Proficiency requirements set by the Council of Higher Education applies. Students, who have applied for doctoral program by the thesis master's degree, are required to complete at least seven courses not less than a total of 21 credits, qualifying examination, thesis proposal and a final oral examination covering the dissertation for doctoral degree completion. Students, who have applied the program by the bachelor's degree, are required to complete at least fourteen courses not less than a total of 42 credits, qualifying examination, thesis proposal and a final oral examination covering the dissertation. Undergraduate courses do not count the doctoral course load and credits. Qualifying examination is designed to be covering the entire student’s coursework, aiming to test the student’s technical ability and knowledge to conduct research and teach in the general area of the student’s academic program. Students by the master's degree bachelor's degree must take their qualifying exam in at most five semesters after their start to the doctoral program. Students by bachelor's degree must complete this period at most seven semesters. Qualifying examination is held twice a year in June-July and December-February. This exam is regulated and conducted the by the qualifying exam jury proposed by the faculty presidency and approved by the Institute board of directors. The qualifying exam incorporates a written part and an oral part. Doctoral Qualifying Exam jury evaluates the student's written and oral examination and finalized the success of the student passed or failed by an absolute majority. This decision is reported to the relevant institute within three days after the qualifying examination by the department. A “failed” Qualifying Exam may be repeated at the end of the following semester. Doctoral Qualifying Exam jury, a student who pass the qualifying exam, even if he/she has completed the required credits (the total loan amount of 1/3rd not to exceed) may want to take extra lessons/ courses. The Students who successfully complete the qualifying exam, at the latest within six months, should verbally defend proposal of thesis which includes the aim, methods and research plan in front of the Thesis Committee. After the dissertation proposal accepted, a student must submit a report on the progression of the dissertation, monitoring committee twice every year (January-June and July-December). The student submits a written report to the committee members at least one month before the meeting date. This report is specified a summary of the work done so far and plan to do a year's work in the next period. The student’s thesis procedure result may be successful or unsuccessful and determined by the committee.
A student registered in this PhD program has to write his/her thesis according to the rules determined by the Senate and present it for defense in front of a jury. The jury should be composed by five members, 3 of which being from the Thesis Monitoring Committee and at least one being a member from another University. The defense examination should take place at latest one month after thesis submission to the jury members. The examination consists of a thesis presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. At the end of the defense the jury deliberates and decides for an approval, revision or a failure according to the majority vote. At least 3 copies of the approved theses should be submitted to the Institute at latest one month after the defense date. For an approval with revisions decision, the properly revised thesis should be resubmitted and defended at latest 6 months later in front of the same jury members. In case of a failure thesis or failure of thesis defense after correction, students are given a new thesis topic.
