Admission to GSSR’s PhD Programmes is competitive and consists of two stages. A candidate must successfully pass Stage I to qualify for Stage II of the admission process.
Assessment in both competition stages is conducted by an Admissions Commission from one of the School’s constituent institutes – IFiS, ISP andr IP, respectively – depending on the candidate’s choice of doctoral programme. The Admissions Commission is appointed by the Director of the respective institute.
The Admissions Commission evaluates on formal grounds the documents that constitute the Application Package (see Documents Checklist). If formal requirements are met, the Commission assesses the potential contribution of each candidate to the Doctoral School, as reflected in the following documents:
- The description of the planned research
- The letter of intent
- The MA thesis or scientific publication
- The Academic CV
- The recommendation letter(s)
Based on these documents, the Commission also evaluates the degree to which a candidate’s research project matches the research themes and academic profile of IFiS PAN, IP PAN or IPS PAN, respectively.
The strength of applications is assessed through an independent and anonymous evaluation process. Each member of the Commission evaluates the applications via secret ballot, assigning a score on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) points. The score each candidate receives at the end of Stage I is the arithmetic mean of all individual scores provided by the commission members. Candidates are then ranked based on the Application Scores, and only the highest-ranking candidates are selected to proceed to Stage II of the admission process.
On July 24, 2026, GSSR sends notification emails regarding the outcome of Stage I of the selection process to the email addresses provided by candidates in their Application Package. Candidates who successfully pass Stage I receive details about the interview date and, where applicable, the time and format of the Psychology test (see details below).
Stage II. Interview conducted in English
Stage II. Interview conducted in English
Interviews will be scheduled on July 27, 2026 and are generally conducted online.
In each discipline, the interview follows a structured format. The Chairperson introduces the Commission members, after which candidates are invited to briefly introduce themselves, their academic background and achievements, and summarize the research project they propose to carry out as part of their doctoral training. The Commission asks questions to assess the project’s theoretical grounding, methodology, feasibility, and innovative contribution to the field. Regardless of academic background, the Admissions Commission of the respective Institute may also test a candidate’s knowledge of concepts and issues fundamental to the discipline in which the candidate seeks the PhD degree. Candidates are also given the opportunity to indicate a preferred supervisor and to ask questions about the doctoral program, GSSR and its constituent institutes. Candidates who choose Psychology as their doctoral dissertation discipline when this is not the discipline of their previous studies must, prior to the interview, take a test about core issues in psychology. Testing details are decided by IP PAN and communicated via GSSR’s and IP’s websites. During the interview, the IP Admissions Commission may refer to issues covered in the test.
Candidates who fail to attend the scheduled interview without prior notification of the School and documented justification are considered to have withdrawn their application.
The Decision Process
Following each interview, all members of the Admissions Commission independently assess the candidate’s performance through a secret ballot, assigning a score on a scale from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) points. The candidate’s score at Stage II is the arithmetic mean of these individual scores.
After the individual scoring, the Admissions Commission discusses the results to ensure consistency of evaluation and reaches a collective decision confirming the final interview scores. The Commission then integrates each candidate’s interview score (Stage II, weighted at 40%) with their application score from Stage I (weighted at 60%) to obtain the final overall score. Based on these weighted results, candidates are ranked in order of merit.
Using secret ballots, the Admissions Commission votes to approve the final ranking, records the outcome of the vote, and communicates the results to the GSSR administration.
On the basis of the Admissions Committee’s recommendation and the minutes of the evaluation process, the Director of the relevant Institute decides whether a candidate is admitted to the Doctoral School.
The rules for admissions for the AY 2026/2027, as approved by the scientific councils of IFiS PAN, IP PAN and IPS PAN, are available here.
