When preparing information on this subject, entities must remember that the evaluation team conducts the evaluation according to the following detailed evaluation criteria that are specified in §2.4 of the ordinance of the Polish Minister of Education and Science of 27 September 2021 on the evaluation of the quality of education at doctoral schools:

  1. the quality and accessibility of information and internal regulations that pertain to the operations of the doctoral school;
  2. the accessibility, unequivocalness, and openness of the doctoral school’s admission rules, as well as the timeliness of their publication;
  3. the organisation of a competition specified in Article 200(2) of the Polish Act of 20 July 2018 on higher education and science;
  4. addressing the needs of disabled people during the admissions process;
  5. the assessment  of candidates’ readiness for scientific activities;
  6. the reliability of the measures implemented by the entity to improve the admissions process.


The entity should briefly describe the individual elements of the doctoral student admissions process, with emphasis on the qualitative aspect.

Entities are required to describe the doctoral school admission rules, including solutions related to the admission of candidates whose scholarships are funded by external institutions, such as research agencies. Entities must also describe methods for ensuring fair competition and equal treatment of doctoral school candidates, including those who represent other national and international entities, and people who have disabilities.
Entities should also explain their methods of assessing the candidates’ capabilities to conduct scientific activities at the doctoral school.

This section of the report should also describe how the entity presents its doctoral school – what information is available to doctoral school candidates and which channels are used for communication. It is that entities specify how they communicate the offer of their doctoral schools in terms of the quality of information and methods of dissemination.
The report must include information on the composition of the admissions committees and the rationale for their selection, with the aim of maintaining high admission standards. The lists of members of the admissions committees should be provided in suitably labelled PDF attachments. The files must be submitted in both the Polish and English languages.

Entities should also thoroughly describe the admissions process of their doctoral schools, covering formal, substantive, and organisational efficiency aspects. They must also describe how doctoral schools communicate admission results, present the reasons and numbers of appeals, and explain the entity’s method for assessing their validity. Furthermore, it is advised the admissions process during the years covered by the evaluation be summarised and compared. This summary should include information on the interest in doctoral education, the level of candidates, and an overall assessment of the success of the admissions process.

The report must specify whether the entity is capable of identifying the aspects of the admissions process that require improvement or modification, and what kind of solutions are being implemented to achieve this goal.

The information presented by the entity should be supported with quantitative data and relevant commentaries. Entities may present other information that they deem relevant to the evaluation of the admissions process.
The entities’ descriptions should conclude with self-evaluations.

The admissions rules and the doctoral school regulations should be provided as suitably labelled PDF attachments. The files must be submitted in both the Polish and English languages.