Individual Study Plan (ISP)

The ISP is the main document specifying the content of a doctoral student’s entire studies. Dpctoral students create the ISP in collaboration with their supervisors so that the document meets the requirements of the Code of Study and Examination of Charles University and the specific requirements of the given study programme. The ISP is entered in the student information system (SIS) during the first year of doctoral studies according to the academic calendar. The ISP must be based on the core structure of the study obligations set out in the accreditation of the respective programme of study. For each study programme, specific requirements are set (completion of subjects, passing a language examination, passing internships, the nature and number of publications, etc.).

The Individual Study Plan is entered in the student information system (SIS) during the 1st year of doctoral studies according to the academic calendar. The ISP must be based on the core structure of the study obligations set out in the accreditation of the respective programme of study. You can find this structure in the study plan for the specific programme of study. The specific content, form, and schedule for assessing achievements and results are planned in consultation with the PhD student’s supervisor. Students and academics are informed sufficiently in advance by e-mail of the details for creating the ISP.

The student is obliged to create his/her ISP in cooperation with the supervisor in SIS in the module of "Individual study plan for PhD students". To log in to the SIS you need the CU Student Card, which you can collect at the Charles University (CU) card service at the CU Point. More information on issuing licenses can be found here. Without this pass, you will not have access to the SIS and therefore will not be able to set up an ISP.

Study duties of doctoral studies in full-time and part-time form are spread in the ISP over the standard period of study (i.e. up to four years).

In the preparation of ISP, in cooperation with his/her supervisor, the student:

  • specifies the content (subjects, seminars, courses, internships, conferences, etc.), which is determined by the requirements of individual SABs;
  • plans the fulfilment of all duties in academic years; 
  • states the expected procedure of solving the dissertation project,
  • the academic year for taking the state doctoral examination (SDE),
  • indicate the academic year of submission of the dissertation.

The manual for ISP outline and generating can be found here.

The dissertation project should include the following points:

  • Formulation of the problem and definition of the topic
  • Literature review
  • Objectives of the work, scientific questions, hypotheses
  • Methodology
  • Research file (data source)
  • Research methods
  • Collection organization
  • Data processing
  • Expected use of the results
  • Time schedule
  • Bibliographic references

The students choose subjects after consultation with their supervisor from the offer of lectures for doctoral studies, or from recommended lectures intended for master's studies; they can also enrol in lectures offered by another faculty of Charles University or another university or college.

Each student's ISP must include the following items:

Specific requirements of individual SBs for courses, publishing activities, internships, grants, conferences and other obligations can be found here by clicking on the relevant SAB. The list of courses and seminars organized within the association of doctoral study programmes in “Biomedicine” is available at the website of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

After insertion, the student sends his/her ISP to the supervisor, who will send it to the SAB after approval. In the same application, an assessmet takes place after the end of each academic year, when it is also possible to modify the study plan according to current needs. The supervisor approves the proposed ISP and submits it to the SAB for assessment and approval. Study plans are completed only electronically in the SIS within the deadlines set by the schedule of the respective academic year.

The ISP shall be completed only electronically in the SIS within the deadlines set by the timetable of the relevant academic year. The supervisor then approves the proposal for the ISP and submits it for final approval to the subjec area board and the programme guarantor (usually during October-December). The student is informed of the approval automatically by e-mail. 

As part of the annual assessment (AA), the doctoral student updates the fulfilment of the obligations of his ISP. Many of them are linked to information in the SIS (subjects), or imported into the SIS from external databases (publications, internships, grants). At the same time, the procedure for solving the dissertation is always filled in, or the originally planned procedure is corrected according to current scientific results. Specific publications, conferences, internships, etc. will be completed by the student after their completion in the preparation of documents for the AA (if they are not already registered in the SIS).

Changes to the ISP

  • The approved ISP is binding, so the student cannot change it himself (even after agreement with his/her supervisor). It is therefore not possible to "postpone" the completion of individual subjects, examinations and defence the assesment automatically to the next academic year.
  • Any modifications can be made by the student in the ISP only within the AA through the SIS, when the student can request to remove certain obligations or postpone their deadlines. Any modification must be approved by the supervisor in SIS and must be properly justified and supported by the documents on the basis of which the student is requesting the modification of the ISP. Once approved by the supervisor, the obligations proposed for removal are crossed out. Changes to the ISP are decided by the relevant SAB, which also sets a new deadline for the fulfilment of the specific obligation. After its approval, these changes become binding.
  • However, these changes approved within the AA cannot be reflected in the already approved ISP (it is not possible to change the ISP history in the SIS retroactively), but they can be displayed in the form of a so-called "Plan Supplement", which is generated after clicking the pfd file of the closed AA of the respective academic year.
Last update: 24. 10. 2023 / ThDr. Jitka Sýkorová, Ph.D.