Requirements for PhDs and Doctoral Dissertations

  • The attendance lasts for at least 6 semesters while a maximum attendance is 16 semesters.
  • Completion of at least 240 ECTS.
  • Success in a comprehensive examination from the third to seventh semester of study which is scored by failure or success.
  • The evaluation criteria and content of the comprehensive examination are determined by the Department.

The topics of the comprehensive examination will be determined by the research interests of the student and will be defined by the examination committee of the academic members of the department. Due to the wide spectrum of topics covered by Digital Heritage/Digital Humanities and the interdisciplinary nature of the Ph.D. programme, it is only possible to define the general research areas to be covered. These include the following:

  • Satellite Remote Sensing Applications in Archaeological Research
  • Drone multispectral imagery and site detection
  • Historical Landscape Characterization (HLC)
  • Spatial tools of GIS analysis in Archaeology
  • Digital History
  • Settlement Pattern analysis
  • Predictive modelling analysis in archaeology
  • Environmental Risk Assessment of archaeological sites and monuments
  • Data fusion and image fusion for aerial, geophysical, satellite images
  • Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms in geophysical data
  • Deep mapping and Deep learning in archaeological research and digital History
  • Time series analysis of satellite images for the monitoring of archaeological sites.

 

  • It may be an oral examination provided that it is in the presence of at least two evaluators and the necessary records are kept.
  • Presentation of the doctoral dissertation proposal to a three-member committee that is scored with Success / Failure. Each student has two opportunities to present the proposal. Incomplete grade is not registered in the proposal.
  • Doctoral dissertation and then the public presentation of the student’s dissertation can be completed at the earliest during the 6th semester of the student’s introduction to the doctoral program.
  • Dissertation Defense of the dissertation before a five-member examination committee, which is appointed by the Board of the Department upon the recommendation of the Graduate Programs Committee of the Department and the Research Advisοr. It consists of:

– three members of the academic staff of the Department, one of whom is always the student’s research advisor

– one member from another university or research center, of university level.

– a member from another Department of the University in a related field of study or from another university or research center of a university level.

  • The 5-member Committee prepares a report by which it supports the decision to submit or not the award of the doctoral degree, which is notified to the Department Chair and the Board.
  • Then the Chair of the Department submits all the necessary documentation to the Board of Postgraduate School for further assessment and approval, in order submit a relevant proposal to the Senate.
  • The Senate asses the Dissertation proposal and the procedure followed, in order to approve the graduation of a Ph.D. candidate.

 

Doctoral Thesis Assessment Criteria

The UCY has established the quality assurance requirements of a Ph.D. dissertation with rules as follows:

  • Extensive literature and in-depth reference to research at international level, addressing the topic of the dissertation and the correlation of results with the scientific field
  • A clear reference to the scientific contribution of the dissertation to the extension of knowledge of the specific field based on the research carried out. Therefore, there should be an explicit reference to the originality points of the dissertation.
  • Significant and original contribution to scientific knowledge.
  • The scientific contribution and originality of the dissertation should be clearly summarized in the dissertation summary, and analyzed more extensively in the main part of the dissertation. The dissertation must satisfy the following specifications according to the Doctoral Thesis Preparation Guide for the Preparation, Syntax, Writing and Submission of the Doctoral Dissertation:
  1. Proper structure of the main parts of the dissertation
  2. Required specifications which include the booklet, submission, size, cover, font, spacing, margins and layout of the dissertation,
  3. Correct typographical appearance and
  4. Successful plagiarism control