For each academic year, the PhD Committee draws up a list of educational activities: seminars held by the PhD candidate, participation in seminars held by other PhD candidates, participation in one or more institutional courses within the University, participation in a PhD school and participation in courses, conferences, seminars, etc. The PhD Committee will determine the equivalency of credits for each of these educational activities. The list of these activities will be published online on the PhD program website and updated/expanded each academic year.
To be eligible for the final examination, the PhD candidate must have published at least one paper in English in international peer-reviewed journals. In order to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, each PhD candidate must earn 180 university education credits (ECTS) over the three years of the program. Of these, 140 credits are earned through research activities related to the dissertation project, and 12 credits are awarded for writing the dissertation..
The remaining 28 credits are earned by PhD students through participation in the courses offered by the PhD Board and through the seminars organised by the PhD program. Credits can also be earned through various educational activities, such as participation in national and international schools.
The 28 credits are distributed as follows:
- - 1st year: 10 credits from attending courses offered as part of the CPS doctorate or other PhD programs at the University of Siena (if compatible with the training path), or by attending additional courses and/or conferences, schools and seminars (½ credit per seminar and 4 credits per school/conference).
- - 2nd year: as described above.
- - 3rd year: 8 credits from attending courses offered as part of the CPS doctorate or other PhD programs at the University of Siena (if compatible with the training path) or by attending additional courses and/or conferences, schools and seminars (½ credit per seminar and 4 credits per school/conference).
Seminar-related, didactic and laboratory activities as well as internships are recorded by the doctoral student in the PhD Candidate Record Book, which serves as a detailed information tool for the annual and final review committees.
At the end of each year, a review of the activities carried out takes place, which includes the presentation/discussion of a poster on the activities carried out during the year to the PhD Committee (usually during the annual 'PhD Day').