About the doctoral programme

Admission regulations

Information regarding:

• detailed rules of the admission process (including assessment criteria),
• admission schedule,
• documents required in the admission process and mode for their submission

are available on the website of the Doctoral School in the Humanities: https://human.phd.uj.edu.pl/rekrutacja.

Admission rules for the Doctoral School in the Humanities have been established in the resolution no. 59/VI/2025 of the Senate of the Jagiellonian University of 24 June 2025 (English translation to follow).

Sign up form

After clicking on the “Sign up” button, Candidate fills out the online sign up form.

Admission form

In the “Admission form” tab Candidate enters the following information:

• chooses the language of the admission procedure (Polish or English only),
• chooses source of funding for the scholarship (if the funds are external, they provide the details),
• chooses which of the achievements from among those taken into consideration they hold,
• enters information about the publications published by the day of the submission of the application.

In the “Admission form” tab Candidate uploads the following files:

• detailed justification for choosing the university unit (Faculty, Institute, Chair) where research will be based with a statement of a senior researcher employed at the unit on becoming Candidate's academic supervisor, or on offering help in finding Candidate's supervisor (on the form downloaded from the School website),
• proofs of achievements.

Education details

In the “Education details” tab Candidate enters the following information:

1. selects option best describing their situation regarding having been awarded the Magister (master) title;

Furthermore:

A candidate who already holds a master's degree (has defended their master's thesis):

• provides the title, supervisor(s), and includes the abstract of the master's thesis, as well as indicates the university/institution where the degree was obtained.

A candidate who does not hold a Magister (master) title but they will hold it by the time of enrolment at the School:

• provides the title, supervisor(s), and includes the abstract of the master's thesis, as well as indicates the university/institution where the degree will be obtained,
• uploads the certificate confirming the prospective date of graduation (signed by their supervisor and confirmed by the institution or university from which they will be graduating).

A candidate who does not yet hold a master's degree and will not obtain it by the time of enrolment in the School but will provide the contact details of academic staff who can provide opinions on the high quality of the candidate's research:

• enters the names of four independent academic employees (not necessarily from Jagiellonian University) who will prepare recommendations for the evaluation process. It is recommended that at least one person be from outside the institution where the Candidate studied. The data of academic employees should be provided in the following format: first name, last name, academic degree/title, affiliation, email address.

A candidate who does not yet hold a master's degree and will not obtain it by the time of enrolment in the School but will provide a certificate confirming beneficiary of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education programmes “Diamond Grant” or “Pearls of Science:

• uploads scan of the certificate confirming their status as a beneficiary of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education programmes “Diamond Grant” or “Pearls of Science”.

A candidate who holds a doctoral degree:

• provides information about the dissertation title, year of defense, university, and supervisor.

2. provides information about completed higher education programmes;

3. selects option best describing their situation regarding the doctoral student status;

Furthermore:

A candidate who, at the time of submitting the application, is a doctoral student at SDNH or another doctoral school:

• provides information about their doctoral education – the name of the doctoral school, the year the education started, the title of the project, the first and last name of the supervisor, and the date the supervisor was appointed,
• uploads a file with the Individual Research Plan that they are implementing.

A candidate who was a doctoral student at SDNH or another doctoral school but is no longer one at the time of submitting the application:

• provides information about their past doctoral education – the name of the doctoral school, the year the education started and ended, the reason for removal/resignation, the title of the project, the first and last name of the supervisor, and the date the supervisor was appointed,
• uploads a file with the Individual Research Plan that they implemented.

Declaration of participation in the admission process to the Doctoral School in the Humanities

In the “Declaration of participation in the admission process to the Doctoral School in the Humanities” tab Candidate enters the following information:

• chooses whether they intend to participate in the recruitment process for more than one doctoral program offered by the Doctoral School in the Humanities. If so, the applicant provides details—selecting all programs to which they plan to apply and explaining why they attach the same research plan project when applying to different programs offered by SDNH, or providing the titles of the individual research plan projects that they attach to their applications in the SDNH recruitment process.

Research project plan and single-authored essay

In the “Research project plan and single-authored essay” tab Candidate enters the following information:

• title of the research project,
• title of the single-authored text proving Candidate’s research abilities.

In the “Research project plan and single-authored essay” tab Candidate uploads the following file:

• research project plan and a single-authored text proving Candidate’s research abilities (on the form downloaded from the School website, as a single PDF file).

Diploma

In the “Diploma” tab Candidate may upload scan of the diploma of graduation from second-cycle studies (if they have this document).

Recommendation letter

In the “Recommendation letter” tab Candidate provides the email address of the person who will write their recommendation letter. The candidate may do this no later than June 1, 2026, by 11:59 PM.

The author of the recommendation letter must be a researcher with at least a doctoral degree, employed at a university or a scientific institution (e.g., the Polish Academy of Sciences) and not having a conflict of interest with the candidate, including familial or personal ties. 

After the candidate has submitted the application, the Online Application System sends an automatic email containing a link to the recommendation letter form to the provided email address. Author of the letter must fill out and save the form before the date specified in the admission schedule. 

The recommendation letter is completed by the author in the designated fields within the system-generated form (it is not uploaded as a scanned document). The researcher indicated by the candidate has to complete the recommendation letter until June 2, 2026, at 11:59 PM.

The candidate does not have access to the content of the recommendation letter, but they can check in their IRK account (under the "Applications" tab) whether the designated researcher has completed it. A completed recommendation letter will be marked with an acceptance symbol (a green checkmark), while a missing recommendation will be indicated by a red cross.

Confirming your application

Candidates do not have to confirm their applications. Applications submitted in full by the end of the period for submitting applications established in the schedule will be considered by the committee.

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