All you need to know about training, research, and credits in our PhD programme.
The PhD is a four-year programme that combines advanced training, research and thesis development within a flexible framework that evolves as candidates progress.
Each PhD student develops a study plan in consultation with their supervisory team, ensuring it reflects both their research project and their academic objectives.
The programme includes:
The programme is designed to support the progressive development of each candidate’s research project. During the first two years, the emphasis is on strengthening theoretical and methodological competences through courses, seminars and workshops. The third and fourth years focus primarily on advancing the research project, publishing research findings and completing the PhD thesis.
Throughout the programme, candidates receive continuous guidance from their supervisory team and engage regularly with the wider academic community through presentations and discussion of their research.
International mobility is an integral part of the programme. PhD students spend between three and twelve months at an overseas university or academic institution, where they develop their research, establish new research collaborations and expand their academic network.
The programme also encourages participation in international conferences, doctoral consortia and summer schools, and promotes joint supervision agreements with partner universities, providing candidates with a research environment that is both internationally connected and collaborative.
Find out more about the programme’s joint supervision agreements
By the end of the second year, a Thesis Committee is appointed, comprising a Main Advisor from the Department of Management - DISA and two Co-Advisors, drawn either from within or outside the Department, who guide candidates through the final stages of their research and the completion of the PhD.
The thesis may be submitted either as a monograph or as a collection of three research papers. At the end of the fourth year, a preliminary version of the thesis is submitted to the Thesis Committee, which assesses its quality, academic merit and overall readiness for examination, and may request revisions before the final defence.
The PhD degree is awarded following the successful public defence of the thesis and approval by the Final Examination Committee.
The PhD programme comprises 240 Doctoral Credits (DCs), each equivalent to 25 hours of overall student workload.
The credits are allocated as follows:
A detailed breakdown of activities and the corresponding credit allocation is provided in the table below.
Visit the page with the complete list of courses and activities included in the programme.