University of Zagreb School of Medicine

Neuroscience

The doctoral study of neuroscience is a full‐time, fully research‐oriented study. The basis for the study are 30 laboratories, equipped according to the state‐of‐the‐art, with certain heads of research groups that are chosen because they have projects, the conditions for research, publications and proven success in leading doctoral dissertations. If the mentor has so far not led doctoral students, he/she has to work in the department/laboratory that has publications in strictly refereed journals and a record of success in leading doctoral students.

For each student of the doctoral study of neuroscience a special committee of three members is determined, one of which must be the head of the laboratory in which the dissertation is made, and who follow, consult and cooperate with the PhD student until the defense of the dissertation. Candidates and supervisors jointly decide on the research topic by the end of the first year of study.
The organization is fully customized to the research: the obligation of the student, except for the content of research, is an average of 8 hours per week, which allows that 80% of the total time is available to focus on research. In case of studying next to performing a profession (study with part‐time work), such a small scope of commitments makes the study possible.

The study is organized in two courses, each of which is divided into two subcourses. The courses are
Translational and Developmental Neuroscience. The subcourses of Translational Neuroscience are Neurodegenerative diseases and Neurobiological basis of neurological and psychiatric diseases. The subcourses of Developmental neuroscience are Developmental neuroscience and the brain plasticity and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

Some of thematically related subjects in postgraduate studies are grouped in a common unit and require a single exam, which greatly facilitates the organization and implementation of teaching, and thus reduces the number of exams that students must pass during the study.

With 19 basic subjects from the first year, there are 17 methodological subjects and 57 professionally
oriented courses, next to the guaranteed participation of prominent lecturers from the University of Vienna, the University of Oslo and Amsterdam, the Goethe University in Frankfurt, INSERM in Marseille, King’s College in London from European academic institutions, but also from the Yale University (USA), McGill University and the University of Quebec (Canada), and of top neuroscientist with experience of teaching in neuroscience from France and Belgium, as well as of leading experts from Slovenia and the region (as many as 23 foreign lecturers).