Admission Procedure in PhD Programmes

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Admission Procedure 2025/2026

Information on the Admission Procedure

Admission procedure 2025/2026 for all doctoral programs taught in English at Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, with the exception of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program (admission requirements for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology are listed in the study programme description, dates and deadlines are the same)

To apply for one of our doctoral study programmes taught in English you must hold or be working towards a master's diploma and have the necessary abilities for research. The latter consists mainly of the knowledge of the chosen field, English language, and the ability of independent creative work as well as teamwork. The assessment of these abilities is based on the documents submitted with your application and on the entrance examination, if the latter is not waived (see below). The admission procedure commences with the submission of a complete application form and all obligatory attachments.

Important dates:

• Application's submission till April 30, 2025. Early application’s submission (February, March) is possible and advisable, the applications will be assessed immediately after the submission.
• Letters of recommendation are due by April 30, 2025
• Invitation to take the entrance examination in mid-May, 2025
• Entrance examination dates: June 9 till June 20, 2025
• Alternative entrance examination date: June 23 till June 27, 2025, can be requested for serious reasons only
• A document certifying completion of a university education at Master's level needs to be delivered as soon as possible after the application submission, and in any case no later than September 30, 2025. If the applicant has submitted an application for recognition of foreign education and no decision has yet been made on it, the deadline for delivery of the document is extended to October 22, 2025. For students graduating between September 1, 2025 and September 30, 2025, the deadline is also extended till October 22, 2025.

Admission for studies

Admission for studies in one of our doctoral study programmes taught in English will be granted to the applicants who

• Submitted a complete application form together with all obligatory attachments before the deadline,
• Obtained at least 28 points in the first round of the entrance examination or reached or exceeded the point threshold for admission to the given study program after going through both rounds of the entrance exam. This point limit for individual study programmes and individual forms of study is determined by the dean of the faculty, taking into account the expected number of admissions and the capacity and financial constraints of the faculty. The dean will announce the point limits for individual programs by June 30, 2025 at the latest.

Entrance examination to all programmes taught in English

The entrance examination for all study programmes consists of two rounds. 1st round Assessment of candidates on the basis of the attachments to the application form. The admissions committee evaluates attachments according to the following criteria:

1. Results and quality of previous studies (grades, quality of the university, time since the graduation)
2. Compatibility of the applicant’s Master’s degree with the scientific field of the doctoral programme
3. Quality of a motivation letter
4. Content of recommendation letters and their relevance
5. Publications or other professional achievements, proving the candidate's qualifications for doctoral studies
6. The level of English language proficiency

The assessment of each criterion is on a scale of 0–5 points, i.e. a maximum of 30 points can be obtained in the evaluation. To qualify for the 2nd round of the entrance exam, the candidate must obtain at least 15 points. If the candidate obtains at least 24 points, the admission committee will initiate an online interview with the candidate in which the candidate may obtain additional 5 bonus points. The 2nd round of the entrance examination is then waived for all applicants who obtain at least 28 points (including the bonus points from the interview). These applicants will be admitted for doctoral studies at the faculty. The results of the 1st round will be communicated to candidates by May 15, 2025 at the latest. 2nd round The second round of the entrance examination may be conducted online, by means of information and communication technologies. It consists of two parts, the first one of which is related to the suggested dissertation topic, the second part then concerns the foundations of the scientific field of the study programme. The examination committee will evaluate the accuracy and completeness of all answers for a given part on a scale of grades: Excellent, Very good, Good and Fail. The applicant will get the following amount of points for each grade: Excellent 20 points, Very good 14 points, Good 8 points and Fail 0 points. The candidate can therefore obtain a maximum of 40 points in the 2nd round. The committee assesses the answers in particular from the point of view of correctness, completeness, accuracy and a demonstrated knowledge of the field. The exam will be conducted in English. Points for the first and second rounds are added together (bonus points from the 1st round interview are not taken into account). In order to pass the entrance examination, the applicant must obtain at least 45 points from both rounds together. The applicants with lower total scores cannot be admitted to doctoral studies.

Admission conditions after the 2nd round

The point threshold for admission to individual study programs will be set by the dean of the faculty, taking into account the expected number of admissions and the capacity and financial constraints of the faculty. The dean must announce the admission thresholds for individual programmes before July 1st , 2025. Applicants who, in the sum of the points for both rounds of the subject entrance exam, have reached at least the point threshold for admission to the given study program, will be admitted to study. The estimated minimal number of people admitted to each doctoral study programme after the 2nd round of the entrance exam is one applicant.

Invitation to 2nd round of the entrance examination

The invitation to 2nd round of the entrance examination will be sent to those applicants, who

• submitted a complete application together with its obligatory attachments before the deadline,
• paid the application fee,
• were not awarded the waiver of the 2nd round of the entrance examination before mid-May, 2025. The invitation to an entrance examination is delivered through the University Electronic Information System. In mid-May, 2025, all applicants without a waiver receive an invitation to take the 2nd round of the entrance examination from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. If the Faculty approves the waiver after sending out the invitation, the invitation ceases to apply.

Demonstrating English language proficiency

English language proficiency should be demonstrated by fulfilling at least one of the following conditions: A. The applicant spent at least two years of his/her previous education at secondary or university level with English as the sole language of instruction in one of the following countries: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, UK or USA. B. The applicant has passed one of the following exams (in some cases we recognize the exam only with a minimum score or level):

• General State Language Examination in English in the Czech Republic
• TOEFL Essentials – 10 points
• TOEFL iBT – 95 points
• TOEFL ITP – 627 points
• IELTS – 7 points
• C2 Proficiency (formerly known as CPE) – Pass
• C1 Advanced (formerly known as CAE) – Pass
• ESOL International (C1 – C2)
• TELC (The European Language Certificates) – TELC English C1 – Pass
• UNIcert English for Mathematicians: Level C1 – level C1
• Melab – 85 points
• Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) – Pass
• Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) – 785 points

Based on the evaluation by the examination committee, the faculty may offer the applicant, through the university's electronic information system, a different form of study in the same doctoral study program than the one for which he applied for study. The faculty sets a period of at least seven days for the applicant to accept the offer. If the applicant accepts the offer, the faculty changes the form of study in the application and the dean issues a decision regarding admission to study in the new form of study. If the applicant does not accept this offer or does not reply to the offer within the specified period, the dean will issue a decision regarding admission to study in the form of study for which the applicant has applied.

Application Form Requisites

APPLICATION SUBMISSION

Applications are to be submitted electronically via the Student Information System of Charles University at https://is.cuni.cz/studium/eng/prijimacky/. The application fee is 1500 CZK. You need to fill in the application form, confirm it, and submit it in the system. Electronically submitted applications do not need to be sent in paper form.

After the completion and submission of an electronic application, the information system generates a 6-digit ID number for each applicant; this ID should be given in any subsequent correspondence about the application with the Department of Student Affairs.

In the application the applicant chooses a study programme, and states a desired supervisor (from the list offered by the programme). The list of potential supervisors will be finalized by January 15, 2025. A confirmation of the desired supervisor constitutes an obligatory attachment to the application. It is highly advisable to contact the desired supervisor or the relevant department and to discuss the supervision well before the application deadline.

ATTACHMENTS TO THE APPLICATION

Obligatory

1. A document proving the completion of a master's study programme. A document certifying the completion of a university education at Master's level needs to be delivered as soon as possible after the application submission, and in any case no later than September 30, 2025. For students graduating between September 1, 2025 and September 30, 2025, the deadline is extended till October 22, 2025. This is not required from students and graduates of the Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. Those applicants who completed their education at a university abroad, must deliver one of the following documents:
   • a document about a general recognition of equality or validity of a foreign university graduation certificate in the Czech Republic (so called „nostrification“),
   • or a foreign document about a foreign university education if it is automatically recognized in the Czech Republic, according to its international agreements, without further official processing (university diploma from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia),
   • or a foreign document about completing university education which will be assessed by the faculty itself (no fee is being charged).
2. At least two letters of recommendation; letters of recommendation from professors or employers who can comment on applicant’s recent professional accomplishments and qualifications for pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics. An applicant should arrange for signed letters of recommendation to be sent in the pdf format directly by the referees to the e-mail address phd@mff.cuni.cz by April 30, 2025.
3. A structured CV containing all applicant’s achievements relevant for a successful study in a doctoral programme (projects, publications, awards etc.).
4. Motivation letter.
5. A current transcript of records from the applicant’s Master studies or a diploma supplement of a Master diploma.
6. A confirmation of a desired supervisor stating that (s)he is willing to supervise the applicant.

Optional

7. A proof of English language proficiency.

APPLICATION FEE

An application fee must be paid for each application. The application fee is 1500 CZK. The fee is to be paid by the application submission deadline to the bank account below with the 6-digit ID applicant number as “a specific symbol” or a message for the recipient. The fee can either be paid in EUR or in CZK. The application fee is non-refundable. The fee can be paid by postal order or by bank transfer. When paying by bank transfer, the applicants are obliged to pay any additional fees charged by the banks (esp. when paying from abroad).

Bank details for the application fee:
Bank: Komercni banka
Account number: 21210277/0100
IBAN: CZ49 0100 0000 0000 2121 0277
SWIFT: KOMB CZ PP

If the application is not completed and confirmed, or the application fee is not fully paid in due time, and the deficiencies are not corrected in the additional time permitted, the faculty will officially terminate the admission procedure.

Other important resources:

• Application Form
• How to complete the application form
• Admission Procedure Status
• Study Programmes and Branches
• Charles University Admission

Programme specific information

• Programme Computational linguistics
• Programme Computer Science – Software Systems, study at
  • D3S
  • KSI
  • KSVI
• Programme Computer Science – Visual computing and computer games
• Programme Bioinformatics and computational biology
• Programme Biophysics, chemical and macromolecular physics

Archive

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