Level:  doctoral academic studies

Upon end of the studies student will receive a title: Doctor of science - biological sciences

The Doctoral degree programme in Molecular Biology carries a total of 180 ECTS, lasting for 3 years and includes two modules: molecular biology of eukaryotesand molecular biology of prokaryotes. Each module is organized into four compulsory courses and a larger number of elective courses, and each student on the degree programme will gain 22 ECTS for compulsory and 36 ECTS for elective courses. In consultation with the mentor a student can choose elective courses from other academic programmes organized by the Faculty of Biology. The programme is realized through: (1) teaching that includes lectures and other forms of interactive teaching and the theoretical study of research (experimental laboratory work is organized in the form of a "rotation", seminars, experimental production of a doctoral dissertation) and (2) individual work of students. Monitoring of programme implementation is the responsibility of the Programme Council, which comprises the senior lecturers in all subjects. The Head of this body chairs the study programme. A senior lecturer is responsible for organizing the teaching within their subject. As a rule, the senior lecturer hires more lecturers, each of which implements their relevant part of the subject. Guest speakers from home and abroad are engaged, depending on the circumstances. A three-member Advisory Panel, consisting of the mentor and two other members of the Programme Council, supervises the preparation of the doctioral thesis. The role of these committees is to monitor the progress of students and assist in the implementation of their research programmes.

The programme aims to provide an intellectual framework for the development of highly educated and creative young scientists who are expected to assume future leadership positions in scientific research, university teaching, and activities in which molecular biology is applied. The programme offers students high-quality theoretical knowledge and practical experience in the field of molecular biology, as well as specific knowledge and experimental skills in the immediate area in which they do their own investigation. To achieve this objective, the study programme has brought together a number of speakers, including lecturers from the Faculty of Biology, scientists from IMGGE, the IBISS and other scientific and research institutes in the country, and visiting lecturers from abroad, in which our molecular biologists who have achieved notable scientific and university careers around the world predominate. Students learn contemporary views on current issues in the field of molecular biology, the latest experimental approaches in molecular biology and new biotechnology based on the achievements of molecular biology. As this study programme is realized by two well-respected institutes in addition to the Faculty of Biology, students have the opportunity during the PhD programme to acquire valuable "first hand" experience of experimental work and, through contact with researchers working on a wide range of topics, the latest information on global trends in molecular biology research. The specific objectives of the PhD program Molecular biology are: ▪ further development and systematization of knowledge in the field of molecular biology gained from previous levels of education; ▪ Understanding the issues that are the current focus of research, especially those topics that were not, or not sufficiently, covered in primary and masters higher education studies; ▪ developing independent and critical thinking through interactive forms of instruction such as roundtables, group analysis and interpretation of experimental data from the literature or personal study, analysis of key scientific papers for specific areas that are studied, and so on; ▪ encouraging creativity, individuality and personal preferences, through activities such as writing essays on free themes, designing research project proposals and the like. ▪ mastering academic skills such as writing research papers and project proposals, and giving presentations on research results.

The concept, quality, goals and organization of the study programme for Molecular Biology are designed so that students acquire, after successful completion of doctoral studies, general and specific skills that qualify them for scientific research and give a solid basis for successful construction of a scientific and / or university career. Students will acquire the latest knowledge in various fields of molecular biology, to provide them with a good basis for creating their own research programmes and designing experiments. Various forms of interactive teaching, involving continuous communication between students and lecturers, will provide intellectual challenges for students, and encourage them to become independent and confident to express their opinions, to focus on the most important scientific problems in certain specialist areas of molecular biology and to formulate hypotheses for their solution, to learn how to develop arguments, to critically analyze and interpret their experimental results of those of other authors, hypotheses and theories encountered by studying the literature, to apply their knowledge and ideas to solving theoretical and experimental problems they encounter during their research project . Through writing and public presentation of essays and test papers, students will gain valuable experiences for mastering the skills of writing scientific papers and oral communication with the audience. Experimental experience gained from working in different laboratories ("rotation") will allow them to look at the complexity of experimental work, from planning and preparation of the experiment, to mastering a range of methods and experimental approaches, to presenting and analyzing the results using the latest software packages. Students will get help and training from their supervisors and members of the Advisory Commission for writing a proposal of their own research project, with training to define clearly and precisely their research objectives and to design appropriate experimental approaches in a manner that allows high-quality and biologically relevant research results to be obtained and project implementation monitored.

Anyone who has completed the appropriate basic and master academic studies with an average mark above 8.00 is eligible to enroll.

Modules on this study program:

Subjects lectured on this study program: