Guidelines for rigorous proceedings

The rigorous proceedings at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, are governed by Articles 34, 35, 36, and 37 and by the relevant provisions of the Study and Examination Regulations of Masaryk University.

1. For the implementation of the provisions of the Study and Examination Regulations under the terms of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, at least five permanent members of the Rigorous Committee, consisting of professors and associate professors and other experts who were approved by the Scientific Board of the faculty, are appointed for the accredited disciplines of the rigorous proceedings. One of the members of the committee must be a professor or associate professor from the Department of Philosophy and at least two members of the committee must not be employed at Masaryk University. The committee proposes opponents of the thesis and the term of the examination and sets out the subjects of the oral examination, one of which is philosophy.
2. Proposals for the committee chairs and the members are submitted to the faculty dean by the heads of departments and institutes of the faculty that have accredited rigorous proceedings as part of their Master’s degree programmes. Proposals for the members of the committee for philosophy are submitted by the head of the Department of Philosophy. Proposals for the appointment of committee chairs will be referred to the rector, and the dean of the faculty appoints the committee members after the approval of the faculty’s Scientific Board.
3. From the appointed committee chairs and approved members, the dean will appoint an ad hoc examination committee for the individual candidates based on the proposal of the head of the department or institute of the faculty.
4. As a rigorous work, a monograph or a manuscript of at least 180,000 characters, presented on white A4 size paper with numbered pages and hard bound, can be submitted. The author’s manuscript must include a cover page containing the name of the university, faculty, institute/department, work title, author’s name, and the year; a statement of the origin of the work; a table of contents; and a biography. The thesis is submitted in three copies and is entered into IS MU. At the Faculty of Arts, an unchanged version of the diploma thesis cannot be accepted as a rigorous work. The rigorous work must contain original processing of the field of study or original research results in the given field, at a level corresponding to the publishing standard in that field. The rigorous work may take the form of a published set of works or works accepted for publishing for which the student provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject matter and comments. An applicant who successfully completed a doctoral study may apply for the possibility of submitting, as a rigorous thesis, the thesis of his/her doctoral dissertation, if it meets the requirements for original research results or the original processing of an integral part of the subject matter for the relevant field. These theses are presented in three A4 size copies with numbered pages and hard bound with all the above mentioned parts and attributes of the author’s manuscript. The dean will decide on the application on the basis of the opinion of the field board within which the theses are submitted.
5. Applications with the required attachments according to Article 35 of the university’s Study and Examination Regulations for the relevant semester shall be submitted by the end of the first week of that semester.
6. When submitting an application, the applicant shall provide a proof of payment of the reimbursement costs.
7. The administrative requirements of the rigorous proceedings are ensured by the Study Department at the Faculty of Arts in cooperation with the appointed vice-dean, the committee chairs, and the heads and secretariats of the departments and institutes.