Joint PhD program (Sopron)

Instruction for students

Critical Stages of the Ph.D. Studies

The doctoral study divided into educational, research, and final stage, as follows:

Ph.D. Programs in Sopron

All the programs are avaiable for Student in Regular and Joint Doctoral School

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

Curriculum and Exams

Curriculum and Academic Requirements

The academic requirement of the Doctoral Program comes up to 240 ECTS (workload: 4500 hours). These 240 ECTS comprise lectures, f2f sessions and doctoral colloquia (educational credits), presentation and defense of the research proposal, first and second monitoring of thesis, research work (research credits), and presentations at various scientific conferences and publication activity (publication credits).

The first academic year of the study program (1st and 2nd semester) is carried out at the University of Applied Sciences FH Burgenland, Austria, under its responsibility collaborating with professors from partner universities.

First and Second Semesters (First Academic Year in Eisenstadt)

• World Economy
• Academic Research Methodology
• Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy
• Advanced Statistics and Multivariate Analysis
• Economic Philosophy
• Economic Innovation

In every semester: Research credits

Publication credits 

Third – Eight Semester (Second - Forth Academic Year in Sopron)

From the third semester the Doctoral School of Sopron is responsible for every process. Everey request have to be sent to the lkk-doktori@uni-sopron.hu email address, and will be allowed by Sopron University.

• All the Ph.D. students in Sopron must register in the Neptun system during the registration week (usually the last week of August and January). If a student does not complete registration, they can not start the studies in that semester. Every student must set up the status “active”. If the status is “active,” students have to register for the subjects/courses.
• The students also can set up the status “passive.” In this case, they can not start or follow the studies the following semester only.
• By the end of the fourth active semester, at least 90 credits must be completed.
• At the end of the fourth active semester, a complex examination must be taken to complete the education phase and begin the research phase; the examination measures and evaluates whether advancement to the next stage is possible.

Publication Requirements

 The Ph.D. student must complete a 56-credit publication activity not later than the end of the sixth semester. A minimum number (six) of publications must meet the following requirements:

1. At least three articles were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals or volumes. Not in the conference book. One of these articles must be in English.
2. At least two articles (more than abstract) published in the book of conference proceedings.
3. At least one other publication.

All doctoral students must register in the MTMT system (Hungarian Library of Scientific Publications – MTMT.hu). It can find a user’s guide in English: https://m2.mtmt.hu/frontend/help_eng.html

To upload the publications into the MTMT is the student’s duty. Works not included in the MTMT database cannot be considered when evaluating the student’s scientific publication activity.

After the publication submission to MTMT by the student, the Doctoral School’s coordinator fixes the publication credit in the University NEPTUN system.

The Complex Exam

In the 4^th semester must apply for the Complex exam.

A complex examination shall take place in June after completing the fourth active semester following the end of the academic year at a time determined by the Doctoral School (May or June). The deadline for the application to the complex exam is 30 April each year. (The application form is downloadable from the website of the Doctoral School)

Content of the complex exam.

The complex exam shall be held in public before a committee. The exam committee consists of at least three members, of which at least one-third of the members are not employed at the University of Sopron. The chairperson of the examination committee is a professor at University of Sopron, and each member of the committee shall have a scientific degree. The supervisor of the Ph.D. student is not a member of the examination committee.

The complex exam consists of two main parts: one part evaluates the candidate’s theoretical knowledge (theoretical part), and the other part assesses the candidate’s scientific progress (dissertation part).

In the theoretical part, the candidate examines at least two subjects/topics; the list of subjects/topics is included in the Doctoral School’s training plan. The theoretical exam may also be a written part. In the second part, the candidate presents his/her literature knowledge, reports his/her research results, describes his/her research plan for the second phase of the doctoral program, and reveals the dissertation's schedule and publication results.

A research summary of 10 to 15 A4 pages is submitted to the examination committee for evaluation as part of the complex exam.

The examination committee evaluates (in a closed session by secret ballot) the theoretical and dissertation part of the exam separately. The final result is the mathematical mean of the five-point scale of the two-part exam.

The exam is unsuccessful if the doctoral candidate does not attain 60% in the theoretical part. The candidate may retake the theoretical part of the complex exam once during a given examination period. The candidate cannot retake the dissertation part of the exam in case of failure.

The complex exam is declared a pass if most committee members consider both parts of the exam successfully. If the total score reaches 60%, but is less than 80%, the complex exam qualification is “rite” (satisfactory). If the score gets or surpasses 80%, but does not reach 91%, it is rated “cum laude” (good), and if it matches or exceeds 91%, then it receives a “summa cum laude” (excellent) rating. A report also contains a textual evaluation of the complex exam. The result of the exam is open for the candidate and public

Evaluation of the complex examination is part of the qualification of the doctoral degree.

Doing Doctoral Thesis (Dissertation)

Approval of Research Proposal and dissertation topic

The proposal should be a 10-15 pages document (plus references) within:

1. the research idea (including clear research question(s))
2. the aim or motivation for researching the topic
3. the related current state of research and how the proposed research fits into the current literature
4. possible hypotheses
5. the proposed research methodology
6. the sources for data collection (when relevant)
7. expected results or contributions to new knowledge in the field.
8. list of used/existing reference literature

The proposal should use Times New Roman, 12 points with 1,5 line spacing.

There are some rules which can contribute to a good proposal:

1. Be clear and realistic in your objectives
2. Come straight to the point (No waffle!)
3. State and justify your objectives: “because it is interesting”, “because I like it” is not enough!
4. Ask yourself why your research is important for you, wider society, and to the research community
5. Provide a structure and use headings
6. Avoid long and convoluted titles
7. Avoid long solid blocks of text and use smaller paragraphs
8. Write short sentences
9. If helpful, insert images/charts/diagrams to help break up the text
10. Quote all literature sources

Plagiarism

Make sure that you acknowledge the authors of all publications you use to write in your proposal. Failure to do so will be considered plagiarism. If you quote an author ad verbatim, make sure that you use quotation marks. Although the author has presented his/her information in the best possible way, do not copy word for word what he/she has written, but try to analyze his/her thoughts and re-write them in your own words.

Suggested reading:

• Rudestam , K.E. et al. eds (2001). Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process, Newbury Park.
• Nünning, A. et al. eds. (2007). Handbuch Promotion: Forschung – Förderung – Finanzierung, Stuttgart.
• Brown R. B. (2006) Doing Your Dissertation in Business and Management
  The Reality of Researching and Writing. Sage. London

After the complex exam, the candidate has three years to finish the dissertation. This deadline may be extended for up to one year in special cases.

After completion, the doctoral candidate must submit (after the public hearing) the final version of doctoral dissertation to the repository with the doctoral code he/she received.

Public Hearing/Internal defence

The Ph.D. candidate, who finished his/her doctoral thesis and published all the necessary articles, has to present his work within the public hearing/internal defence. The doctoral candidate has to register for the public hearing/internal defence four weeks before at the Fachhochschule Burgenland.

The Public Defense

The public defense is taking place in Széchenyi István Doctoral School in Sopron. The Doctoral School is responsible for the organization to set up the Evaluation Committee. The composition of the committee is the next:

• Chair (university professor from University of Sopron Faculty of Economics)
• Reviewer (from the University of Sopron with a Ph.D. degree)
• Reviewer (outside the University of Sopron with a Ph.D. degree)
• Two Committee members (one of them outside the University of Sopron)
• Protocol writer

Doctoral Thesis (Dissertation)

The doctoral thesis proves the ability of the doctoral candidate to conduct independent scientific work on the highest academic level. It shows his/her capability to comprehend and reflect the latest state of the art in his/her field of research and extend this field through methodologically founded contributions.

The doctoral thesis (dissertation) has to be submitted in written form in English; the candidate  provides five bound copies of the doctoral thesis (dissertation) along with the following documents:

• thesis booklet with the research question(s), the objective of the Ph.D. thesis, core results, and practicability (up to 20 pgs/10 copies);
• the maximum one-page long curriculum vitae written in the third person singular;
• the list of publications connected to the dissertation’s subject, including the off-prints of publications or together with the for the edition accepted declaration;
• the written declaration of authorship;
• the declaration in which the joint-authors agree to use the results edited in the common publication of the doctoral dissertation;
• The dissertation and the executive summary must also be submitted in digital form.

The public defense consists of a presentation of the central findings followed by a general discussion about the theoretical and research issues. The Doctoral School provides information about the exact procedure of the public defense (inc. duration, mode of presentation, etc.).

In order to graduate from the Ph.D. doctoral study program, a student must meet all study requirements outlined in the curriculum and successfully defend his/her doctoral thesis.

Formal and Content requirement of dissertation (pdf)

Sopron, 07.02.2022.

Prof. Csilla Obádovics sk.
Head of the Doctoral School