Programme structure
The programme is divided in 3 years, after the last, the candidate will have to defend his/her Doctoral thesis.
Once admitted each candidate has to have the name of the supervisor and to define his/her individual plan, for each year are required 60 Credits.
During the Doctoral year the student will meet the doctoral commission 3 times per year, the first for the approval of the research’s topic (January/February), the second is a meeting of the Spring Assessment, where the candidate will show the progress made till that period (usually in June) and the last is for the approval of having passed the year and in that meeting the student will bring the chapter/s done and reviewed with the Supervisor.
In the second year the State exam that has to be passed is the exam of Special Discipline, and, as for the first year, the seminars conducted will be evaluated.
The third year is basically dedicated to write, research and edit the Doctoral thesis, and at the end of October there will be the defense of it.
Some classes are devoted to the organization of the research, the students have to prepare presentations and they have to expose it to their colleagues which will help them in understanding where to ameliorate and to clarify the study. This sharing of ideas is particularly important for any young scientist, as it allows you to understand if you are taking the right path and if not, it makes you understand where to change it for getting better and better.
The PhD in Political Science at HSE gives you the possibility of entering deeply in the academic and research world, involving you in participating to conferences and seminar not only in this university, making you more involved in what really is the field you study and giving you the option of knowing other scholars and to confront with them. The ambience is international, student from different parts of the world are in the same place and they work together, this gives the possibility of developing a multicultural environment where everyone can share the personal experiences and ideas making each day a moment of individual enrichment. The students are inserted in a world of open minded academics which are ready to share their experience and knowledge with any clue, question, thought of the candidates, and thanks to this, positive and useful discussions are done.
Structure:
1st Year: Writing and editing of the research design, literature review and the writing of the first chapter of the thesis; three meetings with doctoral commission; lessons and seminars during the academic year.
2nd Year: State Exam of Political Science, three meetings with doctoral commission, lessons and seminars during the academic year; writing and editing of the thesis.
3rd Year: devoted to write and edit of the research thesis; three meetings with doctoral commission (final one is the meeting where the candidate will have to defend the thesis), lessons and seminars during the academic year.