General information about the study programme

The changes in the fields of computer science and engineering have never been more dynamic. The new Information Technologies are being constantly developed, and their transfer reaches to the farthest corners of the world by the means of a very prominent dynamic nature. On the global level, the state-of-the-art research and studies in the field of IT science find the main challenge in the development of new advanced technologies and methodologies that will procure new solutions in the area of information and communication technologies.

The Faculty of computer science and engineering is a leader in the field of informatics, computer science and engineering in the country. Within all of its activities, the Faculty permanently and successfully fulfills its mission for continuous education of highly skilled and research and entrepreneurship oriented professionals that will largely contribute in the development of the society and quality of life in general.
 

The candidates that will finish this PhD study programme will have a wide open opportunities to deploy their skills in a numerous fields in the research area and the leading industries by solving IT oriented problems, especially in the Macedonia IT companies. In this way, the conditions for knowledge and technology transfer are met and the support for strong technological and economic development of the industry is obtained. 

  • Offered by: Ss. Cyril and Methodius University – Skopje, Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering - FCSE
  • Study programme: PhD studies in Informatics (computer science and engineering)
  • Scientific-research field: Natural sciences and mathematics
  • Category: Informatics
  • The PhD studies cycle equal 180 ECTS.
  • Study duration: 3 years, 6 semesters.
  • One academic year is divided into 2 semesters with 30 weeks each (1 semester = 15 weeks)
  • During the first year the students attends courses, while during the second year the title of the PhD thesis is acknowledged after which activities like research on the topic, results publishing and writing and defending of the thesis follow. Each year a PhD seminar and an annual conference with a progress report presentation are organized.
  • Conditions for enrollment: The right to enroll on the study programme have persons that fulfill the following criteria:
    • Completed II study cycle according to the ECTS system; or
    • Completed master studies according to a pre-ECTS study programme (in this case the first year 60 ECTS are acknowledged and the studies start from the second year onwards - subject to pre-approval); 
    • GPA of at least 8,00 on the previous both first and second cycle of studies; 
    • Certificate for adequate knowledge of English. 
  • 1 ЕCTS corresponds to 30 hours of work load
  • Contact hours per week is 4 

Degree: PhD in natural sciences and mathematics in the field of informatics (computer science and engineering)

The european trends in high education and PhD studies as well as the needs of the society in general are actively followed in the academic process of the study programme. It is based on the state-of-the-art scientific research in the field, thus allowing the students to gain advanced research, theoretical and practical knowledge, while enabling them to attain research skills, new science and engineering based knowledge and managing skills.

The goal of the study programme is to focus on the future information and computer science challenges that can be achieved only by continuous development based on the modern science results. 

Study programme structure 

 YEAR  SEMESTER  ACTIVITY ECTS 
 I  1  Research ethics 4
 Methodology of scientific research in the field of computer science and engineering 4
 Elective generic knowledge course* 4
 Elective study programme course 7.5
 Elective study programme course 7.5
 2  Elective study programme course** 7.5
 Elective study programme course 7.5
 Research (preparing for the PhD thesis topic) 14
 PhD seminar and Annual conference (progress report presentation) 4
 II  3  Preparing and submitting the topic of the PhD thesis  28
 PhD seminar (written progress report)  2
 4  Research workshop  3
 Research and results publication  25
 Annual conference (progress report presentation)  2
 III  5  Research and results publication 28 
 PhD seminar (progress report) 2
 6  Research workshop 3
 PhD thesis (writing and defence) 25
 Annual conference (progress report) 2
 

 * The course can be elected from the group of courses given in Table 2 as well as from the University list of available generic knowledge courses

** The course can be elected from the courses given in tables 3 and 4, from the list of elective courses of all accredited third cycle courses on the University.

When choosing the elective courses the following rules must be in order:

  • The choice of elective courses is done in agreement with the student’s potential PhD thesis mentor.
  • When choosing the elective courses from the study programme the student must take care that there are at least 3 different teachers. 
  • One teacher can be part of maximum 2 elective courses from the study programme for a given student.
  • It is allowed that maximum 2 elective courses can be chosen from another PhD study programme on the same Faculty (one of them has to be in the slot marked with **). 

In the case of choosing elective courses from another PhD study programme, the PhD study programme counsel must ratify the student’s choice and make sure that no curriculum overlap with other elected courses will occur. 

Table 1: List of elective generic knowledge courses
  Code Course Semester   ECTS   Prerequisite
1  INF-G31  Writing a research paper  First  I  4   None
2  INF-G32  Managing a research project  First  I   4  None
3  INF-G33  Statistical methods in research  First  I  4  None
 
Table 2: Elective courses from the study programme offered as a part of the university list of PhD elective courses 
 Code  Course  ЕКТС  Semester
 INF-S1  Algebraic structures for computer science  7.5  I or II
 INF-S4   Bioinformatics  7.5  I or II
 INF-S5  Grid and scientific programming  7.5  I or II
 INF-S7  Computational linguistics  7.5  I or II
 INF-S8  Mathematical logic  7.5  I or II
 INF-S9  Machine learning  7.5  I or II
 INF-S21  Robotics  7.5  I or II
 INF-S23  Statistical learning theory  7.5  I or II
 INF-S24  Graph theory  7.5  I or II
 INF-S25  Complexity theory and coding  7.5  I or II
 INF-S26  Theory of Stochastic Processes  7.5  I or II
 
Table 3: Elective courses from the study programme  
 Code  Subject  ECTS  Semester
 INF-S2  Software requirements analysis and specification  7.5  I or II
 INF-S3  Business, technical and security aspects of cloud computing  7.5  I or II
 INF-S6  Information security  7.5  I or II
 INF-S10  Modeling network reliability  7.5  I or II
 INF-S11  Advanced private cloud development  7.5  I or II
 INF-S12  Advanced cryptanalysis  7.5  I or II
 INF-S13  Advanced aspects of coding theory  7.5  I or II
 INF-S14  Advanced computer systems (HPC in cloud)  7.5  I or II
 INF-S15  Advanced computational methods  7.5  I or II
 INF-S16  Advanced e-learning systems  7.5  I or II
 ИНФ-С17  Нови трендови во истражувањата кај базите на податоци  7.5  прв или втор
 ИНФ-С18  Предизвиците кај интелигентните информациски системи  7.5  прв или втор
 INF-S19  E-services application SaaS development  7.5  I or II
 INF-S20  Applied crytography  7.5  I or II
 INF-S22  Critical Systems Engineering  7.5  I or II
 INF-S27  Software Process Management  7.5  I or II

For more information please contact the Head of the study program Assoc. Prof. Nevena Ackovska.

Courses: