The doctoral process starts automatically when you submit the final version of your thesis (as well as the other necessary documents) and ends when you receive the doctoral degree. 

The earliest time you can submit the final version of your thesis is a month after your research centre disputation. The latest time is the last day (31 August) of the third academic year after your comprehensive (complex) exam. (You may request a year of extension from TTDT, with grave reasons.) After submitting the final version, the programme secretary and the programme director organise the committee of the public debate, then approved by the TTDT. (The supervisor may make suggestions.)

After the approval of the TTDT, the opponents receive the thesis and have two months to review it. (The deadline can be extended by another month.) If one opponent supports the thesis but the other does not, the TTDT will invite a third opponent, too. If there are at least two opponents supporting the thesis, the administrator begins to organise the public defence, which usually takes a month. In the meantime, the candidate writes their response to the reviews, with a deadline of two weeks after the arrival of the second approving review. The administrator forwards the response to the opponents. 

The above process takes four months at least (six months on average), counting from the submission of the final version. If the thesis is submitted in the period between May and the end of July, please mind that July and August do not count into the time scheduled for the opponents, so they are not included in the period mentioned above.

Warning: the act of defending the thesis successfully does NOT equal the act of receiving the degree! The latter can only happen after the official examination of the minutes and other necessary documents, which takes an average of three months after the defence, again not including July and August. 

In order to submit the final version of the thesis, you need: 

• an application form and a DOI form (from the administration), filled in and signed,

• the supervisor(s)’ proposal, signed,

• a statement that the thesis has been examined with the plagiarism detector Turnitin,

• at least two scientific publications, relevant to the thesis topic, uploaded into MTMT, 

• 3 printed copies of the thesis (1 hard-bound, 2 ring-bound); you can print on both sides of the paper to make it cheaper,

• thesis booklets (3 copies in English, 3 copies in Hungarian),

• one or two language exams, depending on the year the training began (see above in the section of general information).

Please find the formal requirements of the thesis on the last page of Organisational and Operational Regulations linked here: 
https://tatk.elte.hu/en/about/regulations. 

Please bind a summary into the end of your thesis, 1 page in Hungarian, 1 page in English. 

Please include the DOI identifier of bibliographical items in each relevant case. 

You needn’t submit anything on a data storage device. Sending in the final version and the two thesis booklets in 3 PDF files before the submitting of the hard copies will suffice. 

Please submit the thesis booklets both in Hungarian and in English, with the same content, in a maximum of 20 A5 pages, printed in Times New Roman, font size 10, in three printed copies and two PDF files sent to doktori@tatk.elte.hu.

The four parts of the thesis booklets are:

• preliminaries and aims of research,

• research methods,

• new results and main conclusions,

• the author’s publications in the field of the dissertation.

You may request to extend the deadline of the final version by a year. Only grave reasons are accepted (e.g. illness, childbirth, etc.). It is a TTDT request, so it has to be submitted before the last TTDT-meeting of the semester.
 

If you cannot submit the thesis before the modified deadline, either, your training terminates without a result.

Inviting all committee members is the job of the Doctoral School. The supervisor and the candidate may make suggestions, e.g. they may recommend the opponents of the research centre disputation, but they are not expected to. The committee is chosen by the programme director and secretary and approved by the TTDT after they have checked if each member has a PhD degree and that there is no partiality or conflict of interest with the candidate in the committee. The official invitations are sent out after that.

First, the programme director and secretary choose the members of your committee. Then, at the next TTDT meeting, the council check if each member has a PhD degree and that there is no conflict of interest with the candidate in the committee. If everything is correct, they give their approval. The two opponents have two months to review the thesis. (The deadline can be extended by another month.) Please note that if either of them does not accept the invitation, or they turn out to be unable to complete it, the process will start again. 

Once the reviews are finished, and both are supportive of the thesis, the candidate has two weeks to compose their reply. At the same time, the Doctoral School begins to organise the defence. The candidate, the supervisor(s), and every committee member is consulted about the date and time. The length of the process depends on the circumstances. In general, it takes between four and six months from the submitting of the final version until the public defence, not including July and August, or the end of December.

The maximum time which the doctoral process may take is one calendar year. 

Each member of a committee of a public defence must have a PhD degree, or else the defence is not valid. There must not be any partiality or conflict of interest with the candidate, either (e.g. if the candidate and an opponent are co-authors of a publication, etc.). The chairperson must have a habilitated doctoral degree.

The programme director and secretary choose the members of your committee. You and your supervisor may also make suggestions. Then, at the next TTDT meeting, the council examine if there is any partiality or conflict of interest with the candidate in the committee. If everything is correct, they give their approval. TTDT meetings take place once a month or once in two months. You can find the date of the next meeting here: https://tatk.elte.hu/en/studies/phd/info. 

Once they have approved, you are sent the decision. 

After a successful defence, the TTDT also need to give their approval, so the Doctoral School will submit a proposal to the next TTDT-meeting after the defence. Once they have approved, the proposal is passed to EDT (Doctoral Council of the University). After they have made their decision, you are allowed to use the degree, although the ceremony of receiving a hard copy will probably take place much later (usually in July). The whole process may take several months.