Supervisor

According to § 7, section 1 of the Regulations of the Doctoral School of the Warsaw University of Technology: Supervision over the realization of the PhD dissertation is provided by the supervisor, supervisors or by the supervisor and the assistant supervisor.It is allowed to have up totwo supervisors (supervisor and second supervisor or supervisor and assistant supervisor). Participants of the ‘Implementation doctorate’ program must also have an advisor from the company they are employed in, who needs to have a PhD degree or at least 5 years of experience in conducting research and development works).

 

According to article 190, section 4 of the Act – The Law on higher education and science, a supervisor can be a person holding the title of a professor or a post-doctoral degree, whereas an assistant supervisor – a doctoral degree.

 

In compliance with § 7, section 4 of the Regulations: At least one of the supervisors must be employed at the Warsaw University of Technology at the time of appointment.

 

Supervisor and assistant supervisor are obliged by the following guidelines:

 

  • a supervisor can supervise no more than 8 PhD students from WUT Doctoral School, including no more than 5 with a subsidy as a source of scholarship.
  • a function of an assistant supervisor may be performed over no more than 2 PhD students from WUT Doctoral School.

Supervisors are appointed by the relevant discipline scientific councils.

 

According to § 8, section 1 of the Regulations: Within one month of commencing education, a PhD student shall apply to the proper discipline Scientific Council, via the Head of the School, for the appointment of a supervisor, supervisors or a supervisor and assistant supervisor. A template of the application is specified by the Head of the Doctoral School.

 

PhD Students Office announces the date for submitting applications to newly accepted PhD students via
e-mails in the @pw.edu.pl domain. The documents have to be submitted to PhD Students Office within given deadline. After the initial verification, the applications are handed over to the relevant discipline Scientific Council.

 

Important! In compliance with § 8, section 2 of the Regulations: When the proposed supervisor or assistant supervisor is not an employee of the Warsaw University of Technology, the application shall provide additional information about the candidate’s research activity. Some Scientific Councils may require additional information about academic achievements and research activities from WUT assistant supervisor candidates as well.

 

According to § 8, section 4 of the Regulations: The Scientific Council shall appoint a supervisor, supervisors or assistant supervisor not later than within 3 months from commencing education by the PhD student.

 

Is it possible to appoint a second supervisor or assistant supervisor later? Yes.The PhD student, upon consultation with the supervisor, can apply for the second supervisor or assistant supervisor to the relevant discipline Scientific Council (via the Head of the Doctoral School) within 3 months from receiving a positive mid-term evaluation result.

 

What are the consequences of not submitting the application within a given deadline? According to § 14 section 8 of the Regulations of the Doctoral School it may result in the removal from the list of the PhD students pursuant to § 13, section 11, point 2 of the Regulations – non-compliance with the provisions of the Regulations.

 

 

 

Information for ‘Implementation Doctorate’ program participants

Participants of the ‘Implementation Doctorate’ program have additional advisor proposed by the employing institution from among its employees designated within the date specified in a trilateral agreement. Such advisor has to meet the conditions determined by the Ministry responsible for higher education and his responsibilities are defined by the entity conducting the program. The advisor is indicated as early as at the stage of submitting the application to the Ministry. Note: The advisor is not an assistant supervisor.

The procedure of changing a supervisor

In compliance with § 9, section 1 of the Regulations: A PhD student has the right to change his supervisor, supervisors or assistant supervisor or to resign from the assistant supervisor, subject to respecting copyright law and scientific ethics.

In justified cases, supervisor or assistant supervisor may resign from performing this function, in particular due to:

1)           termination of work at the Warsaw University of Technology;

2)           staying outside the country for a period of at least 6 months;

3)           health or random causes limiting the professional and scientific activity;

4)           running out of the possibilities for further cooperation with his PhD student.

What is the procedure? It can be initiated:

1) at the request of a PhD student submitted via the Head of Doctoral School to the relevant discipline Scientific Council along with argumentation and suggestion of a new supervisor, supervisors or assistant supervisor with their consent.

2) at the request of a supervisor or assistant supervisor submitted via the Head of Doctoral School to the relevant discipline Scientific Council, along with argumentation documenting the occurrence of circumstances referred to in section 2 or other circumstances that may be the basis for resignation from this function.

Keep in mind that if the change of the supervisor is initiated by PhD student, (s)he is obliged to submit an application for appointing a new supervisor, supervisors or supervisor and assistant supervisor along with additional documents that may be required by relevant discipline Scientific Council (details provided in the section on appointing supervisors). It is recommended to attach the written consent of the supervisor being changed.

If the change takes place at the request of the supervisor submitted in less than six months before the mid-term evaluation, a negative result of such evaluation is included in the criterion referred to in Art. 190, section 6, point 1 of the Act, in reference to this supervisor, i.e. A supervisor shall not be a person who in the last 5 years has been a supervisor of 4 doctoral students who were removed from the list of PhD students due to a negative result of mid-term evaluation.

Scientific Council should consider the application for changing the supervisor within 60 days, excluding the period of summer holidays.