Candidates eligible to apply for admission to the doctoral school are holders of MA, MSc, or an equivalent degree awarded in any field of study.

Verification of the above degree takes place at the time of making an entry on the list of PhD students.

In exceptional cases, justified by the highest quality of scientific achievements, a person referred to in Art.186(2) of the Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science, i.e. a person who is a graduate of the first-cycle studies or a student who has completed the third year of long-cycle MA studies, without the professional MA degree, MSc degree or equivalent, may also apply for admission to the school.

For candidates who use the extraordinary procedure pursuant to Art. 186(2) of the Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science, the verification takes place before admission for substantive assessment at the first stage of admission procedure, on the basis of an opinion confirming the high quality of their research work, as well as the high level of advancement of this work, issued by a person holding the degree of at least doctor habilitatus or an employee of a foreign university or scientific institution with significant achievements.

1. Academic CV, containing the following information: 

• education (undergraduate, Master's, postgraduate, doctoral studies),
• scientific interests,
• publications,
• participation in conferences,
• research and professional experience,
• courses, training, workshops,
• scholarships, awards, distinctions,
• other achievements.

2. A letter of recommendation written by an employee conducting scientific research in the discipline or related disciplines, holding at least the academic degree of doctor habilitatus, or holding at least a PhD degree and possessing the right to supervise a PhD student as the main supervisor;
3. The plan of research project (min. 10,000, max. 20,000 characters with spaces), containing the following elements: title, keywords, research aim/problem, significance of the proposed research, research methods, concept and research plan, and preliminary bibliography;
4. In the case of persons referred to in Art. 186(2) of the Act, an opinion confirming the high quality of their research work, as well as the high level of advancement of this work, issued by a scientific supervisor holding the degree of at least doctor habilitatus or an employee of a foreign university or scientific institution who has significant achievements in the field of scientific issues related to the doctoral programme.
   

Stage 1

As part of the application, the candidate submits a set of the above-mentioned documents.

Failure to submit any of the above-mentioned documents results in the application not being accepted for assessment and being placed on the ranking list with the qualification score equal to 0 (zero) points.

The complete applications are submitted for assessment as part of the first stage.

At the first stage, the following factors are assessed:

1. interdisciplinarity of the candidate’s scientific interests in the fields of knowledge and / or disciplines covered by a given programme;
2. research project.

The research project is assessed on the following merits:

1. formal correctness;
2. assessment of the research problem identification and description;
3. adequacy of literature review;
4. adequacy of research methodology;
5. scientific reliability (originality of the project and independence of its implementation);
6. compliance of scientific intentions with the profile of the Doctoral School of Social Sciences and the doctoral programme;
7. the feasibility of the project.

When making assessment, the committee may appoint a reviewer from among the scientific staff of the Jagiellonian University, holding the degree of at least doctor habilitatus and possessing recognized specialist competences and knowledge in the field of the presented research plan.

Stage 2

Candidates who meet all of the following conditions are invited to the second stage of the admission procedure (the interview):

1. the scientific interests of the candidate are in line with the profile of the programme;
2. the project submitted by the candidate was positively assessed in each of the criteria presented at the first stage.

Persons who are not admitted to the second stage receive a qualification score of 0 (zero) points on the ranking list.

During the second stage the committee conducts an interview in English (0-100 points), during which the following elements are assessed:

1. scientific quality, novelty and feasibility of the submitted research project, taking into account the result of assessment conducted during the first stage of the admission procedure (0–40 points);
2. the academic CV of the candidate (0–20 points);
3. the professional competences of the candidate presented during the interview (0–40 points).

Failure to participate in the interview results in the qualification score of 0 (zero) points on the ranking list.

Having the status of a beneficiary of grants and international research projects, the list of which is determined by the director in the form of an announcement posted on the school website, is the basis for awarding the maximum number of points in the admission procedure (100 points), without the necessity of the candidate's participation in the stages of the procedure, aimed at determining the score, provided that the candidate meets the formal conditions for participation in the admission process. Fulfillment of the above condition is established on the basis of the documents submitted by the candidate.

Subject to the above-mentioned cases, the qualification score of the candidate is the number of points obtained during the interview, determined with an accuracy of two decimal places.

1. application form downloaded from the system, including candidate’s photograph, together with other documents downloaded from the system from under the link “Documents and further steps” in the table of the application for this programme, copy of a higher education diploma entitling its holder (the candidate) to enrol into doctoral-level education, with the original document available for inspection, for inspection: original copies of documents uploaded in the system upon submission of the application.
2. During the enrolment procedure, candidate has to present their identity document: a valid passport or national ID.
3. A diploma of graduation obtained outside Poland must have an apostille or be legalized. Apostille/legalisation of a diploma issued outside of Poland Higher education diplomas obtained outside of Poland have to be authenticated with apostille or legalised. This serves as the basis of acknowledging foreign documents as valid in the territory of Poland. In case of documents issued in countries which are parties to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 (Dz.U. z 2005 r. nr 112, poz. 938), an apostille has to be obtained.

Legalisation, similarly to apostille, confirms the authenticity of a document issued in a country other than Poland. Documents have to be legalized if obtaining an apostille is not possible because the country that issued the document is not a party to the Hague Convention mentioned above. If your country in not on the list, you need to contact the institution responsible in this country for legalising documents (in order to use them abroad). Usually it is the ministry of foreign affairs or ministry
of education/higher education. After obtaining initial confirmation, the Polish consulate should be contacted in order to finalise legalisation of the document.
Apostille or legalisation must be delivered to the respective PhD study programme Secretariat
within a set deadline.

In exceptional,  justified cases, at the request of the candidate, the Director of the Doctoral School in the Social Sciences  may decide to verify the document issued abroad by the university which issued the document. In such a case, after positive verification of the diploma by an employee of the Doctoral School in the Social Sciences,  apostille or legalization is not required.

If on the diploma of graduation obtained abroad there is no annotation attesting eligibility to apply for the Doctor degree in the country, of which system of higher education the academy operates, the candidate is required to attach a confirmation of this eligibility issued by:

Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) or or generated from the system https://kwalifikator.nawa.gov.pl/ or
 the university that issued the diploma or  Polish consulate in the country where the document was issued
For each document issued in a language other than Polish or English, the candidate is required to attach a certified translation into Polish or English.