Recruitment 2022/2023 – recruitment details

Supervisors
It is worth starting the recruitment process to a Doctoral School at the University of Warsaw by finding a supervisor, who will be willing to provide care for the doctoral student and perform scientific supervision over their research project. The name of the supervisor and the scan of their declaration about their willingness to be the candidate’s supervisor shall be submitted in IRK.

The declaration of the planned supervisor may be submitted by a person who remains the designated supervisor for no more than five doctoral students or persons applying for the award of a doctoral degree. The indicated number of doctoral students should include individuals in doctoral schools and participants of doctoral studies. In special cases and upon the justified request of the planned supervisor, the Director may increase this limit for the purposes of the admissions procedure.

The limit is increased only for the purposes of the admissions procedure. This means that after the candidate is accepted, it is necessary to apply to the Director with another request to change the limit. Pursuant to the School Regulations, in special cases, upon a justified request of a candidate for a supervisor, the Director, upon consultation with the Board, increases the above-mentioned limit of five people.

Therefore, we would like to point out that the possible consent of the Director to increase the limit is currently only for the purposes of the admissions procedure. After admission to the School, a separate procedure is required to increase the limit.

In order to find a supervisor, candidates for the Doctoral Schools are encouraged to search through the database of supervisors available here [LINK]. The database contains the list of University of Warsaw researchers, who are willing to perform the function of the dissertation supervisor.

The candidates are also encouraged to consult the websites of the University of Warsaw faculties and academic units for the information on academic teachers conducting their research.

Recruitment schedule

Registration in the Internet Recruitment of Candidates, referred to as “IRK”, submission of an application in the IRK for admission to the Doctoral School of Humanities: 10 May – 7 June, 2022;
Recruitment procedure
- 1st stage of the recruitment procedure: 22 June – 4 July, 2022;
- publication of the results of the 1 st stage of the recruitment procedure: 8 July, 2022;
- publication of the interview schedule (2nd stage): 8 July, 2022;
- 2nd stage of the recruitment procedure: 15 July – 22 July, 2022;
- publication of the ranking list: 29 July, 2022;
- reception of documents from qualified candidates: 1 August – 20 September, 2022;
- announcement of the list of persons admitted to the School: 22 September 2022;
- start of education: 1 October 2022.

More information: Rector’s resolution (in Polish)

Required documents
The candidate shall submit the application for admission to the School only in IRK [LINK]. It shall include:

the application for admission to the School stating the discipline in which the candidate plans to pursue education, PESEL number or passport number, citizenship, contact details, information whether the candidate consents to the delivery of administrative decisions by electronic means of communication, consent to the processing of personal data for the purposes of the recruitment procedure;
scan of a diploma of completion of the long-cycle Master’s degree programme or second-cycle programme or an equivalent diploma obtained under separate regulations or in the case of candidates pursuing education within the European Higher Education Area – a certificate of obtaining a Master’s degree or a declaration that the diploma or certificate of obtaining a Master’s degree shall be provided by 20 September 2022. In case the diploma was issued in a language other than Polish or English, the candidate submits its certified translation;
a description of the initial research project proposal, which comprises no more than 6,000 characters including spaces, together with a summary of the research project of no more than 1,000 characters with spaces; the description shall contain the bibliography that is not included in the character limit;
a resumé or curriculum vitae containing information about scientific activities, including scientific interests and scientific achievements during five calendar years preceding the submission of the application; If the candidate becomes a parent during this period, which will be confirmed by enclosed scan of the child’s birth certificate in the application, this period is extended by two years for each child;
scans of materials confirming scientific activities referred to in the resumé or CV; no more than two complete scans of articles or chapters in joint publications, considered the most important; other candidate’s publications shall be confirmed with scans of title pages;
declaration about the command of English to the extent enabling the education in the School (at least at B2 level);
a scan of the declaration of the supervisor candidate about their willingness to be the candidate’s supervisor and the number of doctoral students, for whom they are appointed as the supervisor; in addition, the candidate may attach a scan of the opinion of the planned supervisor and the opinions of other researchers about the candidate and his or her scientific activity or research project proposal;
one photograph of the candidate’s face, allowing their identification;
declaration whether the candidate is or was a doctoral student or participant of doctoral studies, has, or has had, a doctoral dissertation procedure or a procedure for awarding a doctoral degree initiated and if yes – title of doctoral dissertation or the research project prepared by the candidate, as well as first name and surname of the academic tutor or the supervisor;
declaration on familiarising themselves with the content of the Resolution [LINK], as well as Article 40 and Article 41 of the Code of Administrative Procedure.

Additionally, the candidate shall be obliged to submit a translation of titles of scientific achievements. In justified instances, the Recruitment Coordinator or chairperson or the secretary of the selection team may request the candidate to submit a translation of other documents or materials included in the application within the time frame set.

Detailed information on the required documents is to be found in Resolution on the rules of recruitment for Doctoral Schools at the University of Warsaw [LINK1 LINK2]

Form of the selection process and the number of points that can be obtained
Two-stage process:

Stage I: evaluation of the research project and scientific activities of the candidate;
Stage II: interview.

Maximum number of points that can be obtained in the selection procedure – 100 points:

Stage I – 60 points (the number of points needed to qualify to stage II – 30 points).
Stage II – 40 points (the number of points required for entry on the list of recommended for admission – 20 points)

Evaluation criteria and method

Preliminary evaluation of the research project (maximum number of points – 40)

When evaluating the project, the following shall be taken into account:
– objective of the research (0-10 points);
– novelty and originality of the research project (0–10 points);
– methodology appropriate for the objective, consistency of argumentation, clarity of reasoning (0-10 points);
– state of the art and the bibliography relevant to achieving the research objective (0-10 points).

Scientific activity of the candidate (maximum number of points – 20)

When evaluating scientific activity, the following elements, confirmed with scans, shall be taken into account:
– publications, including scientific articles, chapters in multi-author monographs, own monographs, publications in peer-reviewed international conference materials (0-8 points);
– speeches at national and international scientific conferences with the accepted paper (0-8 points);
– other elements of evaluation of the candidate’s experience and scientific achievements, such as awards, distinctions, certificates, professional experience, teaching experience, activities in students’ scientific societies, science popularisation, etc. (0-4 points).

Interview (maximum number of points – 40)

The following shall be taken into account when evaluating the interview:
– the candidate’s competence important from the perspective of conducted research (0-20 points);
– justification of the appropriateness of the choice of discipline for the proposed research problems and methods (0-5 points);
– ability to present the need to undertake planned research (0-5 points)
– outline of the research plan (0-10 points).

The interview shall be carried out in Polish with parts in English or fully in English – in accordance with the candidate’s preferences presented in IRK.

Condition of admission to the School
Obtaining at least 50 points in the whole selection process, including at least 30 points in stage I and at least 20 points in stage II of the qualification procedure.

Scholarship
The doctoral student shall receive the doctoral scholarship during the period of education. The scholarship will amount to PLN 2371,70 before the mid-term evaluation and 3653,70 after the mid-term evaluation. The total period of receiving the doctoral scholarship cannot exceed four years. The suplement for persons with disabilities amounts to PLN 711,51.

The mandatory contributions are deducted from the scholarship. The scholarship is reduced by app. 11%.

Notice! The amounts specified above may be subject to change if the Ministry of Science and Higher Education decides to announce a new base rate.