PhD in Polar Sciences

Courses

Educational Plan
Structure of the educational, training and student mobility plans and strategies

Each student enrolled in the National Doctoral Program in “Polar Sciences” will receive a fellowship according to the Italian regulations within one of the below listed curricula.

Educational roadmap and activities

It is expected that the PhD-SDC community will include 30+ PhD candidates carrying their research at Ca' Foscari and in the 19 supporting universities and public research institutions, along with their 30+ supervisors and the even more numerous individuals involved in delivering the lectures and training. We expect the community to meet together for around 2 weeks annually to discuss and work on polar sciences themes. 
Candidates will be assigned a scholarship in one of the areas within the six curricula mentioned below and will develop their activities at one of the involved universities/public research institutions while still keeping Ca' Foscari University as administrative site of enrollment. Candidates will follow an education roadmap that include activities at three levels: 

  • the inter-disciplinary PhD level (ID); 
  • the specific curriculum PhD level (CU); 
  • a more focused level related to the particular thematic area (TC). 
Educational events

The students’ work will focus mainly on the focal discipline, although we expect some 50% of the training and around 20% of the time will be devoted to study in other disciplines. 
To guarantee a multi-disciplinary and inter-university/public research institutions education experience, students will participate in three types of educational events (including seminars, courses, workshops):

Beneficiaries: all the PhD SDC candidates
Minimum hours: 48+

The ID events aim to expose all PhD candidates to the full complexity of Polar regions and associated researches. These events will take the form of two ID workshops: 

  • Year 1 WS: Inter/multy disiciplinarity of Polar Sciences: an overview.
    This WS will take place in the first months of the PhD course. It will include lectures delivered by scientists working in all six curricular areas which will provide candidates with high-level knowledge on the key themes of polar regions, including societal and political aspects. This will add to their understanding of the multiple challenges we face, and will help to identify the most effective solutions. In Year 1 WS, candidates can work in small multi-disciplinary teams on a research project which will be completed and presented during the week of the workshop. 
  • Year 3 WS: Complexity of sustainability and climate change: final report. 
    This  WS will include lectures delivered by scientists working in the six areas and presentation of PhD research projects. Discussion, constructive criticism, comparison of methods, tools and ideas will help the students in their doctoral research. 

Beneficiaries: all PhD candidates (for their specific curriculum)
Minimum hours: 75+

The CU-events will include contents and formats related to each curriculum and will provide a broad overview of the relevant research topics. The CU-events will be organized in two sessions: 

  • year-1 CU Seasonal School will provide an opportunity for PhD candidates to attend 5 topical lectures on some of the themes related to their work (at least 3 to be chosen among the ones offered inside their specific curriculum)
  • year-2 CU will be held during months 18 and 24 of the PhD course, and will provide opportunities to present their doctoral research to colleagues to obtain feedback and trigger discussion (and possibly attend other lectures if available)

Requirements: to be agreed with supervisors and which will mostly be held at the universities/public research institutions where students are conducting their research.
Minimum hours: 64+

These refer mostly to single-theme and single-disciplinary courses.
TC-events will be defined by the PhD students with their supervisors.

Training activities

Besides the mentioned educational activities, any students should be involved in the following training activities: 

  • Organization and management of at least 1 summer/winter schools.
  • Stimulus to inter-disciplinarity. The research and training activities of any doctoral student should involve at least two pillars among those of interest for the doctoral program. 
  • Mobility of students. It is considered a significant training activity for the doctoral program. Therefore, it will be constantly stimulated and valorised during the whole doctoral program with the priority involvement of the Universities and Institutions of the consortium, national and international.

Any other activities the Doctoral Committee states for the students year by year. 

Apart from the final year multi-disciplinary workshop, all educational events will take place during the first 18 months of the PhD course, leaving the final 18 months for the doctoral research project. 

Courses of 3-year PhD programme

Class timetable

Discover the doctoral class schedule and remember to get in touch with the lecturer for the GMeet/Zoom link.

Class timetable  

Academic year 2024/2025