Postgraduate doctoral study of Dental Medicine lasts three years and upon finishing the students obtain 180 ECTS credits, 60 credits per years. The requirements for enrolling in the next year of study are determined by the study program and the syllabus.
The aim of the doctoral study program of Dental Medicine is to generate outstanding doctors of science with a recognizable PhD title which is based on accumulation of knowledge and interdisciplinary, scientific excellence of doctoral research and a willingness to collaborate with other doctoral study programs. For generations, the postgraduate study of dental medicine enables students to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge and skills from the aforementioned field. It also teaches candidates to take critical attitude towards scientific thinking and to make well-reasoned judgments. Besides, the program guarantees worldwide collaboration with researchers from the chosen area of dental science. This undoubtedly supports the claim that the program offers a high level of competitiveness of the acquired scientific insights as well as comparability and global competitiveness of our experts on the knowledge-based market.
The innovative character of the doctoral study program ensures interdisciplinarity, collaboration and partnership which are in turn its cornerstones. The interdisciplinarity implies collaboration with other institutions and constituents of the University in order to ensure a holistic approach to scientific research in the field of dental medicine since it is not only a part of natural and biomedical but also of social and legal (ethics and deontology) and economic sciences. The willingness to collaborate is without a doubt the imperative of present times since remarkable results in science can only be achieved by joint efforts of institutions, teachers and project leaders from Croatian and European universities. This, at the same time, encourages student and teacher mobility creating conditions for development of joint programs.
Furthermore, the study program enables further training within scientific-research projects in the field of biomedicine and health care and through research stays in foreign institutions of higher education and institutes, which is a normal sequence of events in the scientific development of doctors of dental medicine.