“Pursuing a doctorate is primarily an opportunity for independent research, intensive development of expertise, and deeper specialization in a specific scientific field. At the same time, doctoral studies are also about developing a wide range of other skills, including independent thinking and the ability to solve problems, developing communication and presenting skills, writing academic texts, preparing grant applications, and leading fellow students,” says Professor Michaela Rumlová, Vice-Rector for Doctoral Studies. Doctoral studies in the Czech Republic will undergo fundamental changes starting in September 2025 thanks to an amendment to the Higher Education Act. What changes to expect is outlined in the following interview.
What do you think a successful PhD student should “look like”?
A mature person who strives to contributes to the development of their entire scientific field with their research. Someone who also works on themselves and pushes the boundaries of their personal and professional abilities. Doctoral studies are on a path to acquiring competencies that open up opportunities to continue a career not only in academia or at research institutions, but also in the commercial arena or other areas where there is a need for top experts with the ability to solve complex problems, lead a team, and obtain financial support for research activities.
Why and when should a student consider this career option?
The decision to start a doctoral programme should come when a student feels that scientific work, similar to research conducted for a Master’s thesis, is something they really enjoy, find fulfilling and inspiring. If this is the case, this person is an ideal doctoral candidate. In general, a doctorate is rewarding for those who are curious, who enjoy finding innovative solutions, who think critically, and who want to share their knowledge with the scientific community or the general public in a way that makes sense to everyone. The decision about this career direction usually comes when the student can build on previous research (often work from a Master’s thesis), or when the student meets an inspiring mentor/supervisor who will support their further development.
Does someone who earns a Ph.D. necessarily have to become a scientist?
Absolutely not, although this is often the case, because science is fascinating, fun, and offers a great deal of freedom. However, if someone who earns a Ph.D. does not want to continue as a researcher in a laboratory, the door is open to a whole range of other career paths. Many of our doctoral graduates have found employment after their studies, e.g. as managers, or even Rectors [laughs]. They have also worked as corporate directors or heads of R&D teams. Although doctoral studies deepen knowledge in a specific scientific field, they are not one-sided in terms of focus. Doctoral students develop not only professional knowledge, but they also develop independence, the ability to make decisions, and to analyse and solve problems. This gradually forms a complex individual who sees the direction of their future career more and more clearly. Thanks to this, doctoral candidates have very diverse options after defending a Ph.D., including applying their potential outside the academic sphere.
UCT Prague is a research university and has long had the highest percentage of doctoral students to overall students in the Czech Republic. Why are doctoral candidates so important to the university?
UCT Prague belongs to the Czech Research Universities Association, together with Charles University, Czech Technical University in Prague, Brno University of Technology, Masaryk University, Palacký University Olomouc, and the University of South Bohemia České Budějovice. RUA’s main goal is fostering excellence in science, and this inherently includes both training top doctoral students and supporting high-quality researchers/mentors who conduct interesting research and secure grant funding for their activities. UCT Prague has a number of top experts who are able to obtain funding for their scientific and research activities through grants and other projects. In order for research to “move forward”, a driving force—an engine, so to speak—is needed, and that is precisely how doctoral students fit into the picture, because they contribute additional thoughts, ideas, and hard work. So, thanks to high-quality supervisors and a number of grants, we have a really high number of doctoral students.
However, this does not mean that everything is going perfectly smoothly. Until last year, the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports provided scholarship money for each doctoral student accepted, which led to the fact that sometimes students who did not have sufficient qualifications, motivation, or interest sometimes started their doctorates, receiving scholarships and student benefits without meeting their supervisors’ expectations. Mentors often lacked effective for addressing this kind of situation. Moreover, this system also allowed supervisors without a clear research focus to “acquire” doctoral students, primarily to help with teaching.
I believe that the amendment to the Higher Education Act, which brings changes in funding levels and increases the demands on both doctoral students and mentors, will help the situation to gradually improve. Supervisors will be required to be more financially involved in finding funding for students and to provide quality leadership, while doctoral students will be expected to work more intensively in order to be able to defend their dissertations in a shorter period of time than is the case today. The number of doctoral students will probably decrease slightly, but UCT Prague will still be one of the Czech universities with a very high number of doctoral candidates.
The aforementioned amendment to the Higher Education Act is not just a cosmetic adjustment to the status quo, but a relatively substantial reform. What are your thoughts on what awaits doctoral students?
The fundamental change with the amendment is the guarantee of doctoral income. Starting in the 2025/2026 academic year (more precisely, doctoral students admitted to full-time studies starting 1 September 20250, universities will be obliged to ensure a net income of 1.2 times the Czech minimum wage, which for 2025/2026 means 24,960 CZK per month.
Furthermore, the dissertation defense will mark the end of doctoral studies, constituting the state doctoral examinations, at UCT Prague. The so-called “basic part” of the state exams, where doctoral students were tested in three subject areas, will be abolished. Given that doctoral candidates have already completed very similar subjects within the current course of their doctoral studies (or in their Master’s [or even Bachelor’s] studies, I see this as a step in the right direction. I believe that we should view doctoral candidates as early career researchers rather than as students who have to repeatedly take extensive theoretical exams. Unfortunately, the amendment does not solve the problem of the so-called “status” of a doctoral candidate: that is, whether they should be considered to be “students” or “employees” working on research issues. In order to make doctoral candidates employees, much more significant changes are be needed. These changes cannot be implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) but by other Ministries.
What other changes will happen to achieve the main goal of the amendment, i.e. improve the quality of doctoral studies?
We will have to ensure that studies are completed in a standard time (4 + 1 years). In our country, as with many other universities, only 16% of students currently manage to do this. Since successful completion will be associated with funding for doctoral students from MEYS, we will try to adopt this at UCT Prague. However, this certainly does not mean that doctoral studies will become “easier”. A doctoral student must perfectly master not only their specific research area, but also its interdisciplinary overlap.
Instead of returning doctoral students “back to school”, we plan to introduce a colloquial form of verifying progress on their dissertation topics. During colloquia, doctoral students will demonstrate how they are progressing in their chosen topic, how they understand its place in the research canon, and what progress they are making in their professional and personal development. At the same time, the doctoral study subject-area boards will receive quality feedback on the status of individual dissertations in respective subject areas, on the level of cooperation between a doctoral student and a supervisor, and students will be motivated to continue further (self-)study and seek advice. I believe that UCT Prague—which, as already mentioned, is at the top in the percentage of doctoral students per students in the Czech Republic—will use this opportunity to modernize how doctoral studies are conducted so that we can provide doctoral students with even better conditions for fulfilling the goals we have already discussed.
Do the changes resulting from the amendment to the Higher Education Act also apply to current doctoral students?
As far as finances are concerned, yes. Even though the amendment to the Higher Education Act does not directly stipulate this, existing full-time doctoral students will receive the same monthly stipend as newly enrolled students starting 1 September 2025. However, changes in the structure of doctoral studies (e.g. changes to colloquium exams or the cancellation of the basic part of the state exam) will only apply to doctoral students who start in the 2025/2026 academic year. For those who started their doctorate studies earlier, we do not want to change the conditions for fulfilling their individual study plans (ISPs) in mid-course.
How will UCT Prague implement the concept of Doctoral Schools?
Although we already offer a number of transferable skills courses (e.g. Supervision, Leadership, Data Stewardship) that help doctoral candidates prepare for their scientific and professional careers, there is no Doctoral School at UCT Prague yet. Our vision is to expand these courses in the future, give them a clear structure, and unify them under the umbrella of the Doctoral Schools of UCT Prague, which will be based on a concept inspired by the European Competence Framework for Researchers (ResearchComp). The Doctoral School will aim to create a comprehensive support system that will complement doctoral studies with the development of key skills needed for scientific or commercial practice. In our current deliberations, we are considering the concept of dividing courses into several areas, which would give doctoral students the opportunity to acquire skills they chose, depending on what they need in their future careers, either in academia, in research organizations or in the commercial sector (in management or in scientific positions). The learning outcomes should be more comprehensive and concurrently, more individually focused on training for real-world settings and high job market competitiveness.
What are funding options for doctoral students at UCT Prague? Will the university be able to afford as many doctoral candidates as we have now in the coming years?
Starting this year, we no longer receive money automatically from MEYS for each enrolled doctoral student. Instead, we are given a lump sum corresponding to the funding average of the previous five years. If we were to pay doctoral students only from this fund, it would be enough for approximately one-third of current students. However, UCT Prague is exceptional in that it has many grant projects from which doctoral students can be co-financed.
Last year, my colleagues from the Department of Strategic Planning focused on data mining conducted a thorough analysis of the real income of our doctoral students from 2018 to 2023. We found that the vast majority are already around or above the planned guaranteed stipend. For full-time doctoral students in this study, doctoral student income usually consisted of approximately 70% from the national stipend (40% covered by MEYS and 30% from specific university research) and 30% was a supplement from a supervisor’s grant.
We have therefore decided to continue this practice and set up a model for co-financing of doctoral candidates with both UCT Prague funding and supervisor contributions. The Vice-Deans for R&D from all Faculties have calculated how many doctoral students (both internal UCT Prague students and those conducting their research at the Institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) we can co-finance with a UCT Prague stipend. For internal students who are working on their dissertations at UCT Prague, the university will add an internal scholarship from its own resources. The rest, which is at least CZK 7,400 for 2025/2026 academic year, must then be provided by supervisors. For full-time doctoral students at the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, supervisors will have to provide co-financing for almost CZK 15,000 for the 2025/2026 academic year. The amount of co-financing by mentors in future years will depend on calculations based on the announced minimum stipend for a given academic year.
How will applicants for doctoral studies at UCT Prague be selected? What will be the main admission requirements?
At UCT Prague, applicants will be selected during an admissions process that includes an interview with an expert admissions committee. During this process, applicants will present their reasons for pursuing a doctorate, discuss their previous studies and research experience, and talk about their interest in a specific research project (their dissertation topic). The committee will then evaluate each applicant according to uniform criteria that notably emphasize the prerequisites for scientific work.
We will divide all applicants into three groups. Those with the highest points will be admitted and, if interested in full-time studies, they are entitled to an institutional scholarship (this number of places will be limited by the amount of funds available from MEYS). The second group will consist of those who receive fewer points but who demonstrate sufficient abilities for admission to either full-time or “combined” studies. These candidates can be admitted to full-time studies only if their supervisor has enough funding to pay the doctoral student from their own resources (without the right to apply for an institutional scholarship). If a supervisor cannot guarantee sufficient doctoral income, but the applicant demonstrates, from the supervisor’s point of view, a quality that promises a contribution to research, the applicant will not be admitted to full-time, but we will offer them the opportunity to apply for the other form of study (i.e. combined form, where there are no minimum doctoral income guarantees). The third group are applicants who do not demonstrate sufficient prerequisites, and they will not be admitted to full-time or combined study.
If a situation requires it, a second round of interviews may take place, especially for doctoral students applying for topics listed by supervisors from the Academy of Sciences.
What are the options for doctoral students for study trips abroad? How is this supported?
For doctoral candidates, a study trip abroad is a mandatory part of one’s studies according to accreditation standards in the Czech Republic. This trip can be financed through the Erasmus+ programme or other scholarships, from a supervisor’s grant funding, or a combination of both sources.
How will the quality of doctoral studies be institutionally evaluated?
We are preparing a new form of annual evaluation of doctoral students, based on a structured survey and an evaluation based on the Individual Study Plan (ISP). This maps a doctoral student’s professional progress (publications, grants, internships abroad), their teaching activities, and development of other skills (so-called “transferable skills”). Feedback on levels of cooperation with supervisors and the quality of laboratory facilities will also be newly implemented here. In order to fine-tune and optimize this entirely new concept—especially the colloquium system—before the upcoming national reaccreditation of doctoral programmes (2028/2029), we will prepare simple surveys. These will help us learn about what works in practice, what doesn’t, and what needs to be improved. The various specialized courses (mentoring, academic writing, and so on) that are already offered to doctoral students or which are being prepared will also be evaluated. We hope that this will allow us to detect any shortcomings prior to reaccreditation and thus develop the optimal form of doctoral studies at UCT Prague.
How will doctoral students participate in teaching and what are the possibilities for developing their pedagogical skills?
Teaching is related to doctoral students’ acquisition of presentation, communication, and organizational skills. So, just as it was in 2024/2025, doctoral students will also be involved in teaching in the coming years for up to 100 required hours, most often as an equivalent to participating in leading laboratories, leading seminars, or advising Bachelor and Master theses. These activities will be part of doctoral studies to a certain extent for the reasons stated at directly above. If a doctoral student exceeds this basic service activity (100 teaching hours), a separate agreement can be negotiated (e.g. work contract or extraordinary scholarship). The payment for this additional teaching activity will be supplemental (not be included as part of the student’s nominal doctoral stipend). For doctoral students who want to develop their teaching competences, we are planning courses within the Doctoral School in cooperation with the Department for Chemical Education and Humanities and the Centre for the Development of Pedagogical Competences (CEPKO).
What support can doctoral students expect from the Office for Doctoral Studies?
In many of my answers, when I say “we”, I mean the Office for Doctoral Studies, i.e. Veronika Popová, Mili Losmanová, and Soňa Hříbalová. All of our activities are geared towards supporting doctoral students and their development, but we certainly do not want to replace the Dean’s offices or replace the role of supervisors or the doctoral study subject-area boards For a year now, we have been regularly organizing Ph.D. Open Office Hours (monthly consultation sessions where doctoral students can ask questions). To make starting doctoral studies easier, Mili Losmanová and the Electronic Signpost for Ph.D.s (ERD) have created a unique “onboarding” plan—not only for doctoral candidates, but also for their supervisors—and we are the first and only higher education institution in the Czech Republic to offer such a system.
For three years now, we have been providing courses in transferable skills such as Supervision, Leadership, and Data Stewardship. These courses help doctoral students prepare for their scientific and professional careers. We also cooperate with the National Library of Technology (NTK) on a summer doctoral school and every year we organize a special seminar for newly enrolled doctoral students to give them the best possible start. We are also developing international cooperation with European universities and their doctoral study offices in order to share best practices and provide doctoral students with high-quality support. A large part of these activities will form a solid basis for the planned Doctoral School.
In cooperation with the Vice-Deans for R&D and the Advisory Panel for Doctoral Studies (PGS 2022+), we are working very intensively on implementing the changes associated with the amendment to the Higher Education Act regarding the financing of doctoral studies, changes to admission procedures and state doctoral exams, and cooperation with external places of work. We would also like to innovate research projects supported by the Internal Grant Agency (VIGA). This year, the research project competition was opened for the first time to all doctoral students from external places of work, and starting in 2026, we will be considering a new concept for internal VIGA projects.
A major change is the modification of the concept of doctoral studies, i.e. the aforementioned replacement of the current form (with exams in four subjects, which will no longer take place) with colloquia focused more on students’ dissertation topics. If we manage to convince the guarantors and the doctoral study subject-area boards that this is a step in the right direction, we may be able to introduce these changes in a transitional way even before the planned reaccreditation in 2028/2029, which would enable us to address any potential shortcomings prior to changing the existing profile of graduates for new students in current doctoral programmes.