Social geography and regional development

More information about admission process for international applicants in general can be found here.

Date of the entrance exam
The applicants will receive information about the entrance exam by e-mail usually at least 10 days before the exam.
Please, always check your e-mails, including spam folders.

Conditions of admission
To be admitted, a candidate must obtain a total of 50 out of 100 points, so that at least half of the required points are achieved in each section.
Successful applicants are informed of their acceptance by e-mail and subsequently receive an invitation to the enrolment.

Programme capacity
The capacity of a given programme is not fixed; students are admitted based on a decision by the Doctoral Board after assessing their aptitude for study and motivation.

The study program Social Geography and Regional Development (SGRD) focuses on the study of spatiality of social life. The Faculty of Science at Masaryk University is a traditional specialization, whose content reflects the changing society and its manifestations in the area. The interpretation of this situation also reflects the deepening knowledge of geographic and related scientific disciplines as well as improving methodological approaches. The SGRR is characterized by a comprehensive view, allowing the interpretation of social, economic, environmental, political and cultural processes in their interrelationships and wider contexts. Another characteristic feature of the field is the sensitivity to scale of studied phenomena and processes, ie the interest in interpreting processes taking place at different hierarchical levels and respecting (accentuating the importance of relationships between these levels). Thematically, the research focuses on, for example, the spatio-temporal organization of society, transformation and developmental changes in the Czech environment, peripheral-rural-border regions, regional and sectoral policies, as well as political-geographical topics. Students are encouraged to communicate with specialists in related fields while retaining a synthesizing geographic perspective. At the same time, however, the study is significantly linked to the practice of regional development (public administration), where graduates often find employment. The study program is open to graduates of master's degree in geography and related fields, including from other faculties and universities.

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

• independently and creatively plan and implement scientific and research activities and manage methodologies and approaches of social geography and regional development
• to write and prepare for the publication a critical scientific text in the form of expert articles in a partial sociogeographical theme
• to present and defend the results of his own research in SGRD at an international scientific forum
• understand and be able to use wider professional and theoretical knowledge in SGRD
• to know and critically evaluate the latest knowledge and scientific development in a partial sociogeographical theme
• understand and manage fluent professional communication in English
• to use the experience gained from international cooperation
• transfer knowledge and experience through their pedagogical experience
• use the acquired transferable experience in project preparation and team collaboration

Graduates of the SGRR doctoral program can apply the acquired qualifications especially in academic workplaces, research and departmental institutions, or also in the private sector. They are able to carry out independent scientific and research activities in the area of basic, eventually. applied research. In a broader sense, they are ready to carry out all activities related to scientific work, ie. to deal with conceptual issues, scientific and organizational activities, as well as teaching and transferring experience. A certain specificity is the application of graduates in practice, ie at higher positions in regional development institutions at various hierarchical (administrative) levels of public administration.

It is NOT a mandatory part of the SGRD doctoral program. Within the framework of studies, cooperation with relevant institutions can be established.

The recommended form of the dissertation thesis is a commented set of articles supplemented with introductory and summarizing text, including a summary discussion. The language of work is not explicitly specified, English is recommended, English summary is required in case of Czech or Slovak language. Alternatively, after approval by the Subject Area Board, the dissertation may be submitted as a scientific monograph with the appropriate text structure. For submitting the dissertation, three accepted scientific articles or applied methodological / software outputs are required as the minimum number. For example, scientific publications are at least one first-class impact article (in the Web of Science database), another first-author article (at least in the Scopus or Web of Science database) and another co-authored peer-reviewed article. In case of submitting a dissertation as a commented set of works, the minimum number of three scientific publications copying the above structure remains. In the case of a monographic dissertation, the structure of work must respect the social geography habits (division into introduction, material and methods, results, interpretations, discussion and conclusions) and the fulfillment of three scientific publications according to the above structure is also a condition.