scientific programme or artistic programme (§ 6 section 1). He shall provide together with the supervisor a concretely defined part of individual scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD study for the PhD student. The instructor of consultant may also be selected from among persons that are employed or in similar labour relations with other employers, or self-employed persons.

§ 5

Study programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study

(1) The study programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study shall contain the most significant tasks characterizing the content and course of PhD study. A part of the study programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study shall be teaching activities or other professional activities contributing to promotion of professional knowledge of the PhD student, to be carried out in average for four hours weekly at most, per year.⁴

(2) The study programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study may also involve a period of study in another training institute, in another institution of science, education, technology and art or in a foreign higher education institution.⁵

§ 6

Individual study programme and scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study

(1) A detailed content of study programme of the PhD student shall be defined in his or her individual study programme and in scientific programme or artistic programme, that upon the proposal made by the supervisor shall be approved by the head of the training institute within 30 days from the enrolment of the PhD student to PhD study.

(2) The individual study programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study shall contain

a) a list of subjects with the coverage of the themes of dissertation examination selected upon the proposal made by the supervisor according to orientation of the theme of dissertation from among the list of subjects for dissertation examination approved by the joint subject commission,

b) a list of compulsory and recommended study literature that the PhD student is to study within the framework of his or her individual preparation for dissertation examination, from among the selected subjects,

c) date of dissertation examination.

3) Upon the proposal made by the supervisor the individual study programme of the PhD student may also include the completion of a course of lectures in selected subjects for dissertation examination according to section 2 letter a), eventually, also a professional seminar in foreign language, in the first 18 months of the study of the PhD student organized by the training institute for PhD students pursuing full-time form of study. The training institutes shall see to that the course of lectures in the PhD field of study provided by persons according to § 4 section 1 or with agreement of the head of the training institute by specialists from other higher education institution or from other institutions of science, research, education, technology and art, or from a foreign higher education institution, shall exceed the scope of Magister’s study, Engineer’s study and doctor’s study and that their content be as a rule oriented at solution of topical professional problems of science, technology or art.

4) The scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student shall indicate the most significant tasks characterizing the content and procedure at elaboration of the dissertation theme according to aims of the dissertation project set up in advance. A part of the scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student shall be also active participation of the PhD student in scientific seminars or seminars on art, in scientific conferences and other professional events organized in science or in art on the topics concerned with the dissertation theme that shall be provided by the training institute upon the proposal made by the supervisor.

5) The individual study programme and scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student pursuing full-time form of study shall be specified at annual evaluation of the PhD student.

§ 7

Suspension of PhD study

(1) The causes of suspending PhD study are: performance of military service, reserve or civil service, maternity leave, health reasons or a study stay of the PhD student abroad, unless it is a part of study programme of PhD student.⁵

(2) The total amount of time of suspended PhD study as a rule ought not to exceed 18 months. In exceptional, substantiated cases, e.g., at another maternity leave, the head of the training institute may decide about suspension of the study for a longer time, but not more than three years.

§ 8

Forms of evaluation of the PhD student

Forms of evaluation of the PhD student shall be the following:

a) annual evaluation of the PhD student,

b) dissertation examination,

c) defence of dissertation.

§ 9

Annual evaluation of the PhD student

(1) Annual evaluation of the PhD student shall be

a) evaluation of the state and level of scientific education or artistic education of the PhD student,

b) check up of fulfilment of allocated tasks of individual study programme and scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student,

c) eventual adjustment of individual study programme and scientific programme or artistic programme.

(2) Annual evaluation of the PhD student shall be prepared by the supervisor in cooperation with the PhD student in written form. He or she shall submit it together with the proposal for continuance, withdrawal or prolongation of the PhD study to the head of the training institute for approval not later than September 30 of the current year.

§ 10

Dissertation examination

(1) The PhD student in full-time form of PhD study shall apply for a dissertation examination within 18 months from commencement of the study at his or her training institute, at the latest. The PhD student in part-time form of PhD study shall apply for a dissertation examination within three years from commencement of the study at his or her training institute.

(2) The dissertation examination shall consist of a written and oral part. The written part of dissertation examination shall consist of elaboration of a written work. The theme of the written work and its size shall be defined by the supervisor. A part of the written work shall be a short written interpretation (theses) of the project of the dissertation.

(3) The training institute shall submit to the chairperson of the examination committee (§ 11 section 1) the written work of the PhD student with the written assessment elaborated by external examiner appointed by the head of the training institute upon the proposal of the supervisor.

(4) In substantiated cases, especially if the PhD student may submit besides the theses of dissertation also published original scientific works, there should be no written work elaborated, with exception of written interpretation (theses) of the project of dissertation according to section 2.

(5) The content of oral part of dissertation shall be:

a) answering the questions from the scope of themes of selected subjects in dissertation examination, to be defined to the PhD student in individual study programme according to orientation of the dissertation theme that was approved by the joint subject commission,

b) answering the comments of the external examiner’s statement on the written work according to section 3,

c) treatise on the written work and evaluation of the proposed aims of the dissertation.

(6) If the PhD student cannot participate in the dissertation examination at the date set up, he shall apologize to the chairperson of the examination committee and the latter shall set up another date for its completion. If the PhD student shall not participate in the dissertation examination on any substantiated grounds, it is considered as a failure in the dissertation examination (§ 11 section 5). The same consequences shall apply at giving up the dissertation examination.

§ 11

Board of Examiners

(1) The board of examiners before which the dissertation examination is held, shall be composed of at least five members. The chairperson of the board of examiners and at least two members, of whom at least one member is not coming from the training institute of the PhD student, shall be proposed by the chairman of the joint subject commission. The further members of the board of examiners shall be the supervisor of the PhD student and the deputy of department (institute) or division of external educational institution where the scientific programme or artistic programme of the PhD student is to be carried out. The chairperson of the board of examiners and its members shall be appointed and recalled by the dean of the faculty in case of a faculty, or by the director in case of an external educational institution. At least one member of the board of examiners shall be a professor, visiting professor, doctor of sciences or a scientific worker with the acknowledged scientific qualification degree I.

(2) To decide about the overall result of the dissertation examination the presence of absolute majority of members of the board of examiners shall be required.

(3) The board of examiners at non-public session shall evaluate the result of dissertation examination and decide on overall result of dissertation examination by a majority of votes of present members. At equality of votes the chairperson’s vote is decisive. The total result of dissertation examination shall be assessed by stating "passed" or "failed".

(4) The dissertation examination and its result shall be recorded in minutes to be signed by the chairperson and all present members of the board of examiners. The board of examiners shall issue to the PhD student a written certificate on completion of dissertation examination.

(5) The PhD student who failed at examination may re-sit for the examination only once, not sooner than three months since the date of failure at the dissertation examination on the date set up by chairperson of the board of examiners.

§ 12

Application for permit of the defence of dissertation

(1) The application for permit of the defence of dissertation may be submitted by the applicant to the training institute

a) during the PhD study,

b) after the expiry of time defined for the PhD study; within six years at the latest since passing the dissertation examination,

c) without a prior completion of PhD study.⁶

(2) The application form shall be supplied by the PhD student with

a) a brief curriculum,

b) certificate on the result of the dissertation examination,

c) evaluation of the level of the final work of art or final artistic performance by professional commission, if the PhD student submits the dissertation in the artistic PhD field of study,

d) dissertation in four copies; technical documentation, models, etc., shall be supplied in only one copy,

e) abstract of the dissertation (§14),

f) the institution's statement on the dissertation in case that the dissertation is submitted for the defence without prior completing PhD study; the institution shall evaluate in the statement especially the participation of the applicant in acquiring new scientific knowledge or new knowledge in art which are a part of the dissertation and possibilities of the institution to utilize them,

g) an officially certified copy of negative decision of the Scientific Council of the faculty on the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree or a written proposal of the joint subject commission not to award the scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, the title of the original dissertation and justification of differences between the original and new dissertation, in case that the PhD student submits due to failure in defending his dissertation, a new dissertation for the defence in the same PhD field of study,

h) a list of published works with complete bibliographical data and non-published scientific works or public and non-public exhibitions of works of art and performances and their responses, eventually, also the expert’s opinions on them from the appropriate institutions of science, education, research, technology or art,

i) a written agreement of the Scientific Council of the faculty with submission of the dissertation for the defence if the award of the scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree is applied for by the graduate of higher education study without previously completing PhD study.

(3) The training institute that shall provide for the defence of the dissertation may require from the applicant without previously completing PhD study or from PhD student pursuing part-time form of PhD study, a reimbursement of a part of costs connected with the defence of dissertation.

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(4) The training institute shall immediately hand over the application for the defence permit to the chairman of the joint subject commission.

§ 13

Requirements of dissertation

(1) The dissertation shall be submitted for the defence in Slovak language. The PhD student may also submit his of her dissertation in a foreign language, with the consent of the joint subject commission.

(2) The PhD student or a person who submits the dissertation without previously completing PhD study may submit as the dissertation a published work or a collection of published works that are concerned in content with the problems of dissertation theme. In such a case, the PhD student or the person who submits the dissertation shall write a detailed preface to his dissertation where he will show the present state of the art of the problems treated, the aims of dissertation and conclusions that arose in solving the theme of dissertation.

(3) If the dissertation submitted for the defence shall be a group work, the PhD student or the person who submits the dissertation without previously completing the PhD study, shall indicate which sections he himself produced. If possible, a statement of co-authors where they confirm the authorship of the indicated parts by the PhD student or the person who submits the dissertation without previously completing the PhD study, shall be added in which they shall evaluate his or her portion in the overall production.

(4) In the dissertation the literature and sources used or referred to by the PhD student as well as the date of its completion shall be shown. The size of the dissertation shall not as a rule exceed eight author’s sheets; drawings, schemes, list of literature and other annexes are not included in the amount of author’s sheets. The dissertation in the scientific discipline of the PhD study from the group of disciplines of social sciences may have eleven author’s sheets at most.

§ 14

Abstract of the dissertation

(1) The PhD student shall provide an abstract of the dissertation (hereinafter "abstract") which is a brief summary of the dissertation’s basic results, indicating its input and data on its acceptance. If the dissertation represents a collection of works, their exact list is to be given in the abstract.

(2) The abstract is in A5 format. Its size may be of 20 typed pages at most. The first and second pages of the abstract ought to be arranged according to model shown in Annex 2.

(3) The abstract ought to be submitted in Slovak language.

(4) A part of the abstract shall be a list of all published works of the PhD student that are related to the problems examined as well as their acceptance showing exact bibliographical data, list of literature used and a resume in one foreign language at least, either in English, French, Spanish, German or Russian.

(5) The abstract shall be copied in necessary number of copies and sent in six weeks at the latest before the date of defence to the authorities, institutions and persons that may be concerned with the theme examined. Their list shall be determined by the joint subject commission.

(6) The abstract shall be sent particularly to

a) external examiners of the dissertation,

b) members of the joint subject commission for the given PhD field of study,

c) the respective ministry.⁷

(7) A copy of the abstract shall be provided by the training institute of the PhD student when pursuing full-time form of PhD study. The PhD student of part-time form of PhD study or the person submitting dissertation without completing the PhD study shall provide the copies of the abstract at their own costs.

(8) The distribution of abstracts shall be provided according to instructions of the chairman of the joint subject commission by the training institute at which the defence of the dissertation is to take place.

P e r m i s s i o n f o r d i s s e r t a t i o n d e f e n c e

§ 15

(1) If the dissertation falls within the competence of the appropriate joint subject commission for the PhD field of study, the defence shall be permitted by this commission.

(2) If the dissertation does not fall within the appropriate joint subject commission for the PhD field of study, this commission shall proceed according to § 16.

§ 16

(1) If the dissertation is of interdisciplinary nature, its defence shall be permitted by the joint subject commission of that field of PhD study in which the results of the defended dissertation are to be most benefitting, namely, after agreement with the joint subject commission for that field of the PhD study that the dissertation is related to.

(2) The content of the agreement according to section 1, shall be

a) designation of the joint subject commission that is to discuss the application for the defence permission and determination of the joint subject commission that is to set up and approve the commission for defence of dissertation (hereinafter "commission for defence"),

b) proposal for completion of commission for defence (§ 20 section 1) before which the defence will take place, by members of other joint subject commissions for the PhD fields of study that the problems of dissertation are concerned with,

c) determination of the PhD field of study in which the scientific-academic degree or artistic academic degree shall be awarded and, at the same time, designation of the appropriate Scientific Council of the faculty that shall decide on the proposal of awarding these degrees; in doing so, the attention shall be paid to the theme of dissertation, character of the received higher education of the PhD student and the PhD field of study in which the PhD student completed the dissertation examination,

d) determination of external examiners of dissertation from the PhD fields of study that the dissertation is related to.

§ 17

(1) If the appropriate joint subject commission finds out that the dissertation or abstract do not meet the requirements pursuant to §§ 13 and 14 or if it finds out that the application for defence permit lacks the requirements pursuant to §12 section 2, the PhD student shall be demanded to remove the insufficiencies in the fixed date.

(2) The PhD student may withdraw the submitted dissertation and application for the defence permit until the beginning of the non-public session of the commission for defence (§ 24 section 1).

(3) If the joint subject commission finds out that the dissertation has basic insufficiences of professional nature, it shall advise the PhD student to withdraw. If the PhD student does not agree with the recommendation of the joint subject commission, the commission will permit the defence of dissertation.

E x t e r n a l e x a m i n e r s o f d i s s e r t a t i o n a n d t h e i r s t a t e m e n t s

§ 18

(1) The chairman of the appropriate joint subject commission shall approve after getting familiar with the dissertation and after discussing it with members of the commission, a proposal by the supervisor for external examiners who are experts in the field or specialization of PhD study and are not employees of the same institution.

(2) The dissertation shall be evaluated by three external examiners. At least one of them is a professor or doctor of sciences, or scientific worker who was acknowledged the scientific qualification degree I. The further external examiners to be proposed may be appointed from among professors, visiting professors, visiting associate professors or workers with scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, or skilled experts from practice, in exceptional cases even those without scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, scientific-pedagogical degree or artistic-pedagogical degree.

(3) The external examiners approved shall be appointed by the head of the training institute.

§ 19

(1) The expert’s statement shall contain an objective and critical analysis of assets and insufficiences of the dissertation; it shall be brief and shall not repeat the content of the dissertation. In his statement the external examiner shall express his opinion on

a) relevance of the theme selected,

b) fulfilment of aims by the dissertation,

c) methods of elaboration chosen,

d) results of the dissertation showing the latest knowledge it brings,

e) input for further development of science, technology or art.

(2) Each external examiner shall work out an independent statement and he shall explicitly indicate in it if he proposes or not, on the basis of the dissertation submitted, to award the scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree.

(4) If the statement of external examiner does not meet the conditions set up in sections 2 and 3, the joint subject commission shall return it to the external examiner to complete it or revise indicating its deadline for submission, not longer than one month.

(5) The external examiners shall evaluate the dissertation according to the state of development of scientific discipline or field of art of PhD study in the time when the application for permit of dissertation defence is submitted to the chairman of the joint subject commission.

T h e D e f e n c e o f t h e d i s s e r t a t i o n

§ 20

(1) The joint subject commission shall appoint not later than one month since delivering the statements from all external examiners. The commission for defence shall be made up of chairman and at least six other members.

(2) The joint subject commission shall see to it that the defence of the dissertation takes place within five months at the latest since submitting the application for the defence permission.

(3) Each person who is interested in the examined problems and defence of the dissertation, may submit his opinion or a statement in written form to the chairman of the commission for defence not later than one week before the defence or, he may express his comments in verbal form at the defence. The PhD student shall express his opinion to them at the defence.

§ 21

(1) The defence of a dissertation shall be principally public. In exceptional cases the chairman of the joint subject commission may announce it as non-public. The defence of a dissertation shall be a scientific treatise on the achieved knowledge contained in the dissertation or an artistic treatise on the created work of art or on the performed artistic performance worked out in the dissertation to be held between the PhD student, external examiners, members of the commission for defence and other participants of the defence. The defence should be concerned with authenticity and substantiation of conclusions and proposals of the dissertation.

(2) The defence of a dissertation shall be carried out at the training institute at which the PhD student submitted his application for permit of the defence of dissertation or, upon a proposal of the joint subject commission in the given PhD field of study in other institution the activity of which is connected with the problems of the dissertation theme.

(3) The external examiners shall participate in the defence of a dissertation. If one of them cannot participate in the defence for exceptionally serious reasons, the defence may be carried out under the condition that the absent external examiner gives a positive statement and all present members agree that the defence takes place in the absence of this external examiner. In such case the statement of the absent external examiner shall be read at the defence. The defence cannot be held if two external examiners are missing.

(4) If the PhD student cannot participate at the set up date in the defence of dissertation, he shall apologize in advance to the chairman of the joint subject commission that shall set up a substitute date for the dissertation defence. If the PhD student does not take part in the dissertation defence without a serious reason, the consequences are the same as in case of a failure (§ 24 section 9). The same consequences are at giving up the dissertation defence.

(5) The defence shall be supervised by the chairperson of the commission for the defence; exceptionally, on the basis of authorization by chairman of the joint subject commission, by a member of the commission for defence. The external examiner or the supervisor of PhD student shall not guide the defence even when being members of the joint subject commission.

§ 22

(1) At the defence of dissertation the present external examiners shall be considered as further members of the commission for defence with the right to vote.

(2) At the defence of dissertation and proposal of the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, the presence of not less than a two thirds majority of all members of the commission for defence, including the present external examiners, shall be required; in doing so, at least one of its present members and of external examiners shall come from another institution.

§ 23

(1) At the defence of the dissertation the following procedure shall be taken:

a) the defence shall be started by the chairmain introducing a short CV of the PhD student while considering the expert statement pursuant to § 12, section 2, letter f); he shall announce the theme of the dissertation and the list of scientific works or artistic works of the PhD student and data on their acceptance,

b) the PhD student shall briefly present the essential content of his dissertation,

c) the external examiners shall present the basic content of their opinions; for the absent external examiner, the expert statement shall be read by the chairman or other member of the commission for defence,

d) the PhD student shall take up an opinion to the statements of external examiners, to all objections, comments, and questions,

e) the chairmain shall acquaint all those present with further statements and opinions and shall open a discussion that all those present may take part in; in the discussion on dissertation the accuracy, substantiation, scientific or artistic authenticity and relevance of knowledge contained in the dissertation, as well as the justification and exactness of the examiners' statements shall be verified,

f) in the discussion the PhD student shall answer all questions and shall take up the attitude to all incentives (§ 20 section 5) and to objections of participants of the discussion.

(2) The defence shall be recorded in minutes to be signed by chairman of the commission for defence.

§ 24

(1) After completing the defence, non-public session of a commission for defence shall take place in which its members, supervisor and external examiners shall take part. At the non-public session the procedure and result of the defence shall be evaluated and according to its results the applicant shall be proposed for the award or non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree. At the same time, the possibility of using the results of dissertation in practice shall be evaluated.

(2) Concerning section 1 the commission for defence shall decide on the proposal by secret ballot; the supervisor of the PhD student shall not vote.

(3) The voting according to section 2 shall be done by ballots that shall contain these data: the first name and surname of the PhD student, date and place of the dissertation defence and text "I agree - I don’t agree with the award of scientific-academic degree (artistic-academic degree)". The member of the joint subject commission and external examiner shall vote in such a way that one of the options: "I agree - I don’t agree" shall be crossed by them. Other mode of voting is not valid.

(4) At the submission of proposal for the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree it is necessary that at least two thirds of all persons entitled to vote be present (§ 22 section 2) and that the proposal for the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree be approved by a majority of the present members.

(5) The result of the voting shall be recorded in minutes to be signed by all those voting.

(6) If the result of voting is positive, the chairman of the commission for defence shall announce it at its public session.

(7) If the result of voting is negative, the commission for defence at the non-public session shall agree on justification of the proposal on the non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree which is a part of the minutes on the result of voting. The result of voting with justification shall be announced by the chairman of the commission for defence at its public session. The day of oral announcement of the result of voting shall be the day of its announcement only when the present PhD student gives up the right for delivering its written copy. Otherwise the result of voting with justification by the commission for defence shall be announced to the PhD student by delivering its written copy.

(8) The proposal for award or proposal for non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree to the PhD student together with minutes on the defence and voting and documents of the PhD student shall be submitted by the joint subject commission within 30 days since the defence to the appropriate Scientific Council of the faculty that shall decide about this proposal.⁸

(9) The PhD student who is proposed by the commission for defence on the grounds of results of dissertation defence not to be awarded scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree may reapply for permission of defence in the same PhD field of study after expiry of one year at the earliest since the day of failure in the defence.

D e c i s i o n - m a k i n g o f t h e S c i e n t i f i c C o u n c i l o f t h e f a c u l t y

o n t h e a w a r d o f s c i e n t i f i c - a c a d e m i c d e g r e e

o r a r t i s t i c - a c a d e m i c d e g r e e

§ 25

(1) At the discussions of the Scientific Council of the faculty the proposal for the award or non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree to the PhD student shall be submitted by the chairman of the joint subject commission or its member entrusted by him.

(2) If the PhD student meets the criteria⁹ for the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree in the PhD field of study, the Scientific Council of the faculty shall verify if during the performance of the defence (§ 20 to 24) the procedure was observed pursuant to this Decree.

(3) If the Scientific Council of the faculty finds out that during the performance of the defence the procedure was not observed pursuant to this Decree, it shall command repetition of the defence. The repeated defence shall not be considered as the defence according to § 24 section 9.

(4) If the Scientific Council finds out that during the defence of dissertation the procedure set up by this Decree was observed, but the proposal was for non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, it shall not award the scientific academic (artistic-academic degree) degree to the PhD student.

(5) If the Scientific Council of the faculty finds out that at dissertation defence the procedure set up by this Decree was observed and if the proposal was for award of scientific-academic or artistic-academic degree, it shall decide on the award of scientific academic (artistic-academic) degree by voting. If the PhD student does not meet the criteria according to section 2, the Scientific Council of the faculty shall not award the scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree.

§ 26

The written copy of decision on the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, or decisions on non-award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree, shall be sent to the PhD student and, after the decision shall enter into force, also to the appropriate joint subject commission. The Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic shall be only delivered a notification on the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree written on its form.

§ 27

Award of diploma

The diploma¹⁰ shall be given as a rule to the PhD student on a solemn ceremony arranged by higher education institution with the presence of representatives of the training institutes that shall be held within six months at the latest since the award of scientific-academic degree or artistic-academic degree by the Scientific Council of the faculty.

§ 28

Part-time form of PhD study

(1) The admission procedure of applicants for part-time form of PhD study is referred to by provisions § 2 and 3.

(2) The supervision of PhD students in part-time form of study, their study, dissertation examination, preparation of dissertation and its defence are referred to by the provisions § 4 to 14, § 17 and § 20 to 24.

§ 29

Change of form of PhD study

(1) The change of form of PhD study, the PhD field of study or change of the training institute may be carried out during PhD study in justified cases, particularly, if there are more favourable conditions for scientific education or artistic education of the PhD student created thereof.

(2) At all changes in scientific education or artistic education according to section 1, the period of duration of PhD study¹¹ shall include the appropriate part of duration of the study completed up to the executed change and the dissertation examination taken before this change shall be taken into account.

§ 30

Granting scholarship

to PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study

(1)The PhD student pursuing full-time form of PhD study shall be granted during his study by the training institute the scholarship that is considered as a salary¹² , namely, from the first day of calendar month following the day of his enrolment at the PhD study until the time he stops being the PhD student.¹³ If the PhD study is finished by the defence of dissertation, the training institute shall grant the scholarship to the PhD student in full-time form of PhD study up to the last day of the calendar month following the day when the dissertation defence took place.

(2) The PhD student in full-time form of PhD study whose length of professional practice ¹⁴ in scientific discipline or field of art will be shorter than three years, shall be entitled, until the completion of dissertation examination, to a scholarship in the amount of wage tariff of a university assistant, i.e., the first wage degree of scale 8 according to special rules.¹⁵

(3) The PhD student in full-time form of PhD study whose length of professional practice in scientific discipline or field of art will be longer than three years, shall be entitled, until completion of dissertation examination, to a scholarship in the amount of the wage tariff of the appropriate wage degree of scale 8.

(4) The PhD student in full-time form of PhD study according to section 2 shall be entitled, after successful completion of dissertation examination, to a scholarship in the amount of wage tariff of the first wage degree of wage scale 9¹⁵ of a university lecturer¹⁵ namely, from the first day of calendar month following the day when the PhD student successfully completed the dissertation examination.

(5) The PhD student in full-time form of study according to section 3 shall be entitled, after successful completion of dissertation examination, to a scholarship in the amount of wage tariff of the same wage degree of wage scale 9 that the PhD student was ranked upon enrolment for study, namely, since the first day of the calendar month following the day when the PhD student successfully completed the dissertation examination.

(6) Upon the proposal by the supervisor and head of the workplace wherein the PhD student has been engaged, the head of the training institute may increase the scholarship to the PhD student in full-time form of PhD study who achieves high-quality results in his scientific research activity (artistic activity) or in teaching activity, by the sum corresponding to personal allowance that may be allotted to an employee in employment ranked in the similar wage degree and scale.¹⁶

(7) Upon the proposal by the supervisor and head of the workplace wherein the PhD student has been engaged, the head of the training institute may grant to the PhD student in full-time form of PhD study for successful solution of a part of scientific project (artistic project) or scientific-technical project which was allotted a grant within the framework of intersector grant system or national grant system, a bonus.¹⁷

(8) The PhD student in full-time form of the PhD study who fulfils his tasks of study programme in environment harmful to health, shall be increased his scholarship by a sum corresponding to the allowance the amount of which shall be determined by the head of the training institute within the framework of the set up scale.¹⁸

(9) During the suspension of PhD study pursuant to § 7 section 1 the PhD student in full-time form shall not be granted a scholarship.

F i n a l C o n c l u s i o n s

§ 31

(1) The PhD students in full-time form of study that were enabled a transfer to PhD study¹⁹ and are entitled to scholarship,²⁰ shall be paid the difference between the scholarship according to rules valid before entering this Decree²¹ into force up to the amount set up by this Decree for the period from transfer to the PhD study; however, not for the period before January 1, 1997, within 30 days from entering this Decree into force.

(2) The PhD students who within the framework of completed lecture courses, until entering this Decree into force, successfully completed examinations in individual subjects in postgraduate study according to the present regulations,²² may be acknowledged upon their request a part of the dissertation examination by the joint subject commission (§ 10 section 5 letter a)).

§32

The following regulations shall lose their force:

1. Decree of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Slovak Republic No. 317/1991 of the Law Code on conditions for granting scholarships to students of postgraduate study.

2. Decree of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences No. 54/1977 of the Law Code whereby some details on labour-legal relations of participants of scientific education and on the study visits and granting scholarships as amended by the subsequent regulations, are amended.

§ 33

This Decree shall come into force on May 15, 1997.

Eva Slavkovská

signed in her own hand

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