Requirements for advancing
In order to advance from the first to the second year, doctoral students must complete all four required courses, attend the research seminar, publicly present their research proposal and obtain approval of the doctoral dissertation proposal.
In order to advance from the second to the third year, doctoral students must complete two elective courses, attend two research seminars and submit an article for publication in an international academic journal. The submission must be approved by the mentor, but acceptance for publication is not the condition for advancing, since review periods might be prohibitively long.