FAQ

1. Do I have to undergo a health examination?

Health examination is not mandatory for all PhD candidates.

For those of you who may be exposed to harmful factors while conducting your research, it is necessary to deliver a certificate from an occupational physician. If this is necessary for your education programme, you will get a referral after enrolment.

2. Am I eligible for health insurance?

Citizens of PL/UE/EFTA

In order for the university to register you for insurance, it is obligatory for you to meet these 2 conditions at the same time:

1. You must be:

• a citizen of Poland, or
• a citizen of another EU/EFTA country, or
• the holder of the Pole’s Card (Karta Polaka)

2. At the same time, you cannot be subject to insurance obligation for any other reason (e.g., due to employment, running a business, “under the coverage of your parents/grandparents/spouse” ).

After reaching the age of 26, a doctoral student who is not covered by health insurance on any other basis, should immediately submit an application for voluntary health insurance for citizens of EU countries only. It is important to remember that the insurance is done UPON REQUEST.

Non-EU/EFTA citizens

If you are not a citizen of an EU/EFTA country you must insure yourself. You can either use the public insurance provided by the National Health Fund (NFZ) or purchase private insurance.

To self-insure by the National Health Fund (NFZ), you will need to prepare the appropriate documents and make arrangements with the National Health Fund (NFZ) and Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), and then a monthly contribution, which currently amounts to PLN 55.80.

The step-by-step instruction of health insurance application is available here

3. Who will not be eligible for health insurance?

The university cannot register individuals for insurance who should be insured under a different eligibility. The below-mentioned examples cover the most common cases which include:

• persons under 26 years of age – they are usually insured “with a parent”, if the parent works or receives a pension, or possibly with a grandfather/grandmother,
• persons who are employed – their employer is responsible for their insurance,
• persons whose spouse has their own insurance eligibility (meaning, for instance, they are employed) – in this case, the spouse is the one who registers for insurance,
• persons running their own business – self-employed individuals pay their own contributions,
• persons who are on disability or retirement benefits – contributions are deducted from their benefits,
• non-EU/EFTA citizens.

Remember: When you take up work (under a mandate contract or employment contract), you are insured by the employer. When the contract ends, this insurance expires. If you previously insured yourself, were registered for insurance by your parents/spouse or by the University, your previous insurance will not be renewed automatically! You must apply  for it again!

Thus, whenever you stop working, depending on your situation:

• submit a new application for voluntary health insurance (if you have a scholarship and are an EU/EFTA citizen) or
• get insured again with the NFZ (applies to students from outside the EU/EFTA) or
• ask your parents/spouse to re-apply for insurance.

4. What is covered by the insurance?

All PhD students who are subject to health insurance can access primary health care and have the right to free benefits from all doctor’s surgeries and institutions which have a signed contract with the National Health Fund (NFZ)

It is recommended that you establish a relationship with a primary healthcare clinic prior to any  urgent medical needs. In order to visit your family doctor, you first need to register, you can select any clinic operating in Toruń, however preferably the one near the place of your  residence. You should present your identity card or passport and a proof of insurance

What you are entitled to:

• General practitioners – routine care includes physical exams, diagnosis and treatment of illness, routine health screenings, preventive care,
• Specialist doctors – after a consultation with a general practitioner you can be given
  a referral for a more specialized medical services e.g., neurologists, eye specialists,
  hospital treatment or medical rehabilitation. The referral is not required in the event
  of emergency or for services provided by the following medical doctors: oncologist,
  gynaecologist, psychiatrist, venereologist and dentist, which means that you can
  register for the visit whenever necessary
• Hospitals, GP surgeries, clinics, health centres. In the event of hospitalisation, all
  treatments, examinations and medicines are free.
• Private surgeries which have signed contracts with the National Health Fund. Before
  your visit, you should check whether the services which you want to use in the surgery
  are provided under the agreement with the Health Fund.
• Dentists – basic dental care is free of charge, however, it should be emphasized that
  dentistry treatment under the insurance is extremely limited.

5. Can I obtain funds from the doctoral school to cover scientific activities?

Every year funds for doctoral students’ research activities are allocated. There is a range of existing funding opportunities available within Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School.

Given the circumstances and the number of doctoral students conducting their education at Academia Copernicana Doctoral School, it has been estimated that the maximum amount of funding per doctoral student in the year 2025 is 4000 PLN for all combined activities you wish to apply for.

It is possible to obtain funding for the following scientific activities:

1. Funding for publications of articles, monographs or (text) editing and proofreading (as a first or a corresponding author, Q1 or Q2 journal, according to Web of Science base or Scopus),
2. Funding for international/national conferences (oral presentation/ poster, live/in-person/ on-line conference),
3. Funding for an internship (transport, travel allowance (per diem), accommodation),
4. Purchase of materials or services necessary for the implementation of the doctoral project,
5. Participation in workshops/ summer schools, courses.

In order to apply for School’s funds for the abovementioned research activities, it is necessary to submit a funding application. The application should contain a detailed description of costs, purpose and a proper justification including the influence of a given activity/purchase (e.g. conference participation, publication, etc.) on the development of a PhD student and/or the implemented doctoral project. It should also be supported by an opinion of a supervisor and your scientific CV.

NOTE: Funding applications should be submitted no later than 21 days before a given activity you wish to apply for.

6. How many weeks before the conference should an application for permission to travel abroad and a funding application be submitted?

As soon as it is possible (immediately after learning about the conference), but no later than 4 weeks before departing for the conference. Remember that we need to have enough time to review the funding application and process the documents (invoice, etc).

NOTE: the invoice for the conference fee MUST be accompanied by a taxpayer’s declaration, otherwise the invoice will not be processed. The declaration is signed by the PhD student and a person from the doctoral school administration.

7. Going on a business trip – What do I need to do?

First of all familiarise yourself with the legal acts regarding orders on travel abroad and domestic business travels of employees, doctoral students, and students of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun.

Each trip made, in particular, for the purposes of conducting scientific activities such as conferences and internships should be reported to the doctoral school by the submission of an application for permission to travel, which must be approved by the School Director.

Foreign business trip – procedure

Upon collecting information about your planned trip abroad, you should create a Travel abroad application form. The application must be signed by the Head of Academia Copernicana Interdisciplinary Doctoral School.  Information included in the “travel abroad application” is necessary to reserve funds in the XPrimer system.

After that, all formal issues related to foreign business travels (purchase of plane tickets/ conference fee payments/settlement of costs etc.) are handled by the International Projects Section (former Department of Research).

In order to learn more about the procedure follow the step-by-step instruction.

Domestic business trip – procedure

If a domestic business trip is funded by the doctoral school you must provide the information that will enable us to prepare delegation and reserve funds in XPrimer. The delegation must be signed by the Director. Once the trip is over, you are obliged to come to the school’s office to settle business trip expenses.

8. What contributions are deducted from the doctoral scholarship?

If you receive a doctoral scholarship, the following contributions are deducted from it:

• Pension insurance
• Disability insurance
• Accident insurance

Additionally, if you express such desire when submitting your statement for the purpose of insuring a doctoral student: Sickness insurance.

However, the  doctoral scholarship is not subject to income tax.

The scholarship is paid at the end of each month.

9. How do I apply for additional ECTS points?

The award of ECTS points requires the submission of an application for ECTS points together with supervisor’s declaration and a certificate/ proof/ a letter authorised by an eligible person/intitution that a given activity has been conducted.

By completing following  activities you get awarded ECTS credit points:

• Specialized monograph attendance – 0.2 ECTS / 2 hours.
• Summer schools participation (at least 5 contact hours required) – 1 ECTS / 10 hours.
• International conference active participation (poster / abstract / presentation required) – 1 ECTS (regardless the duration of the conference).
• In-person external scientific practice and training – 2 ECTS / 1 week.
• Online external scientific practice and training – 0.1 ECTS / 1 hour.
• Workshop / course attendance – 0.1 ECTS / 1 hour.
• Webinar attendance – 0.1 ECTS / 1 hour.
• International internship – 4 ECTS / 1 week.
• Certified courses within international internships might compensate for an equivalent obligatory lecture.

10. What documents must be submitted during an academic year at doctoral school?

First-year doctoral students are obliged to:

1. submit to the director of the doctoral school, within 12 months from the date of commencement of education, agreed with the supervisor or supervisors, an Individual Research Plan, including, in particular, the schedule for the preparation of the doctoral dissertation and the deadline for its submission;
2. submit to the director of the doctoral school, within 6 weeks of starting education, an application to appoint a supervisor or supervisors or a supervisor and an auxiliary supervisor. The doctoral student must attach to the application a supervisory plan prepared by the candidate for supervisor or supervisors, a declaration of the candidate for a supervisor or auxiliary supervisor on meeting the requirements to serve as a supervisor or auxiliary supervisor.

All doctoral students are obliged to:

1. submit to the director of the doctoral school by the end of each academic year i.e. by August 31st, approved by the supervisor or supervisors, an annual report on the implementation of the individual research plan.

11. What are the evaluation criteria for the mid-term evaluation?

Regulations of mid-term evaluation

The submitted materials and the interview will be the basis for the evaluation. The following criteria will be most important for its formulation:

1. advancement of the realization of research project according to schedule,
2. dissemination of the results of the project, publication of scientific papers or exhibition of works/artistic events in the public space. Publication of at least one work in a journal from the ministerial list of scientific journals is recommended. For doctoral students in the discipline of fine arts and fine arts conservation this requirement may be fulfilled by authorship of at least one artistic work, conservation, artistic project, artistic and educational workshop or project, design collection disseminated in public space,
3. delivering a paper, making a presentation at a conference, workshop or seminar; the inclusion of the paper or presentation in the programme of an event that has been cancelled due to pandemic will also count towards this criterion,
4. international collaboration. The prerequisite for meeting this criterion is the establishment of international contacts for joint publication, internship, joint research, consultation of research problems or participation in an international conference,
5. applying for grants in a competition procedure; a sufficient condition for this criterion is the submission of an application that has passed a formal assessment, regardless of the final result,
6. realization of the educational program, both the school’s framework program of education and individual internships and courses,
7. opinions of the supervisor(s) or other researchers.

The precondition for obtaining a positive assessment requires passing five of the seven above-mentioned criteria. In formulating the mid-term evaluation, the Committee also takes into account the individual criteria resulting from the subject, discipline and nature of conducted scientific work and implemented artistic projects. The Committee is also required to take into account constraints resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic that may have caused delays or changes in the implementation of IRP.

12. What kind of vacation/sick days/leaves are available for us?

The doctoral student  have the right to rest breaks not exceeding 8 weeks (40 working days) a year.

Days of leave are granted at the request of a doctoral student. Permission for holiday leave should be first given by your supervisor, than a signed holiday leave application form must be delivered for approval by the School Director.

In case on an illness doctoral students on scholarship are entitled to sick leave, however they are not entitled to sickness benefit on sick leave, even if they ask to be covered by sickness insurance.

Additionally, the doctoral student’s education may be suspended at their request for unforeseeable reasons, and in particular in the case of:

1) diseases,

2) disability;

3) the need to provide personal care for a sick family member or a child up to 4 years of age or a child with a medical certificate

4) about disability;

5) other reasons of an accidental or family nature;

– excluding or seriously hindering the continuation of education.