To advance from the first to the second year, the doctoral student must acquire at least 30 ECTS from the first year, have an approved doctoral dissertation topic and must submit the disposition of the doctoral dissertation, which is proven by the mentor’s signature on the form OBR-FIŠ-034.

The condition for advancing from the second to the third year is the completion of all obligations of the first year in the amount of 60 ECTS, including a confirmed disposition and the completion of individual research work of the second year in the amount of 60 ETCS. Individual research work is proven for each year separately by the mentor’s signature on the OBR-FIŠ-047 Assessment of the Individual Work of the Doctoral Student form. The individual research work for each year corresponds with the appropriate numbers of ECTS and also refers to the preparation of the disposition and dissertation.

The faculty may allow the student to advance to a higher year, even if the required conditions are not met, in the following circumstances: maternity, prolonged illness, exceptional family or social circumstances, participation in top cultural, sports or professional events. In this case, the student must provide appropriate evidence.

A student who does not meet the conditions for enrolling in a higher year may repeat a year once during their studies or change their study programme or course due to non-fulfilment of obligations in the previous study programme or course.

In accordance with the applicable legislation, a student’s student status may be extended for a maximum of one year if the student:

• Does not enrol in a higher year for justified reasons;
• Does not graduate within 12 months after the end of the last semester for justified reasons;
• Gives birth during their studies.

Depending on their academic achievements, the student may complete the study in a shorter period of time (but no less than four semesters) as provided for in the study programme, provided that they fulfil all the prescribed obligations.

The conditions for completing the study are:

• Successfully completed study obligations prescribed by the programme;
• Publication or acceptance for publication of one scientific article in a journal abstracted in SCI or SSCI / SCIE or A & HCI or SCOPUS, or two scientific articles in international scientific journals abstracted in IBSS, CSA, Sociological Abstract, CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstract, CSA PAIS International, International Political Science Abstract; LISA, STMA, COMPENDEX or in other equivalent international databases that are important for the fields developed by the faculty, namely in the field of the doctoral dissertation’s topic;
• Preparation and successful defence of the doctoral dissertation.

Students of the doctoral postgraduate programme Information Society will obtain the following competences:

General competences:

• The ability to identify, analyze and construct solution for a given research problem.
• The creation of new knowledge and contribution to the development of science.
• Mastery of standard methods, approaches and processes of scientific research in various scientific fields.
• Ability of independent research and development work and management of research group.
• Mastery of scientific quality and effort towards the quality of professional work through independence, self-criticism, self-reflection and self-evaluation.
• Respect for scientific ethics.

Subject specific competences:

• Skills and abilities for solving concrete research problems in various fields of social and other sciences.
• Development of skills and abilities in usage of knowledge in doctoral research.
• Ability of innovative combined usage of various research methodologies.
• The ability to extract, select, evaluate and insert new knowledges and the compentence of interpretation in the context of social and other sciences.
• Ability of designing and implementing novel scientific solutions for given social problems.
• Ability of complex systemic perspective on the society and interdisciplinary approach, which demonstrates the understanding of general structure of social sciences and links among their disciplines and sub-disciplines.
• Ability to present the obtained scientific findings in form of publications in international scientific journals.

In accordance with the Decree on Co-Financing Doctoral Studies (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 22/17) and the amendment to the Higher Education Act, doctoral studies at the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto are co-financed from the 2017/18 academic year onwards.

An important novelty is that candidates do not apply for the co-financing call, as co-financing will be available to all doctoral students who meet the following conditions:

• Students enrolled in the first year or directly in the second year of doctoral studies will be co-financed if they have an average grade of completed education of at least 8.00 (the grade at the previous level of study is taken into account) and do not repeat the year.
• Students enrolled in the second year of doctoral studies will be co-financed if they have regularly advanced from the first to the second year of doctoral studies. An extension of the status for justified reasons in accordance with the law governing higher education and the Statute of the Faculty of Information Studies is also considered as regular advancement.
• Students enrolled in the third year of doctoral studies will be co-financed in the event that they have regularly advanced to all the years of doctoral studies. An extension of the status for justified reasons in accordance with the law governing higher education and the Statute of the Faculty of Information Studies is also considered as regular advancement.
• In the event that doctoral students have already obtained a level of education corresponding to the level of education obtained in the doctoral study programmes of the third level, they will not be eligible for co-financing. Furthermore, in the event that they have or have already had publicly co-financed study under study programmes for obtaining a
  doctorate, even if they have not completed their studies, they will not be eligible for co-financing.
• Parallel studies are not co-financed, nor are students enrolled in an additional year (absolventski staž) eligible for co-financing.

The amount of co-financing for an individual student depends on the number of enrolled students and the amount of funds that the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto will receive each year for this purpose.

Co-financing is not excluded by regular employment. The same applies to registration in the register of unemployed persons at the Employment Service of Slovenia.

There is no age limit for co-financing.

Interested candidates should register at referat@fis.unm.si.