At the end of the Educational and Research Stage, PhD students has to take the Comprehensive Exam as a precondition of entering the Research and Dissertation Stage. The successful comprehensive exam is indispensable for continuing the doctoral studies. The application process for the comprehensive exam is equal to the application for the PhD procedure.
The Habilitation Committee and Doctoral Council shall decide on the admittance to the comprehensive exam.
For the qualification for the Comprehensive Exam PhD Students have to fulfil min. 80 EPPH at the end of their 3rd semester. Also for the successful qualification for the comprehensive exam, PhD students have to fulfil publication requirements by the end of their 4th semester: altogether min. 2 articles published (or accepted for publication), at least 1 of these articles must be published in a peer-reviewed journal referenced in the ‘Web of Science’ or ‘Scopus’ database. The minimum ‘sum of the points’ of the publications must be 8.
Further Information about the requirements and regulations.
Application form of the admission for the PhD Procedure
Co-author statement for comprehensive exam / PhD Procedure applicats
Formal compliance with this requirement does not automatically guarantee admittance to exam; the DIT substantially verifies the level of publication of scientific results, and also the candidate’s contribution to the published results.
Comprehensive exam has to be taken in public, before the Committee. The Exam Committee consists of at least three members, and minimum of one third of the members shall have no employment relationship with the institution operating the Doctoral School. The chair of the Exam Committee is a university professor, or a Professor Emeritus, or a lecturer, researcher with Doctor of the MTA title. Each member of the Exam Committee should have scientific degree. The supervisor of the examinee cannot be a member of the Committee. The supervisor shall deliver the supervisory assessment of the student’s performance to the chair of the Committee in electronic form at least one week before the set date of the exam. The supervisor shall be invited to the comprehensive exam.
The comprehensive exam is divided into two parts: one part assesses the theoretical competence of the student (‘theoretical part’), whereas in the ‘thesis part’ the examinees can prove their scientific progress. During the theoretical part, the examinee takes exam in two subjects. The list of subject is included with the curriculum of the doctoral school, and is accessible on the webpage of the doctoral school. In the theoretical part of the exam, the doctoral candidates demonstrate their awareness of literature in the related scientific area and their current knowledge in theory and methodology. In the other part of the comprehensive exam, the examinees report their research results, present the research schedule for the second part of the doctoral programme, as well as the schedule of the thesis preparation and the publication of results. The presentation will also review the scientific importance and innovation value of the results, and – where applicable – the technology motivation behind the research, and practical applicability of the results. At least one week before the exam, the examinee submit the brief summary of results achieved to date to the Committee together with the papers published or sent for publication. Each member of the Exam Committee shall assess the theoretical and thesis part one-by-one, separate. The comprehensive exam will be qualified successful, if the simple majority of the Committee members decide so regarding both parts of the exam. The doctoral student may retake a failed comprehensive exam on one occasion, within the same exam period.
Minutes including textual assessment shall be drawn up on the comprehensive exam. The outcome of the exam shall be announced on the exam day. The result of the comprehensive exam does not count in the qualification of the doctoral degree, but the successful completion is a precondition of being admitted into the second stage of the programme.
Please, note that detailed information about the PhD procedure and the application, as well as the subjects of the comprehensive exam and the application form can be found here.
Subjects of the comprehensive exam
Students can request the preliminary consent of the Habilitation Committee and Doctoral Council for the subjects of the the Comprehensive Exam.
Further regulation and information can be found in the Budapest University of Technology and Economics – Doctoral and Habilitation Procedures