After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:

• understand complex theoretical texts in humanities and the social sciences
• connect the general/theoretical and empirical/practical aspects of research in the humanities and social sciences
• use selected methods of data collection and data analysis in the humanities and social sciences on an advanced level
• design and conduct complex, systematic, original, methodologically sound, and theoretically relevant research in the study of religions
• clarify the foundations of independent research
• put the results of independent research in the context of the international state of research on the topic
• understand the practical and ethical aspects of research and academic publishing
• write a high-quality and relevant academic text meeting international standards
• communicate the acquired knowledge and experience in teaching, lectures, and publications
• apply teaching experience and organizational skills in practice

Graduates are qualified for positions in teaching and research in the study of religions and related fields; in preparing grant applications in the public and private sector; in non-governmental organizations focusing on minorities and intercultural translation; in state administration where the position requires knowledge of different cultures, religions, and ethnic groups and decision-making based on facts; in education; in the media; and in translation of literature in the humanities and social sciences.

In academia, the graduates can offer an outstanding and state-of-the-art orientation in the contemporary study of religions including major recent international developments in theory and methods; interdisciplinary thinking; skills in theoretically founded and empirically precise research; and experience in research as well as in teaching, publishing, and preparing grant applications and projects.

Employers outside academia will benefit from the graduates’ analytical skills, their ability to work on demanding and long-term projects, independent and critical thinking, and skills in the preparation of well-founded materials for decision-making.

The standard duration of the doctoral degree study programme is four years (eight semesters). For admittance to the doctoral final state examination, students have to earn a total of 240 ECTS credits for type A/required, type B/selective, and type C/elective courses. Type A/required courses constitute the basis of the study programme and make up 236 credits. The type B/selective courses, which make up 4 credits, are for a language that the students choose according to their interests and specialization. During the course of their studies, students should follow the study catalogue valid for their year of matriculation. The study catalogues for the individual years of matriculation are available at the Faculty website.

The curriculum does not include any obligatory training stay. The whole study is oriented towards the practical aspects of the research process.

The doctoral final state examination is oral and consists of the defence of the dissertation and the examination.

In the dissertation, students present research results obtained with the guidance of their supervisors. The dissertation has to contain original and published or forthcoming results. It can be either a monograph or a set of related published or forthcoming articles with an introduction and commentary. The length of a monographic dissertation is between 180,000 and 270,000 characters including spaces (100–150 standard pages). A dissertation based on articles is not defined by a required length but must contain at least five articles, of which at least four were published or accepted for publication in journals indexed in the Scopus or Web of Science databases or included in the ERIH list, and the student must be the main author of at least three of them.

The oral examination has two parts:

1) A presentation on a topic related to theory and methods in the study of religions. The student prepares a 10-minute original argument concerning an interesting and controversial topic in theory and methods in the study of religions (other than the topic of the dissertation). The evaluation of this part makes up 50 percent of the evaluation of the oral examination. The evaluation also takes into account presentation skills and the reactions in the discussion.

2) Discussion on concepts and topics of the contemporary study of religions based on the list of readings. The student submits a list of readings divided in two groups: (a) theory and method of the study of religions and (b) the chosen specialty. The examination committee will ask one question; a discussion follows. The evaluation of this part makes up 50 percent of the evaluation of the oral examination.