Exams: Faculty of Arts

PRACTICAL INFORMATION REGARDING EXAMS AND THE DISSERTATION DEFENCE

Philosophy exam

Requirements:

During their studies, all doctoral students at the Faculty of Arts UP, who do not study at the Department of Philosophy, must attend a two-semester course of Philosophy for PhD Students taught by prof. Ivan Blecha <ivan.blecha@upol.cz>:

Philosophy for PhD Students 1 (KFI/91AF1)
Philosophy for PhD Students 2 (KFI/91AF2)

The examination is performed after the second semester by Assistant Professors at the Department of Philosophy: dr. Pavel Hobza <pavel.hobza@upol.cz>, dr. Martin Jabůrek <martin.jaburek@upol.cz>, dr. Karel Šebela <karel.sebela@upol.cz> and dr. Jan Halák (jan.halak@upol.cz)

The examination consists of a discussion over a text that students choose themselves. It should be connected to their subject area of studies. This text can be in Czech or English and must deal with philosophy. Examination dates are posted in STAG in the summer examination period. After signing up for an exam date, students must contact the respective examiner well in advance (about four weeks prior to the exam). He shall approve the selected text and suggest exam questions. Students who have difficulty with selecting a text are advised to choose one of the chapters in any of the anthologies below (see Moodle).

Recommended literature:

Curd, Martin & Stathis Psillos (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science, 2nd Ed. (New York: Routledge, 2014).
Eldridge, Richard (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Livingston, Paisley & Carl Plantinga (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film (New York: Routledge, 2009).
Russell, Gillian & Delia Graff Fara (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language (New York: Routledge, 2012).
Symons, John & Paco Calvo (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology (New York: Routledge, 2009).
Tucker, Aviezer (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2009).
Wainwright, William J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Foreign language exam

Students interested in the exam must register for the subject in the IS STAG at the pre-registration time, meaning at the beginning of the semester which they wish to take the exam in. Students are advised to register for the foreign language in the second year of studies, latest. The specific requirements for passing the exam will be communicated by the course quarantor.

State Doctoral Examination

Students who began their doctoral studies before 1 September 2025 are required to take an oral doctoral examination. Students who enrolled on or after this date only have to defend their dissertation for their final state examination.

The application for the state doctoral examination can be submitted only after the fulfillment of all study obligations, including the submission of the doctoral dissertation and receiving the appropriate number of ECTS for it.

Students who wish to take the State Doctoral Examination must submit a completed form of the Application for State Doctoral Examination to the Doctoral Study Officer in person in her office hours or send her all the documents by post.

Subsequently, the DSP student will receive an email invitation to the state doctoral examination and to defend their dissertation, at least 20 days before the examination date.

The state doctoral examination and its procedure are governed by the Study and Examination Code of Palacký University Olomouc (version A-10/2011-ÚZ05), which came into effect on 1 September 2019 (Articles 41–43). We recommend that all students study the relevant provisions.

Dissertation defence

DSP students wishing to perform the dissertation defence must submit the following documents to the Doctoral Study Officer:

A completed application form, (PDF) (RTF),
One hard copy of the dissertation,
The supervisor’s statement (DOC) whether the dissertation complies with the requirements for its defence (1 hard copy signed by the supervisor or a scanned copy).

Before submitting their dissertation, students are required to enter information about their dissertation into the Portal UP and upload both the full text and a dissertation summary (autoreferát). Unless otherwise specified by the Doctoral Study Board, the dissertation summary does not need to be submitted in printed form.

Applications shall not be considered submitted unless the DSP students submit all the above mentioned obligatory attachments. Students can submit the application with all the due attachments to the Doctoral Study Officer in person in her office hours or send her all the documents by post.

Consequently, the DSP students are expecting a dissertation defence invitation from the Doctoral Study Officer. The invitation must be delivered at least 20 days before the defence date. The whole process of organising the dissertation defence (from the moment of application submission to the defence date) usually takes about 3–5 months. DSP students who plan to complete their studies by a certain date (for example due to the chance of getting an extra bursary for managing to complete the study within the standard study time) must be ready for this time span and submit the application well in advance.

The obligatory parts of the dissertation and of the dissertation summary as well as the defence process are specified in the UP Study and Examination Code (Articles 44–47). We recommend that all DSP students study the relevant provisions. We especially point out the obligation to include a foreign language résumé in the prescribed length both in the dissertation and in the abstract. DSP students should also ask their supervisor or check at the department website whether the Subject-area Board has made any additional rules or obligations for the dissertation or abstract beyond the above mentioned instructions.

Faculty of Arts

Exams

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