Grant type: international Erasmus+ project KA220-HED – Cooperation partnerships in higher education

Project number: 2021-1-SK01-KA220-HED-000022917

Project title: The innovation of the concept and curriculum of doctoral study programs and increasing their effectiveness

Project Acronym: InnovationPhD

Project period: 2022 – 2025

Project Coordinator: doc. PhDr. Andrea Grominová, PhD., University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (Slovak Republic)

Project annotation:

The main impetus for the project was the desire to improve the design and curricula of doctoral programs at three universities in two Slavic and one non-Slavic country – the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (Slovak Republic), Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic), and the University of Granada (Spain) in order to increase their effectiveness. Based on an analysis of the current doctoral programs at the partner universities, it can be concluded that applicants who wish to study are not always sufficiently prepared and do not have sufficient skills and knowledge. For some candidates, this obstacle is so great that they drop out of their studies, which leads to a loss of potential talented researchers and future university teachers on the one hand, and to significant economic losses on the other. Therefore, we would like to provide doctoral students with sufficient theoretical knowledge and help them to develop practical skills in two areas, the so-called hard and soft skills. All these skills are applicable not only in scientific and pedagogical practice, but also on a much wider scale. We anticipate that by addressing the project in an international context, the methodological and professional readiness of doctoral graduates will be enhanced, as well as the exchange of experience between teachers of doctoral programs. The main objective of the project is therefore to improve the concept and curricula of doctoral study programs and to increase their effectiveness. The 36-month project intends to achieve this objective by linking universities with both long and short experience in implementing doctoral programs. By focusing on the unification of methodological practices in the field of hard and soft skills in Russian-oriented programs, the participating organizations aim to prepare study materials that will help students to successfully complete their studies and adequately prepare them for the presentation of their work and achievements, giving them better chances to build their careers. We will achieve our goals by implementing the following activities: 1. Elaboration of analysis of doctoral programs at participating universities, eliminating weaknesses of analyzed programs and proposals for their innovation in order to increase their efficiency (IO 1). 2. Elaboration of methodological and didactic recommendations and study materials for doctoral students in the field of hard skills in digital form (IO 2). 3. Elaboration of methodological and didactic recommendations and study materials for doctoral students in the field of soft skills in digital (IO 3). 4. Methodological seminar for Ph.D. students of participating universities (IO 4). 5. Conference for students and teachers in doctoral programs (ME). The results of the project will be usable in practice during the duration of the project, but especially after its completion in the process of future (re)accreditation of doctoral study programs. In order to ensure the sustainability of the project results, the methodological support will be placed on a freely accessible website (i.e., with free access for all universities within and outside the EU), on the websites of the partner universities, and their libraries. Another outcome is the opportunity for teachers to give lectures at partner universities, e. g. in the framework of the Erasmus+ program, or for partners to collaborate in specific areas of research, etc. The Conference for doctoral students, primarily of these three partner universities, will be an international venue for students and university teachers to discuss specific topics and issues (including doctoral studies) and could become a tradition in the future.