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Regulation

In this page some rules of the PhD school at Udine are summarized. For further information please refer to the Ripartizione Ricerca site or contact the director of the program.

Exams
The PhD student must obtain 6 credits in the first two years of his PhD course. These credits can be obtained by passing the exams of PhD courses held in Udine, or the exams of PhD Schools, or, in some cases, by passing some Computer Science laurea degree advanced courses. Moreover, if a PhD school does not provide any exam, it is possible to pass the exam by giving a seminar presentation on the topics covered by the school here at DIMI. The topics, the structure of the presentation and the credits that will be granted must be previosly approved by the Director. See PhD courses and School for further information. Every exam usually correspond to 1 credit (tipically equivalent to 20 hours of an intensive Doctoral course). A plan of the Ph.D. studies should be approved at the beginning of the first year by the director of the PhD program. The students can make a limited teaching activity (about 24 hours of lectures) after the first year. This activity must be approved by collegio dei docenti, so the students must present a written request indicating the type and the total number of lectures, before the beginning of the academic year (or at least before the beginning of their activity). The students are kindly invited to participate once to the International Doctoral School in Computer Science held every year in Bertinoro. At this school it is possible to attend 3 courses and it is necessary to pass at least 2 of the three exams

Tutor
Every PhD student must choose a supervisor belonging to Collegio dei Docenti. It is also possible to choose one external supervisor who must be approved by Collegio dei Docenti.

Money
The PhD school is partly supported by Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica (e.g. for paying external courses and for co-financing equipment). Most of the support must come from research funds belonging to supervisors.

Deadlines
Doctoral students must respect the following deadlines:

  • At the end of the first year: 15 minutes of presentation on the work done, including exams and attended courses and research work. Students must also fill a form concerning these activities (an electronic form is available in the web pages of Ripartizione Ricerca), send a copy (signed by the supervisor as well) to Nucleo di Valutazione and give a copy to the School Director.
  • After 1.5 years from the PhD start: 45 minutes presentation about the Ph.D. thesis proposal, research work already performed and work to be done, exams and publications. A copy of this proposal must be submitted to the three members of the sub-committee of Collegio dei Docenti (internal reviewers) and a copy must be given to the school director. The proposal should cover the following topics:
    • thesis' domain;
    • work already done, including pubblications list;
    • future goals and planned projects

    The presentation must be written in a not too specific language, becuase some of the readers may be not familiar with the domain. Example 1 - Example 2

  • At the end of the second year: 15 minutes presentation on the work done with particular emphasis on the research results regarding the thesis work. Students must also fill a form concerning these activities (an electronic form is available in the web pages of Ripartizione Ricerca), send a copy (signed by the supervisor as well) to Nucleo di Valutazione and give a copy to the School Director.
  • At the end of the third year a presentation of the thesis must be given (see below for details).

Thesis work
The thesis work is reviewed by a committee of 3 professors belonging to Collegio dei Docenti (internal referees) and 2 professors belonging to other universities (external referees). At least one of the two external referees should come from a foreign country. One of the 3 internal referees is the PhD student supervisor. The thesis proposal (made 1.5 years after the PhD start) should be approved by the three internal referees. A draft copy of the thesis has be sent to the 5 referees at the end of the third year. The referees evaluate the thesis and say if it the work is suitable for a Doctoral Degree. They propose also some corrections and improvements for the final version of the thesis which should get ready two months after the end of the PhD school.

Summary of the deadlines:

  • After 3 years from the PhD start: a draft of the thesis has be sent to referees and the Ph.D. student has to apply for giving the final Ph.D. exam (please see the rules in the pages of Dottorato at Ripartizione Ricerca. The application form must be received by University of Udine before the end of the third year).
  • After 3 years and one month from the PhD start: The referees must send to the director of the school their report on the thesis.
  • After 3 years and 45 days from the PhD start: 45 minutes presentation of the thesis to Collegio dei Docenti. Collegio dei docenti will prepare a report on the thesis and will give a copy of it to the Ph.D. student.
  • After 3 years and 2 months from the PhD start: The final version of the thesis should be ready and submitted (six copies have to be presented at Ripartizione Ricerca (see 'regolamento di ateneo di Dottorato').
  • After 3 years and (about) 4 months from the PhD start: 45 minutes final discussion of the thesis. The final version of the thesis will usually be printed in a special Ph.D. series of Editrice Forum. Please ask Prof. Dovier about the style to print the thesis and any further detail concerning this publication.

The official italian version can be found here