Biomedical Technology

The course units Individual Research Work 1 (IRD 1) and Individual Work 2 with Seminar (IRD 2 with seminar) are completed with the presentation of a seminar or seminar paper. Once the presentation has been given and the documents submitted to the Postgraduate Studies Office, IRD 1 is recorded as “passed” and IRD 2 with seminar is graded. Students do not register for an exam date for either course unit.

The purpose of IRD 2 with seminar is to present in writing the content the student will address in their research work. The seminar may be a review of the field or a research proposal. In preparing the seminar, the student works with a prospective supervisor/tutor, who must be a higher education teacher holding an academic title in the field of the topic. A moderator also attends the seminar presentation, moderates it and assesses the seminar at the end. The moderator must likewise be a higher education teacher holding an academic title in the field of the topic. In assessing the seminar, which comprises the written work and the presentation, the moderator pays particular attention to the elements listed in the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Individual Research Work 2 with Seminar.

At least 10 days before the planned presentation, the “Registration and Seminar” form must be submitted in writing to the MF UM Secretariat, Taborska 8, Maribor. The student arranges the exact date of the seminar presentation in advance with the prospective supervisor and the moderator. If a room at MF UM is needed for the presentation, the student also arranges the room booking in advance with the Postgraduate Studies Office.

Please note that passing IRD 1 and IRD 2 with seminar is a prerequisite for enrollment in the 2nd year, so the seminar presentation must take place before enrollment in the 2nd year, i.e. by mid-September at the latest.

Candidates may submit their topic registration once they have completed ALL first- and second-year obligations. Submitting the topic registration completes the IRD 3 and 4 obligation, so the IRD 3 and 4 Statement form (Eng.), signed by the prospective supervisor, must be attached to the topic registration. If the candidate also has a co-supervisor, the co-supervisor must sign the statement as well.

Enrollment in the third year must be completed by September 30 of the current year, so the topic registration must be submitted IN GOOD TIME – we recommend by September 15 of the current year. The candidate registers the topic of the dissertation proposal in accordance with the Rules on Doctoral Studies at the University of Maribor, as amended (Eng.).

Documents required for topic registration:

• Doctoral dissertation topic registration - template (Eng.)
• Other forms - student (Eng.)
• Forms - supervisor (Eng.)
• Forms - supervisor and co-supervisor (Eng.)

Please fill in the forms electronically, then print and sign them and submit or send them, together with the dissertation proposal, to: Medicinska fakulteta UM, Referat - za podiplomski študij, Taborska 8, 2000 Maribor. Submit one printed copy and also send all documents in PDF format by email to jasmina.bedrac@um.si.

A supervisor/co-supervisor may be:

• an individual who holds a valid title of higher education teacher or research worker;
• is scientifically active, as demonstrated by a relevant scientific bibliography in the last five years in the specific field of the dissertation topic;
• can provide research capacity for the doctoral student;
• is employed by or under contract with UM;
• is not already an approved supervisor of 5 students working toward a doctorate.

In particularly justified cases, the supervisor may also be a recognized researcher from another institution, who must demonstrate comparable scientific activity in the relevant scientific field.

Co-supervision is possible for an interdisciplinary topic, in the case of a first supervision, when the supervisor is from another institution, or in other justified cases. Co-supervisors must meet the same conditions as supervisors, except for the conditions in the 4th and 5th bullet points above.

The references of the supervisor, co-supervisor and external expert can be checked at: https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl, where you enter the first name and surname, then select the evaluation of bibliographic indicators of research performance according to the ARIS methodology and generate the printout.

The expected scope and content are defined in the Doctoral Dissertation Topic Registration form.

Additional recommendations for preparing the topic registration

• The title of the doctoral dissertation should accurately reflect the actual content of the work, be as short as possible, contain no abbreviations, and be terminologically and orthographically correct.
• Points 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the proposal in particular should be written concisely, briefly and to the point.
• The proposal must make clear whether the proposed topic and the questions the student intends to address in the dissertation give the student sufficient scope for an independent and original contribution of the doctoral dissertation to the development of the relevant research field at the international level.
• For the literature search carried out, point 8.2 must also contain a comparison between existing studies (the 3–5 most similar) and the new study. Prepare it by giving the following information for each existing study used in the comparison:
  • Title of the existing article:
  • Authors of the article:
  • Article published in:
  • Short summary of the article:
  • Analysis justifying the difference (comparison of the existing and new study):
• The dissertation proposal must be written in linguistically and orthographically correct language.
• The proposal may not exceed 20 pages for chapters 1 to 4 inclusive, with 11 pt font, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins on all sides, including any graphs and figures. Applications for approval of a dissertation topic that include proposals approved by faculty senates but not following these instructions will be returned to the candidates for revision.

If the candidate is asked in writing to revise the topic registration, they must submit a clean copy of the revised proposal and a version with visible changes in electronic form to jasmina.bedrac@um.si within the specified deadline (the “Track Changes” function must be used for the changes).

The data in the analysis of the originality of the topic (literature searches) may not be more than 6 months old at the start of the topic approval procedure, so before submitting the revision, check whether the searches should also be updated. The searches must state when and where they were carried out, or whether the candidate carried them out personally. If the candidate carries out new searches and includes them in the revised proposal, a new “Searches” document (Poizvedbe) must also be sent electronically.

When revising the topic, the candidate must also submit the supervisor's/co-supervisor's consent to the revised topic registration (Slov., Eng.).

If the title of the registered topic changes, new supervisor and co-supervisor forms must be submitted together with the revisions (see the Topic registration section).

By resolution of the Senate of the University of Maribor, the candidate's topic and supervisor/co-supervisor are approved and a deadline for submitting the doctoral dissertation is set. If the candidate does not submit the doctoral dissertation within the deadline set in the resolution approving the topic and does not request an extension before the deadline expires, they are deemed to have withdrawn from the registered topic.

In accordance with the Rules on Doctoral Studies at the University of Maribor, a doctoral student may, by way of exception, prepare and submit the doctoral dissertation in the form of published scientific papers in internationally recognized journals that form a coherent whole (Scandinavian model); this is approved by the UM Senate on the basis of the candidate's justification and after prior approval by the faculty senate.

At its 4th regular session on March 17, 2025, the Senate of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, adopted the following instructions on preparing and submitting a doctoral dissertation according to the Scandinavian model:

A doctoral student at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, may complete their studies according to the Scandinavian model under the following conditions:

• At least 3 original scientific articles (typology 1.01) must be published. Articles accepted for publication also count if a confirmation from the editorial office and the editor's consent to republication are submitted.
• The doctoral student must be the sole first author of the three required articles (typology 1.01).
• One of the three required articles may be replaced by an article with shared first authorship, but this article must be published in an A'' journal according to the SICRIS classification.
• The articles must be published in journals with a JCR impact factor that rank in the top three quartiles by impact factor.
• The articles must be related in content and must together address all the hypotheses set out in the registered topic of the dissertation proposal.
• In addition to the published articles, the doctoral student must include in the dissertation an introduction, an extended summary of the articles, a conclusion and, where necessary, linking text.

The doctoral student addresses the request to prepare the doctoral dissertation according to the Scandinavian model, with a justification and supporting evidence, to the Committee for Scientific Research Affairs of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor. After consideration by the Committee for Scientific Research Affairs, the request is also considered by the Senate of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor. If approved, the request is forwarded to the Senate of the University of Maribor for further consideration and approval.