About the program
The doctoral program (PhD) at the School of Dentistry, University of Zagreb has been conducted since the academic year 2007/2008. After international audit and the relevant criteria of the National Council for Higher Education and Science of the Collage of Rectors of the Ministry of Science and Education, Postgraduate doctoral program Dental Medicine has been launched.
The aim of the PhD program is to provide students with knowledge and skills in : understanding the scientific approach, recognizing scientific open points, planning and conducting research, critical analysis of scientific conclusions, writing and publishing results in scientific journals, synthesis of research results into new insights that should contribute to the progress of the profession and society in total. The ultimate goal is the transfer of knowledge to all areas of social activity in which dental medicine as a profession has an impact, such as public health, clinical activities, the dental materials industry, etc.
The curriculum of the PhD program is most often conceptually related to individual scientific projects and are accomplished with the constant mentoring support of prominent experts and recognized scientists in the field of dentistry and medicine, and relies on the Strategic Program of Scientific Research from 2015 to 2020 of the School of Dentistry. The PhD program covers the fields of Biomedicine and Health Sciences: basic and clinical dental sciences, public health and health care.
Students earn knowledge of basic scientific skills through methodological subjects aimed at developing students' generic skills. In the second part of the program, attention is focused on specific areas through attending more specialized subjects. From ac. yr. 2016/2017 the greatest attention is paid to scientific research, with attendance to classical classes reduced to a total of 36 ECTS credits, and the remaining 144 ECTS credits the candidate acquires through scientific research, which is evaluated by disseminating results by actively participating in scientific conferences and publishing articles in internationally recognized peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this program, students will be able to:
1. Master a basic scientific methodological approach in planning and conducting research
2. Analyze the existing reach of science in a particular field of dental medicine and to identify open scientific points
3. Plan and conduct original scientific research in the areas covered by the study of Dental Medicine that will lead to new insights whose results will be published in appreciated scientific journals
4. Conduct a comprehensive search of the scientific literature, and critically evaluate and interpret published articles
5. Choose the appropriate method (scientific equipment, instruments and analytical tools) for the planned research and to make a realistic plan for the implementation of research with considerations for the limitations of chosen methods
6. Apply ethical codes of scientific research and publishing, and prepare an application for the evaluation of research ethics to the Ethical Commission
7. Acquire knowledge in computer statistical software, choose appropriate statistical methods and correctly interpret the results of statistical analysis
8. Disseminate scientific results through various forms of presentations at scientific conferences (poster presentations, oral presentations, scientific forums... )
9. Write an article and choose a journal for publishing
10. Communicate with the editor and reviewers of the journal
11. Transfer scientific knowledge to the wider community and communicate with colleagues based on arguments obtained from relevant scientific knowledge
Editor of English page - Assoc. prof. Ivana Šutej