Information about the Education

Education Program

We are waiting for lecturers and researchers who would like to continue their scientific work in one of the following areas:

• Business Economics and Management,
• Marketing, and Tourism
• Finances,
• International Economy and Management,
• Relationships Between Socio-economic Inequalities,
• Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development.

The Training structure of the Doctoral School 

The primary objective of the doctoral education program is to prepare future researchers and lecturers for scientific activity. The system lays special emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are indispensable for professional research at the international level.

From September 2016, the doctoral education program was divided into 2+2 training phases, where:

First phase (education and research)

The first phase offers introductory training in theory and methodology for all participants in the form of compulsory methodology courses and elective courses (1st year).

In the second year, the emphasis shifts to the acquisition of an extensive knowledge and proficiency.

During the first two years, it is mandatory to complete four elective subjects that are necessary for the student based on the supervisor's recommendation.

The phase closes with the complex exam.

Catching up. For those students for whom the Doctoral School prescribes catch-up training in economics and/or statistics, since their previous training did not include these at an adequate level, the catch-up requirements must be met in the 1st semester.

Second phase (the phase of research and dissertation)

The second phase (5-8. semesters) is the phase of the degree procedure. It entails the preparation, the internal defence and the public defence of the dissertation. Until the dissertation is complete, the candidate performs individual research under the guidance of his/her supervisor, participates in scientific public life, publishes works and, optionally works as a teacher.

The courses offered by the Doctoral School

Methodological foundation subjects (required)

Semester 1:

- Research methodology - Quantitative methods

- Literature processing

Semester 2:

- Research methodology - Qualitative methods

- Writing a scientific publication

16 hours are available for the methodological foundation subjects per subject and per semester. Completion of the subjects is worth 6 credits each.

Elective subjects (based on the decision of the student and the supervisor)

The role of electives is to acquire knowledge that matches the student's research topic. Credit value 4. Courses related to training programs are announced every semester.

The languages of the education are Hungarian and English.

For the model curriculum of the Doctoral School are summarised in the tables below:

The university manages the subject thematics uniformly, making them accessible to active students in the Neptun system. Upon request to the DI e-mail address, we will make them available to students applying for admission or transferring.

The subject descriptions offered at the Doctoral School are included in the Documents related to doctoral training and are accessible to anyone interested.

(1) The definition of the education and research requirements of the Doctoral School for is based on the following credit values:

a) The student can earn 40 credits in education, 104 credits in research, and 24 credits in consulting, 56 credits in publication, and 16 credits in professional, academic and public activity. 16 additional credits can be earned through teaching. PhD students must complete at least 240 credits up the end of the 8^th active semester.

Scholarship students may be required to give four hours of educational activities per semester. If a student teaches more than four hours per week, this fact must be recorded in his student contract and the remuneration must be determined (e.g. hourly rate for full-time students, discounted tuition for part-time students).

b) A minimum of 90 credits must be completed by the end of the fourth active semester; this must include at least seven publication credits.

c) “Professional, scientific and public activities”: two credits per semester in any combination of:

• workplace and public defence participation in a local or other doctoral school
• compulsory participation in workshop events at the local doctoral school
• participation in a professional and/or scientific event (e.g. conference, workshop, committee meeting, professional scientific presentation)

A certificate of task completion must be presented, signed by the organiser of the event, but a copy of the attendance sheet is also acceptable. Two participations = 2 credits.

d) The 56-credit publication activity must be completed no later than the end of the eighth semester. A minimum of six publications must be completed as follows:

For PhD students who enrolled before September 1, 2026:

• at least three articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals or volumes (not conference proceedings), at least one of which must be in a foreign language (one in Hungarian/native language = 11 credits); at least one of these must be a first-authored article and at least one "B" or "Q2" level (in a foreign language or "B" or "Q2" level = 15 credits);
• at least two articles or communications (not abstracts, min. 10.000 characters) in your mother tongue or in a foreign language, published in peer-reviewed conference proceedings a conference publication with ISBN or ISSN. (1 publication = 7 credits);
• at least one other publication (e.g. book review, popular science article, short article of fewer than 5 pages or under 10,000 characters, etc.) (1 publication = 5 credits).

Substitutability: a part of the publication with a lower credit value can be replaced by a publication with a higher credit value, but at least one conference paper must be included. An English-language publication can be an English-language journal or study volume published abroad, or a peer-reviewed journal or peer-reviewed study volume published in Hungary.

The scope of the publication and the number of authors must be taken into account in the evaluation. A study prepared jointly with a co-author is considered a full-fledged publication for the PhD student. If the student has two supervisors, the communication written jointly with the supervisors is also considered a full-fledged publication. In the case of a study with multiple authors, the portion that can be credited to the student is reduced in proportion to the number of authors.

e) The evaluation of the publication activity is based on the journal lists accepted by the IX. Department of Economics and Law of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. As a category B journal, DI accepts category B journal articles included in the journal lists of the following scientific committees within the IX. Department of Economics:

• Doctoral Qualification Committee in Economics,
• Doctoral Committee in International and Development Sciences,
• Regional Scientific Committee,
• Sociological Scientific Committee,
• Interdepartmental Committee on Demography.

Furthermore, depending on the research topic – with DI approval – acceptable journal publications (regardless of category):

• Political Science Committee,
• State and Law Committee,
• Military Science Committee,
• and among the scientific journals accepted by the IV. Department of Agricultural Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the journals “Gazdálkodás” and Studies in Agricultural Economics (SAE).
• Scientific publications in journals other than those listed above, which may not be included in the list, are also acceptable, if the research topic justifies it and the journal's qualification meets the expectations of the Doctoral School.

Only scientific publications that contain references to other scientific work and whose topic is related to the candidate's training and research program can be considered.

The following cannot be considered as publications:

• oral presentations;
• research reports prepared on order or within the framework of a tender, which have become the property of the client or cannot be made public;
• TDK dissertations, theses, diploma theses;
• publications published in predatory publications (see the current position of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences).

d) The 56-credit publication activity must be completed no later than the end of the eighth semester. A minimum of six publications must be completed as follows:

For PhD students who enrolled after September 1, 2026:

• P1 & P2: two article/book chapter published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal or edited study volume (not conference proceedings!) (11+11 credits);
• P3: one article/book chapter published in a scientific journal or an edited study volume indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus database (15 credits);
• P4 & P5: two peer-reviewed papers published in conference proceedings with an ISBN or ISSN number (not abstracts, each publication of at least 30,000 characters in length, including spaces and references) (7+7 credits);
• P6: one other publication authored as a sole author (!) (not abstract, e.g. book review, popular science article, short publication not exceeding 30,000 characters in length, including spaces and references) (5 credits).

e) Additional requirements and specific concerns:

• Acceptable publications. Publications that have been published or formally accepted for publication, as well as publications that are recorded in the Hungarian National Bibliography (MTMT) may be taken into account. Students are required to register in the MTMT system and upload their publications. Publications not included in the MTMT database will not be taken into account in the assessment of the student’s scientific publication activity. Only those publications may be taken into account that are scientific in their nature according to MTMT. The following publications cannot be taken into account in the evaluation: abstract, publication in a daily newspaper or a non-professional journal, a publication that is demonstrably not peer-reviewed, repository of examples, editing, (book) translation, research report prepared within the framework of a grant project or on request, bachelor thesis, master thesis, other manuscript, study not yet accepted for publication, publication in journal listed in the Norwegian list.
• Requirement regarding publications written in English and other foreign languages. The PhD student must have at least one publication written in English language in categories P1-P2-P3. Publications written in a foreign language are accepted if they appear in a peer-reviewed foreign-language journal or in a peer-reviewed edited study volume published abroad (not in Hungary), as well as in a fully foreign-language, peer-reviewed journal or peer-reviewed edited study volume published in Hungary.
• Requirement regarding first-authored publications. The PhD student must have at least one first-authored publication in categories P1-P2-P3. P6 must be authored as a sole author.
• Requirement regarding journal selection. Publications in journals that are not engaged in objectionable publishing practices and are not listed on the so-called Norwegian list may be counted as publications (link: https://mtmt.hu/norwegian_list/).
• Requirement regarding the use of artificial intelligence. Regarding the ethical use of artificial intelligence, the effective version of The Guide to the Use of Artificial Intelligence published by the University of Sopron shall be applied (link: https://international.uni-sopron.hu/the-university-of-sopron-introduces-a-unified-framework-for-the-responsible-use-of-ai)
• Substitutability: A publication with a higher credit value may partially substitute for a publication with a lower credit value; however, at least one conference paper in conference proceedings must be published. Even in the case of substitution, a maximum of 56 credit points may be earned. If the PhD student publishes two articles/book chapters in journals or edited volumes indexed in WoS/Scopus databases, of which at least one is written in English language, 26 credit points (15+11) will be earned. If the PhD student publishes three articles/book chapters in journals or edited volumes indexed in WoS/Scopus, of which at least one is written in English language, 37 credit points (15+11+11) will be earned. For each additional article/book chapter published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal or in a peer-reviewed edited study volume, additional 7, then additional 5 credit points may be earned.
• Author-based proportionality. When calculating the number of publications, the number of authors must be taken into account. A paper co-authored with one other person (e.g. the supervisor or another PhD student) counts as    a full-value (1) publication for the PhD student. If the PhD student has two supervisors, a publication co-authored with both supervisors also counts as a full-value (1) publication for the PhD student. In all other cases, publications are awarded a proportional share of the base score defined in the standard case. A publication with three authors counts as 0.5; with four authors as 0.25; and with five authors as 0.2 units. For example, in the case of an article written by three authors and published in a WoS/Scopus-indexed journal, an additional article written by no more than three authors, also published in a WoS/Scopus-indexed journal, is required to count as a full-value publication in category P3.

Publication credits are recognized by the head of the doctoral school in the Neptun system at the end of the semester.

Students are required to register in the MTMT system and upload their publications. Works not included in the MTMT database will not be taken into account in the assessment of the student’s scientific publication activity. Only those studies that are recognised by MTMT as being of a scientific nature will be considered.

(2) Full-time and part-time PhD students must complete at least 240 credits.

The tuition fee is 2000 USD / semester.

Documents related to doctoral training >>>