PhD in linguistics

PhD in linguistics

This programme is part of the Doctoral School of Linguistics at UD. We welcome applicants with an interest in syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, or in the more interdisciplinary fields of computational linguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, or sociolinguistics. We also welcome and encourage experimental and corpus-driven approaches. While our main area of study is English, we are also happy to incorporate projects related to other languages. Visit this page for an overview of our current research activities.

The director of the programme is György Rákosi. Please contact him with inquires.

General information about the programme: see Doctoral School of Linguistics

English linguistics PhD programme teaching staff

--> Current doctoral students

--> ▶️ Video: Christina Hodeib discusses her experiences with our PhD program

 

How to apply

If you are considering application to our programme, please send us the following documents:

  1. Your CV. (Focus on the information that is relevant to your application.)
  2. Your MA thesis and any linguistically relevant publications that you have written.
  3. A research proposal. This should be a 2–4 pages long document containing clearly stated research objectives and hypotheses. Include a rough schedule for each year of your planned PhD studies. Explore the areas of research in which our colleagues provide supervision.

If have not made up your mind about your research yet or if you are not sure about your plans, do not hesitate to contact us for help.

We have a strict plagiarism policy, make sure that your documents are free of plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. Please also note that submitting these documents is a prerequisite to any further action towards your application. After the submission of this package, our committee decides whether you are qualified for our programme. Then we inform you of our decision and any necessary modifications.

These documents are to be submitted as pdf files in a single zipped folder (do not use RAR-compression). Please send this package to György Rákosi, and direct all inquires regarding the programme or the application procedure to him.

Please note that the letter of support that we issue to facilitate your application procedure does not mean that admission is guaranteed: it simply means that there is someone teaching here who is qualified and available to work with the applicant on his/her research plan.

Your application package will be assessed by the admission panel of the doctoral programme, who make the final decision concerning your admission. As a part of this process, we may also conduct an additional (online) interview with you.

 

Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship

For general information about this program, see this page or follow this link. For inquiries concerning the technical and administrative aspects of the Stipendium Programme in Debrecen, please contact Ibolya Kun (email, phone: +36 52 512 900 / 62413).

 

Doctoral training

The training comprises two stages.

In the first two years, students take courses and work on their research. The courses are selected by the student and his/her supervisor taking into account optimal academic progress.

Completing the courses and earning the required number of credits is a prerequisite for the next stage. Please note that you also need to have at least 2 scientific publications by the end of the second year, and these should be related to your research field. You cannot continue your studies if you do not meet these criteria.

At the end of the first two years, provided that you have obtained the necessary credits and that you have at least two papers published, you will take a complex exam consisting of:

  1. a public defence of your dissertation hypothesis (a 15–20 page proposal that outlines the research questions, the thesis, the methodological and theoretical underpinnings as well as the expected findings of the proposed dissertation).
  2. a comprehensive examination in the academic fields most relevant to the proposed dissertation.

The successful completion of this exam is a prerequisite for the continuation of your PhD studies.

The final two years are dedicated to writing your dissertation. The process concludes with a two-step defence of the completed dissertation. The first step is a preliminary defence, after which the candidate has to make the necessary modifications to the dissertation for the final public defence based on the comments of the reviewers.

NB: Doctoral students are expected to spend the terms in Debrecen. You may not leave during the term, unless you obtain special permission from your supervisor and from the head of the doctoral programme.

Last update: 2023. 07. 28. 13:19