Joint Doctorate/Cotutelle

The purpose of the Cotutelle agreement is to enable doctorate students to involve in research undertaken at two universities in two different countries, and do a “Joint Doctorate.” It contributes to enlarging international research collaborations and enables the PhD candidate to get a better, broader, education.

The desired result is that the PhD candidate will get a PhD degree from both universities, on the basis of one single dissertation – or alternatively on two dissertations that overlap to a very large extent. The doctoral candidate will work on his/her dissertation being supervised at both universities. The candidate is required to do one or several extended research stays at the partner institution. The evaluation of the dissertation will be conducted by both parties involved. Thus, a dissertation written under this Cotutelle agreement, is required to fulfill both partner institutions requirements.

Central points of the agreement:

• Both partner institutions agree to supervise Cotutelle PhD candidates.
• The minimum requirement of extended research stays at the partner institution is 12 months (and these can be distributed over 1 – 3 visits).
• Both partner institutions agree not to charge Cotutelle students with any Tuition fees.
• The home institution of each Cotutelle candidate is responsible for the financial support for each Cotutelle student during their research stays abroad.

A brief outline of the requirements for a PhD at the University of Pardubice:

• In order to be enrolled as a PhD student, a Master’s degree in relevant field is required, plus a successful interview with your Professor and/or head of the department.
• Each PhD student will have one main supervisor and one co-supervisor.
• The PhD program is 3-years long. (An extension for a 4^th year is possible.)
• The dissertation itself is supposed to reflect that the candidate has developed skills to do independent research in philosophy, engage in critical dialogue with the research field, and can engage in serious critical thinking. There are no definite rules that dictates the length of a dissertation, but a normal Czech dissertation is approximately 120 – 200 standard pages (or, 60.000 – 80.000 words).
• The dissertation must be written in English, Czech or Slovak.
• The course requirements are:

1. One reading exam at the end of the first year. Each student is required to study a number of assigned texts, central to the field of research. Examination: oral.
2. Two optional courses, selected in agreement with the main supervisor.
3. Two Foreign Language Exams. English, French, German, or Czech. (This requirement can hopefully be circumvented for Cotutelle students, since there’s little point in examining a foreign student in a foreign language.)

• A PhD student at the University of Pardubice is also required to publish 1 article in a peer-reviewed journal and participate in at least 2 events (conferences, workshops) organized elsewhere.