A person, who holds a Master Degree (or equivalent qualification), is eligible to acquire a Doctor of Science degree externally (hereinafter – external doctoral candidate).
The external doctoral candidate must have drafted a dissertation and have the main results of the dissertation published in at least two scientific articles published (or accepted for publishing with DOI (digital object identifier) in reviewed research publications, one of which has been published in an international publication, where not less than half of the editorial board consists of members from other countries than the publication is issued, or scientific publications with a citation index in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science or Elsevier Scopus (Scopus) databases, which had not been previously submitted in the defended dissertations, or have prepared a scientific monograph without co-authors.
Requirements for dissertations are specified in the Regulations of Doctoral Studies in the respective field of science.
The external doctoral candidate addresses a request to defend a doctoral dissertation externally to the Rector and submits it to the Social Innovations Doctoral School. The request includes:
- manuscript of the dissertation or an issued scientific monograph;
- the list of scientific publications and electronic copies thereof;
- diplomas and their supplements (originals and their copies; the originals are returned straight away);
- approved copies of the minutes of doctoral examinations (if any) and extracts thereof;
- the description of the candidate’s life, scientific and creative activity – curriculum vitae;
- a copy of the identity document.
All the documents are transferred to the Doctoral Committee of the respective field of science which assigns two reviewers and a relevant academic unit to establish whether the manuscript of the dissertation or the published scientific monograph meets the requirements for scientific dissertations. After the reviews and the recommendation of the scientific unit are submitted, no later than within three months from the receipt of the documents, the Committee organizes a meeting in which the external doctoral candidate participates. After having heard the external doctoral candidate and the conclusions of the reviewers, the Committee makes a decision on whether the dissertation manuscript or the published scientific monograph meets the requirements for the scientific doctoral dissertation.
If the Committee confirms the negative decision, the external doctoral candidate can resubmit the request for the defence of the dissertation not sooner than after one year.