Exam registratiron

The candidate and proposed mentor shall together prepare the suggested research hypotheses and explain the objective and purpose of the anticipated research programme on the ‘Proposed Topic Registration Form’ in accord with the co-mentor, if proposed by the mentor, Examinations and Committee for Doctoral Study Seminar Defence. The mentor shall submit the exam registration proposal to the Student Affairs Office for discussion by the Committee for Doctoral Study (CDS = KDŠ)

Description of procedure – see above “A Detailed Description of the 4-year UL FME Doctoral Studies Procedures”

Appendices:

• Proposal for the registration – submitted by the mentor to the Student Affairs Office for discussion by the KDŠ
• Time schedule of FME bodies for the current study year (see KDŠ)
• Application for the fulfilment of requirements in advance
• Application for faster progress
• Application for early completion of studies – see above “Doctoral dissertation topic registration”

Additional explanations for conducting doctoral studies at UL FME

Important:

Mentors shall check the number of credits achieved from external subjects in advance; if the number of credits is too low, mentors shall add a supplementary external subject.

If a non-faculty subject is selected, the Exam Registration Application Form shall additionally include:

• Confirmed learning programme; and
• Exam fee.

The learning programme must include:

• study programme name;
• subject name (mandatory SLO and ENG name);
• subject content;
• number of ECTS;
• lecturer(s) and
• literature.

Exam notice (application form)

Pursuant to Article 120 of the Statutes of the UL, exams are evaluated with grades 5-10, whereby grades 6-10 are deemed passing grades. Details about exam methods are provided in the Rules on student knowledge examination and assessment at the UL FMS.

The doctoral study does not provide the option of electronic exam application. The lecturer enters the grade into the VIS information system’s menu option ‘Final Grades’. The ordinary application form is still used for Research Work and Seminars.

Exam notice:

• For Seminar 1
• For Seminar 2
• For Research Work

Doctoral dissertation topic registration

Students who have successfully met all organised study’s requirements for Years 1 and 2 with positive grades from the UL Member Senate’s committee to monitor doctoral candidates on the suitability of their doctoral dissertation topic may enrol in Year 3.

Organised study includes the doctoral dissertation topic in Year 2’s curriculum. To enrol in Year 3, a student must submit the Doctoral Dissertation Topic Application Form to the Student Affairs Office by the fourth semester of Year 3 at the latest, preferably in the first semester of Year 3 as the procedure is lengthy. The candidate who has been appointed a professor from abroad by the Committee to monitor doctoral candidates shall prepare an English version of documentation submitted in Slovenian for said professor.

The UL Senate may exceptionally approve an electronic version of a doctoral dissertation in English when the candidate is not Slovenian and when the candidate’s mentor or co-mentor is not Slovenian or if a committee member is not Slovenian. In cases when the doctoral dissertation is prepared in English or another foreign language, the introduction, conclusions and extensive abstract must also be prepared in Slovenian as well as all documentation submitted for doctoral dissertation topic registration.

IMPORTANT: If doctoral study research involves children, patients, handicapped people, animal testing and the like, doctoral topic appropriateness assessment must be submitted together with ethics team consent.

Description of procedure – see above “A Detailed Description of the 4-year UL FME Doctoral Studies Procedures”

Appendix 1: Doctoral dissertation registration to the UL FME

Appendix 2:  An example of CV

Appendix 3: The structure of the doctoral dissertation disposition

Appendix 4: Application for study continuation and completion (if more than two years have passed since last enrolment in a year)

Appendix 5: Mentor’s consent with proposed doctoral dissertation topic

Appendix 6: Co-mentor’s consent with proposed doctoral dissertation topic_SLO

Appendix 7: Co-mentor’s consent with proposed doctoral dissertation topic_ENG

Appendix 8: form for the mentor – Committee to monitor doctoral candidate’s proposal

Time schedule of FME bodies for the current study year (see KDŠ)

Cc:  Ethics committee consent  (Cc for the mentor)

Instructions for distance seminar paper, doctoral thesis defence and doctoral topic presentation

Appendix 9: a draft of the research data management plan in accordance with Article 50 of the Rules and Regulations for Doctoral Studies at the University of Ljubljana (applicable to the generation of doctoral students enrolled from the academic year 2021/2022 onwards)

Extention of the validity of the doctoral dissertation topic

3-Year Programme: From the Rules and Regulations for Doctoral Studies at University of Ljubljana (Article 66)

[…]
A doctoral candidate unable to submit their doctoral dissertation within four years from the day their doctoral dissertation topic was approved by the UL Senate may, with the consent of their supervisor and co-supervisor, request an extension prior to the expiry of the aforementioned deadline. The decision in this regard shall be made by the senate of the UL member, which may extend the deadline once for the preparation of the doctoral dissertation for one year. The UL member shall notify the UL Office for Doctoral Studies accordingly.
[…]

Application for extention of validity of doctoral dissertation topic (3-Year Programme)

4-Year Programme: From the Rules and Regulations for Doctoral Studies at University of Ljubljana (Article 47)

[…]
Where there are justified reasons (such as parenthood, lengthy illness of the candidate, exceptional family and social circumstances, status of student with special needs), the UL member may on request extend the deadline for the doctoral candidate to submit their dissertation, by a maximum of one year.
[…]

Application for extention of validity of doctoral dissertation topic (4-Year Programme)

Research data management

Article 50 of the Rules and Regulations for Doctoral Studies at the University of Ljubljana
Research data generated and collected for the needs of a doctoral dissertation must be published or otherwise accessible in such a way that allows their visibility, access, interoperability and the possibility of renewed evaluation and use. The doctoral candidate shall submit research data to a data repository, data centre or research data archive, which shall satisfy the principle of verifiability, transparency and open science. As a priority the research data shall be sent to the sectoral national or international data centres intended for specific types of data, or to the UL Repository.
The doctoral dissertation shall state where the data are accessible and how they can be accessed. Exceptions in the sharing of data shall be justified where they involve personal or sensitive data, or where there are reasons for protecting intellectual property or for non-disclosure of vulnerable areas, groups or species. In the case of implementing justified exceptions to data sharing, the doctoral candidate shall ensure an appropriate method of protecting the data and limiting access to such data in agreement with the data centre. In this case at least freely available metadata must be generated for the catalogue of the data centre, so as to indicate clearly where and under what conditions the research data are accessible.

a draft of the research data management plan (applicable to the generation of doctoral students enrolled from the academic year 2021/2022 onwards)

RECORD OF WORKSHOPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnuUA-awtYI

Research work result presentation

The doctoral dissertation shall be prepared in accordance with the Instructions for doctoral thesis preparation and formatting. The dissertation can be written in English when previously approved by the UL. A doctoral dissertation prepared in English must include its introduction, extensive abstract (5−10 pages) and conclusions in Slovenian. The Slovenian introduction, extensive abstract and conclusions shall be included after the Appendix.

Prior to submitting the doctoral dissertation for evaluation, a student shall submit the doctoral dissertation draft to the Student Affairs Office, who will then enable the student to present the research work results in front of the committee to monitor the doctoral candidate. After successfully completing their presentation and all other study requirements during the validity period of the doctoral thesis, the candidate shall submit the prepared doctoral dissertation for evaluation to the Student Affairs Office.

Description of procedure – see above “A Detailed Description of the 3- or 4-year UL FME Doctoral Studies Procedures”

Submission of doctoral dissertation for evaluation

After successfully completing their presentation and all other study requirements during the validity period of the doctoral thesis, the candidate shall submit the prepared doctoral dissertation for evaluation to the Student Affairs Office. One spiral-bound copy of the doctoral dissertation shall be submitted for review at the first next meeting of the Committee for Doctoral Study (CDS) together with the Doctoral dissertation submission statement. (Submission statement with more articles.)

The candidate shall then deliver the remaining copies, one for each committee member, before the FME Senate. The doctoral dissertation shall be submitted to each committee member via the Student Affairs Office with the decision on appointment to the committee.

Each reporter must provide their grade for the submitted doctoral dissertation within the determined deadline; mentors and co-mentors are associated members and do not assess the doctoral dissertation.

When all reporters have submitted their grades and provided said grades are positive, the candidate shall deliver a spiral-bound clean copy of the doctoral dissertation to the Student Affairs Office, which shall be submitted for public view for 14 days with grades affixed. The clean copy of the doctoral dissertation determines that the candidate has taken note of all of the comments provided by the assessors.

Grades shall be confirmed at the first available CDS meeting and by the FME Senate. If all grades are positive, the FME Senate shall also confirm the defence committee. Candidates generally defend their doctoral dissertations within one month of defence committee confirmation by the FME Senate.

In the case of negative grades or grades with comments, the defence procedure is halted and said grades are discussed at the first available CDS meeting and by the FME Senate. If comments are substantiated, a deadline is determined for the candidate to resolve said comments.

Description of procedure – see above “A Detailed Description of the 3- or 4-year UL FME Doctoral Studies Procedures”

Appendix: application for early completion of doctoral study (applicable, if a student is still enrolled while submitting the doctoral dissertation)

Procedure to verify similarity of contents

When the doctoral dissertation is complete, positively graded and proofread, the candidate shall submit an identical version of the hard-bound copy in electronic form to the VIS student information system to implement the procedure to verify similarity of contents; the mentor shall decide within ten days if the doctoral dissertation is ready for defence based on this content similarity analysis.

If the mentor finds that the student has improperly marked similar parts of the text and that similar content is too high, the mentor shall request content correction that the student must resolve within ten working days, observing mutatis mutandis the Rules on verifying content similarity of the electronic form of the final work of study and conditions for temporary unavailability of the content of written final work of study and Guidelines for the submission of electronic forms of written final work of study and verification of content similarity at the UL (attached in VIS – Student information system)

The share of final work content similarity is determined in terms of FME Senate resolution.

According to the FME Senate’s resolution of 15 June 2017, the share of doctoral dissertation similarities can be 20% to 30% as decided by the mentor, with a maximum of 5% from one source.

The content similarity verification procedure shall be completed prior to announcing the defence date: the period between the announcement and defence is eight days.

Table to record seminar, doctoral dissertation topic presentation and defence presence

During doctoral study, the candidate must be present at public defences of seminars, or public presentations of doctoral dissertation disposition topics, or public defences of doctoral dissertations of other FME doctoral study programme candidates. The candidate must keep a record of presence at public presentations of other doctoral study programme students on a special form, which is valid if it contains the relevant signatures for the candidate’s presence at each such event. The candidate must submit the fully completed form with relevant signatures to the Student Affairs Office prior to submitting his or her doctoral dissertation in written form. Table (FME Senate, 20 June 2019)

Doctoral thesis preparation instructions

Once candidates have met all of their determined requirements and completed their doctoral thesis, their doctoral thesis shall be written and designed in accordance with the faculty’s doctoral thesis preparation instructions. Candidates can only submit their doctoral thesis in written form after their mentor has confirmed that the thesis is suitable for submission for review and both of their determined scientific contributions have been published.

The dissertation can be written in English when previously approved by the UL. A doctoral dissertation prepared in English must include its:

• introduction,
• extensive abstract (5−10 pages) and
• conclusions in Slovenian.

The Slovenian introduction, extensive abstract and conclusions shall be included after the Appendix.

Instructions for doctoral thesis preparation and formatting at FME_03.05.2018

Use one of following templates to prepare the doctoral thesis (Word or LaTeX):

Doctoral thesis template at FME_.doc – Word

Doctoral thesis template – LaTeX

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION SUBMISSION STATEMENT

A doctoral dissertation made of original scientific papers

A doctoral dissertation made of original scientific papers

A doctoral dissertation may be composed of at least three research articles by the doctoral candidate, published or accepted for publication, if the nature of the research and the method of publication in the specific field permit this.

You can find a Doctoral dissertation submission statement with for more than two articles here.

Research data management

Article 50
Research data generated and collected for the needs of a doctoral dissertation must be published or otherwise accessible in such a way that allows their visibility, access, interoperability and the possibility of renewed evaluation and use. The doctoral candidate shall submit research data to a data repository, data centre or research data archive, which shall satisfy the principle of verifiability, transparency and open science. As a priority the research data shall be sent to the sectoral national or international data centres intended for specific types of data, or to the UL Repository.

The doctoral dissertation shall state where the data are accessible and how they can be accessed. Exceptions in the sharing of data shall be justified where they involve personal or sensitive data, or where there are reasons for protecting intellectual property or for non-disclosure of vulnerable areas, groups or species. In the case of implementing justified exceptions to data sharing, the doctoral candidate shall ensure an appropriate method of protecting the data and limiting access to such data in agreement with the data centre. In this case at least freely available metadata must be generated for the catalogue of the data centre, so as to indicate clearly where and under what conditions the research data are accessible.

Content similarity verification procedure

Candidates must also upload an identical electronic copy of their hard copy doctoral thesis to the VIS – Student information system, where the content similarity verification procedure* is performed, when they submit their doctoral thesis to the Student Affairs Office for public viewing. Based on said content similarity verification analysis, the mentors decide within ten (10) days if the doctoral thesis is ready for defence.

If mentors find that students have improperly marked similar parts of the text and that the share of similar contents is too high, they ask for content corrections that students must resolve within ten working days.

To these ends, the Rules on verifying content similarity of the electronic form of the final work of study and conditions for temporary unavailability of the content of the written final work of study,

and Guidelines for the submission of electronic forms of written final works of study and verification of content similarity at the UL (attached in VIS – Student information system)

The share of final work content similarity is determined in terms of FME Senate resolution

FME Senate resolution dated 15 June 2017 states that the share of doctoral dissertation similarities can be 20% to 30% as decided by the mentor, with a maximum of 5% from one source.

* The Repository of the University of Ljubljana enables the collecting and saving of electronic versions of written final works of study (Article 127 of the UL Statutes) as well as University employee publications and research data. Content similarity verification is conducted for each work to be saved in the Repository of the University’s national portal as part of the submission process.

Instructions for doctoral thesis defence

Candidates shall prepare their public defence using audio-visual techniques in accord with the unified template determined by the FME. In the case of contractual obligation arising from the co-financing of work, contractually determined labels may be used; sponsor acknowledgment is to be included on the last page. Candidates shall have 20-25 minutes to present their work at their doctoral thesis defence.

The presentation for the oral thesis defence must be created using PowerPoint and conform to the template: Template for final and seminar paper defence

Instructions for distance seminar paper, doctoral thesis defence and doctoral topic presentation

Thesis defence guidelines

CV for doctoral dissertation defence

Candidates shall send their Curriculum Vitae as a Word document by email to the Student Affairs Office at least eight days before their doctoral dissertation defence.

Template for defence of final and seminar papers

The FME Senate adopted resolution 5.5.1 at its 4^th session on 28 November 2011:
“Expert departments shall prepare a single template for presentations and defences of seminar and final work for all study programmes implemented at the FME to further enhance the FME’s visual identity. Candidates shall use the template at their public presentations at the FME. In the case of contractual obligations arising from the co-financing of work, contractually determined labels may be used. Sponsor acknowledgments are included on the last page.” Template for defence of final and seminar papers at FME.