The defense can only take place after a PhD student meets all degree requirements.

Degree requirements in a nutshell

• Have at least one first author publication in an international research journal with an impact factor above the median IF in the field or have two first author publications with the IF in Q3. Importantly, the affiliation to the training department at the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University must be listed.

• Gain a set of minimum credits (240 ECTS in 4-year study period), pass 4 faculty-wide courses and 4 field-specific courses.

• Pass the doctoral state exam.

• Take an active part in teaching.

• Participate at the Annual PhD Conference in Biomedical Sciences.

• Present research outcomes at least once at an international conference (poster, presentation).

• Spend at least one month abroad on an internship.

If the student meets all degree requirements and plans to defend in the upcoming months, there are several steps to follow:

Thesis Defense

• Write thesis 😊 (formal requirements).

• Contact the program coordinator and let him/her know a list of publication(s) that will be included in the thesis.

• The Doctoral Board approves the thesis defense and establishes two reviewers.

• Register for the defense at the Office for Qualifying Development (Czech program) or Office for Quality (English program). When registering, the student needs to provide several documents listed in the registration form. Importantly, students can register only once the thesis is ready, as the on-line version of the thesis has to be uploaded into the Archive in IS MU (a quick quide).

• The Office for Qualifying Development/Office for Quality sends the thesis to the reviewers.

• The Doctoral Board establishes a thesis defense committee and set a date and place of the defense.​

*Part of the registration form - Annex 3 is available here.

Thesis Defense

After the opening words by the Chair of the Defense Committee, the floor is given to the student for a 15 minute presentation. The presentation is followed by a summary of the reviews and students are asked to comment on the reviewer´s questions. After the presentation and reviews, a general discussion starts followed by the evaluation of the student by the committee.

Viva voce

Viva voce is an alternative to regular thesis defense rarely allowed by the Doctoral Board in case a PhD student does not have a first author publication, but the research outcomes are of exceptionally high quality (e.g. the paper is under review or being submitted). Contact the program director for more details.

After the Thesis Defense

The Office for Qualifying Development/Office for Quality prepares the PhD diploma and sends it for a signature to the Dean´s and the Rectorate´s Office. Once the Diploma is ready, the Rectorate´s Office contacts the student and inform about the graduation ceremony.

In the meantime, students can also pick up the electronic version of their diploma from the information system (is.muni.cz). It is available shortly after the defense and students can download it at any time (also in the future).