General information

GENERAL INFORMATION

In the Doctoral School of Social Sciences [LINK], the study programme is highly customised, adapted to the interests and research project of the individual doctoral student and conducted under the guidance of a supervisor or supervisors of their choice. The [LINK] programme covers eight semesters, during which doctoral students complete compulsory theoretical and methodological classes as well as higher education didactics, classes relating to research management in the broadest sense of the term or building the scientific capital of doctoral students.

An important part of the programme is also made up of classes providing an opportunity to learn about research conducted at the UW beyond the framework of a single discipline, where some courses are taught by eminent representatives of the social sciences and some are devoted to the research of doctoral students themselves. The programme also includes seminars and specialist classes organised separately for doctoral students in each discipline. A part of the programme is also a teaching internship (30 or 60 hours), which doctoral students may carry out over the entire education cycle.

The school recruits in the following disciplines:

Economics and Finance – admission limit 12
Education – admission limit 6
International relations – admission limit 5
Law – admission limit 20
Management and Quality Studies – admission limit 5
Political Science and Public Administration – admission limit 11
Psychology – admission limit 8
Security Studies – admission limit 4
Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management – admission limit 4
Communication and Media Studies – admission limit 6
Sociology – admission limit 14

RECRUITMENT SCHEDULE

1) Registration in the Internet Recruitment of Candidates, referred to as “IRK”, submission of an application in the IRK for admission to the Doctoral School of Social Sciences: 15 April – 29 May 2025 r.;

2) Recruitment procedure:

a) 1st stage of the recruitment procedure: 12 June to 21 June 2025;
b) publication of the results of the 1 st stage of the recruitment procedure: by 27 June 2025;
c) publication of the interview schedule (2nd stage): by 27 June 2025;
d) 2nd stage of the recruitment procedure 4 July – 15 July 2025;
e) publication of the ranking list: by 23 July 2025;
f) reception of documents from qualified candidates: 4 August – 22 September 2025;
g) announcement of the list of persons admitted to the School: by 23 September 2025.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

The candidate shall submit the application for admission to the School only in IRK [LINK]. It shall include:

the application for admission to the School stating the discipline in which the candidate plans to pursue education;
scan of a diploma of completion of the long-cycle Master’s degree programme or second-cycle programme or an equivalent diploma obtained under separate regulations or in the case of candidates pursuing education within the European Higher Education Area –a certificate of obtaining a Master’s degree or a declaration that the diploma or certificate of obtaining a Master’s degree shall be provided by the day determined in the recriutment schedule; [LINK]
a description of the initial research project proposal together with the title the description; which comprises no more than 14,000 characters including spaces; shall contain the bibliography that is not included in the character limit;
a resumé or curriculum vitae containing information about scientific activities, including scientific interests and scientific achievements during five calendar years preceding the submission of the application;
scans of materials confirming scientific activities referred to in the resumé or CV;
declaration about the command of English to the extent enabling the education in the School;
a scan of the declaration of the supervisor candidate about their willingness to be the candidate’s supervisor and the number of doctoral students, for whom they are appointed as the supervisor; [LINK];
one photograph of the candidate’s face, allowing their identification in accordance with the requirements of the IRK system;
declaration whether the candidate is or was a doctoral student or participant of doctoral studies, and if yes – title of doctoral dissertation or the research project prepared by the candidate, as well as the first name and surname of the academic tutor or the supervisor;
declaration on familiarising themselves with the content of the Resolution [LINK], as well as Article 40 and Article 41 of the Code of Administrative Procedure.

Detailed information on the required documents is to be found in Resolution on the rules of recruitment for Doctoral Schools at the University of Warsaw [LINK].

In case the diploma was issued in a language other than Polish or English, the candidate submits its certified translation. Additionally, the candidate shall be obliged to submit a translation of titles of scientific achievements. In justified instances, the Recruitment Coordinator or chairperson or the secretary of the selection team may request the candidate to submit a translation of other documents or materials included in the application within the time frame set.

In justified cases, the Director may make the entry of a candidate on the list of doctoral students conditional on the submission of a translation of a particular document, including a sworn translation, or the legalisation of a document (apostille) within a specified, appropriate time limit. The condition may also be stipulated in an administrative decision.

SUPERVISORS

It is worth starting the recruitment process to a Doctoral School at the University of Warsaw by finding a supervisor, who will be willing to provide care for the doctoral student and perform scientific supervision over their research project. The name of the supervisor and the scan of their declaration about their willingness to be the candidate’s supervisor shall be submitted in IRK.

In order to find a supervisor, candidates for the Doctoral Schools are encouraged to search through the database of supervisors available here [LINK]. The database contains the list of University of Warsaw researchers, who are willing to perform the function of the dissertation supervisor.

The candidates are also encouraged to consult the websites of the University of Warsaw faculties and academic units [LINK] for the information on academic teachers conducting their research.

SCHOLARSHIPS

The doctoral student shall receive the doctoral scholarship during the period of education. The scholarship will amount to PLN 4242 before the mid-term evaluation and 5340,90 after the mid-term evaluation. The total period of receiving the doctoral scholarship cannot exceed four years. The suplement for persons with disabilities amounts to PLN 1040,07.

The mandatory contributions are deducted from the scholarship. The scholarship is reduced by app. 11%.

Notice! The amounts specified above may be subject to change if the Ministry of Science and Higher Education decides to announce a new base rate.

QUALIFICATION TEAMS

We present the composition of the qualifying teams:

Qualification teams

Economics and Finance qualification team:

1) dr hab. Jerzy Mycielski, prof. ucz.– chair;
2) dr hab. Michał Brzozowski;
3) dr hab. Bartłomiej Rokicki, prof. ucz.;
4) dr Wiktor Budziński;
5) dr Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska;
6) dr Paweł Sakowski;
7) mgr Milena Sitkiewicz.

Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management qualification team:

1) dr hab. Katarzyna Podhorodecka, prof. ucz.– chair;
2) prof. dr hab. Jerzy Makowski;
3) dr hab. Waldemar Wilk;
4) dr Paweł Cywiński;
5) dr Barbara Jaczewska;
6) mgr Iga Ajdacka.

Security Studies qualification team:

1) dr hab. Cezary Smuniewski, prof. ucz. – chair;
2) dr hab. Michał Brzeziński;
3) dr hab. Patrycja Grzebyk, prof. ucz.;
4) dr hab. Krzysztof Tomaszewski, prof. ucz.;
5) dr Kinga Torbicka;
6) mgr Jakub Drożdż.

Communication and Media Studies qualification team:

1) prof. dr hab. Robert Kotowski – chair;
2) prof. dr hab. Alicja Jaskiernia;

3) dr hab. Agnieszka Chamera-Nowak;
4) dr hab. Agata Opolska-Bielańska, prof. ucz.;
5) dr Karolina Brylska;
6) mgr Helena Marzec-Gołąb.

Political Science and Public Administration qualification team:

1) dr hab. Anna Wojciuk, prof. ucz. – chair;
2) dr hab. Kamil Mroczka;
3) dr hab. Leszek Nowak;
4) dr hab. Aleksandra Zubrzycka-Czarnecka;
5) dr Przemysław Potocki;
6) mgr Weronika Skorupska.

Management and Quality Studies qualification team:

1) dr hab. Agnieszka Kacprzak, prof. ucz. – chair;
2) dr hab. Jacek Pasieczny, prof. ucz.;
3) dr hab. Agnieszka Wiśniewska;
4) dr hab. Michał Zdziarski, prof. ucz.;
5) dr Tomasz Rosiak;
6) mgr Milena Sitkiewicz.

Law qualification team:

1) prof. dr hab. Rafał Stankiewicz – chair;
2) prof. dr hab. Ewa Rott-Pietrzyk;
3) dr hab. Wojciech Brzozowski, prof. ucz.;
4) dr hab. Piotr Grzebyk. prof. ucz.;
5) dr Paweł Banaś;
6) dr Oktawian Kuc;
7) dr Valeri Vachev
8) mgr Rafał Stronk.

Sociology qualification team:

1) dr Sara Bojarczuk – chair;
2) dr hab. Barbara Lewenstein, prof. ucz.;
3) dr hab. Sławomir Mandes, prof. ucz.;
4) dr hab. Mustafa Switat;
5) dr Sylwia Urbańska;
6) mgr Shin Mazur.

Education qualification team:

1) dr hab. Anna Zielińska, prof. ucz. – chair;
2) dr hab. Anna Dąbrowska;
3) dr hab. Jan Rutkowski;
4) dr hab. Joanna Smogorzewska, prof. ucz.;
5) dr Paulina Marchlik;
6) mgr Nigora Mamadaminova.

Psychology qualification team:

1) dr Alicja Niedźwiecka – przewodnicząca;
2) prof. dr hab. Marcin Rzeszutek;
3) dr hab. Joanna Czarnota-Bojarska, prof. ucz;
4) dr Krzysztof Krawczyk;
5) dr Wiktor Soral;
6) mgr Agnieszka Olejnik.

International relations qualification team:

1) dr hab. Katarzyna Nawrot – chair;
2) dr hab. Jerzy Ciechański;
3) dr hab. Joanna Starzyk-Sulejewska, prof.ucz.;
4) dr hab. Vadym Zheltovskyy;
5) dr Dominika Harasimiuk;
6) mgr Michał Sobol.

FORM OF THE SELECTION PROCESS AND THE NUMBER OF POINTS THAT CAN BE OBRAINED

Two-stage process:

Stage I: evaluation of the research project and scientific activities of the candidate;
Stage II: interview.

Maximum number of points that can be obtained in the selection procedure – 100 points:

Stage I – 60 points (the number of points needed to qualify to stage II – 30 points).
Stage II – 40 points (the number of points needed to qualify for entry on the list of candidates recommended to be admitted to the School).

The recruitment fee is PLN 300 [LINK].

EVALUATION CRITERIA AND METHOD

Research project (maximum number of points – 40)
When evaluating the project, the following shall be taken into account:

defining the research problem e.g. the objective, research questions, hypotheses (0–10 points);
adequacy of the proposed methodology (0-10 points);
placing the project in the context of previous research and knowledge of literature (0–10 points);
originality of the proposed subject matter and methodology (0-10 points).

When there are reasonable suspicions of plagiarism, the Qualification Team checks the submitted project in the Unified Anti-Plagiarism System (JSA), OSA or Anti-Plagiarism.

If significant copyright infringement, misappropriation of content is found, the Qualification Team awards zero points for the research project criteria.

Scientific activity of the candidate (maximum number of points – 20)
When evaluating scientific activity, the following elements, confirmed with scans, shall be taken into account:

active participation in scientific conferences e.g. presenting a paper or poster (0- 4 points);
participation in research projects (0-5 points);
scientific and popular scientific publications (0-6 points);
organisational activity related to science e.g. activity in student research groups, conference organization (0-2 points);
scientific internships, scholarships, awards for scientific activity (0-3 points)

Interview (maximum number of points – 40)

The following shall be taken into account when evaluating the interview:

candidate’s competencies presented during the interview regarding the research project (0-20 points);
understanding of the issues to be handled, subject-matter knowledge, correct language and the ability to use the scientific language appropriate for the academic discipline in which education is going to be provided (0-20 points).

The interview shall be carried out in Polish with parts in English or fully in English – in accordance with the candidate’s preferences presented in IRK.

CONDITION OF ADMISSION TO THE SCHOOL

Obtaining at least 50 points in the whole selection process, including at least 30 points in stage I and at least 20 points in stage II of the selection process.

CONTACT

Doctoral School of Social Sciences
ul. Dobra 56/66, room no. 0.108, 01-312 Warsaw
E-mail dedicated to the recruitment process: rekrutacja.ns@uw.edu.pl
phone number: 22 55 22 163

More information – LINK

Recruitment coordinator: Maja Lewandowska

You are welcome to contact us every Wednesday between 10:00 and 13:00