Back

According Section 39 of the Higher Education Act and the Appendix to Ministerial Resolution No. 1168/97, the following types of graduate programs are recognized: Specialization,  Master, and Doctorate.

a. Specialization Programs: aimed at advancing the knowledge of a certain subject or area of expertise within a profession or the application field of several professions, enhancing professional skills through intensive training. Degree in a specific subject or application field could be awarded after a final comprenhensive examination.

b. Master Programs: aimed at providing higher education on a certain interdisciplinary area or field. They provide further theoretical, technological and professional knowledge applicable to research, as well as state-of-the-art knowledge relating to an interdisciplinary area or field. The degree could be awarded after concluding an individual project work, paper or thesis prepared under the supervision of a director, and reviewed by a Master’s Thesis Committee that includes at least one member external to the institution. This project work, final paper or thesis should demonstrate fluency with the most advanced conceptual tools and methodological skills in the field(s) involved. These programs lead to an academic degree of Magister which clearly specifies the interdisciplinary area or field of specialization.

c. Doctorate Programs: aimed at providing research abilities and to promote original contributions in a specific area of knowledge within a framework of academic excellence. The result of the doctoral candidate work should be presented in a Dissertation or Thesis prepared under the supervision of a tutor or  director, and reviewed by a Doctoral Committee. This Committee should be composed of examiners external to the program, and at least one of them should also be external to the institution. The academic degree of Doctor is received after a successful defense of the candidate’s dissertation.

Depending on their development stage, two types of graduate programs can be identified:

1. Graduate Program Projects: Graduate Programs planned to be implemented after approval by the Ministry.

2. Current Graduate Programs: Graduate Programs that have already started their academic activities. New programs are those which have not yet completed one full academic cycle.

According to Ministerial Resolution No. 1168/97, awarding the accreditation is required to all graduate programs, regardless of their development stage.

The accreditation procedure for graduate degree projects is regulated by Ministerial Resolution No. 532/02.

The guidelines in Ministerial Resolution No. 1717/04 are also applicable to distance learning postgraduate programs.

Back