“We want to create a shared educational space for all PhD students at BUT that will develop key skills essential for their scientific and professional future. The goal is not to replace existing subject-specific education, but to offer a complementary platform for interdisciplinary connections, experience sharing, and strengthening competencies in areas such as publishing, project work, data management, or personal development,” explains the project initiator, Vice-Rector Vítězslav Máša.

The University-wide Doctoral School will operate in the form of thematic educational blocks that will reflect the needs of PhD students across various disciplines. The 18-hour in-person instruction will focus, among other things, on:

• principles of doctoral studies and the position of PhD students at universities,
• basics of scientific publishing and working with citation databases,
• project management, research data management, and intellectual property protection,
• topics in leadership, career development, startups, and wellbeing.

The school will also include networking events, workshops, and off-site seminars aimed at supporting interdisciplinary collaboration and building research teams across BUT.

The pilot year of the University-wide Doctoral School, which will take place from September 19 to December 12, 2025 (every Friday from 9:00 – 10:30 AM), will be open to students in the 1st and 2nd year of doctoral study programs from all faculties, with participation being entirely voluntary. The university leadership and the Student Chamber of the BUT Academic Senate believe that this new format will contribute to higher quality doctoral education and greater interconnectedness across the academic community.

Vítězslav Máša has been involved in the development of doctoral education at BUT for a long time. He presented the topic in one of the past issues of the News at BUT magazine.

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