IPhD Program in Regional Development

 

The aim of the program is to train high-quality professionals in the field of regional development. This aim is achieved by a well-structured program that provides strong theoretical base and at the same time supports independent research under expert supervision and by regular feedback. The international network of the School and its professors provides many more opportunities than lectures only; the best students can apply for travel grants to conferences and for abroad scholarships to our partner institutions or they can be involved in some of the international projects of the Faculty and its center of excellence, the Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre.

The Program is designed to help students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for writing good quality doctoral dissertations. To serve this aim the Program supports independent research by providing experienced faculty supervisors and professional feedback at dissertation seminars. From the very beginning, the Program provides methodological and practical support for individual research.

The International PhD Program in Regional Development combines the advantages of contact-based and distance-based education drawing on the contribution of its recognized national and international faculty. The educational period consists of four semesters. Though subjects are partly delivered in block teaching, there is a continuous consultation between the students and their supervisors that requires personal attendance throughout the semesters.

To complete the educational phase, PhD students have to acquire 240 credit points. In order to gain the PhD degree students need to

• accomplish all the required courses (12 courses, 5 credit points each) and the three elected courses (4 credit points each) for a total of 72 coursework credits,
• collect 80 research credit points and 40 credits from publications and conference papers, collect 48 teaching credits,
• pass the Complex Examination,
• submit and defend their dissertation.

 

Useful documents

Program structure

Credit structure

Publication credits

 

Doctoral Process

• In order to start the doctoral activities (which include the Doctoral Examination, and the defense of the Dissertation) students should have a minimum of 40 credit points in publication. It is required to have at least four publications. Out of these, two should be journal publications. List of accepted journals with their ranking can be accessed with this link.
• Precondition: Absolutorium (coursework + teaching + research; in total 200 credits) + publication requirements (40 points) Complex Examination: oral exam in the core subjects
• Submitted dissertations will be pre-evaluated by two experts in the field 
• Final  evaluation by two external experts in the field 
• Defense: open debate

 

Areas of Research

For those who do not have a clearly defined research topic yet, the academic staff provides assistance and the possibility to join their international research network. In the following, we provide a list of potential research topics and fields:

 

Innovation and regional development

Technological innovation is the most important source of modern economic development of regions. Students interested in the role of innovation in regional economic growth and in policies that might be followed to help regions succeed in a technology-based development path will have the possibility to be involved in internationally well-recognized innovation-related research projects. Topics include regional systems of innovation research (including research on the role of regional actors such as universities, local firms, multinational companies in innovation), the analysis of the role of global knowledge network embeddedness in regional innovation as well as impact assessment of knowledge-based regional development policies via extensions and applications of the GMR model system. For further details contact Professor Attila Varga (vargaa [at] ktk.pte.hu).

 

Entrepreneurship research and policy development

This type of research is based on the world’s largest individual entrepreneurship data collection, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (http://gemconsortium.org) data set. Our academic staff lead by Professor László Szerb, together with other highly recognized scholars (Zoltán J. Ács, London School of Economics; Erkko Autio, Imperial College, London; Raquel Ortega-Argilés, University of Groningen) have developed the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) and its regional version, the Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) (http://www.thegedi.org). The uniquely designed Penalty of Bottleneck (PB) methodology provides the possibility for tailor-made entrepreneurship policy implementation at country, regional and local (city) levels. Interested students are invited to participate in this top research that is in the absolute forefront of examining the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. For further details contact Professor László Szerb (szerb [at] ktk.pte.hu).

 

Financialization/financial globalization and its spatial implications on the EU financial markets

The key aim of this research is to discuss the most recent developments in the on-going global financial crisis and to critically examine the continuing financialization of economic processes that have shaped, and have been shaped by, the global and European circuits of finance. The financial crisis has demonstrated the global and geographical interconnectedness of the European financial system as a whole. While finance has traditionally been considered to be a domain of financial economics, it is evident that financial markets and financial crises are intensely geographical in nature and therefore the spatiality of finance and the approaches in Regional Economics, New Economic Geography and in Financial Geography cannot be ignored to address these challenges. The research is based on the finding of both the FP7 (RASTANEWS) network on the future of macroeconomic financial integration in Europe (http://rastanews.eu) and on the Regional Studies Association sponsored Research Network on Geographies of Finance and Post-Socialist transformations

(http://www.regionalstudies.org/networks/network/gfpst; https://www.tcd.ie/Geography/research/gof/about.php). 

Doctoral students can get access to the FP7 dataset on country-level external imbalances to analyze regional imbalances within Europe and especially within EMU that are at the root of the European sovereign debt crisis. In the last 25 years a great emphasis has been put on financial market transformation in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. This research aims to identify to what extent the financial market integration of CEECs contributed to the regional imbalances within the European Union and the Eurozone comparing the pre- and post-crisis periods. The research examines the patterns of post-crisis readjustment in CEECs’ banking sectors and it also discusses the current policy arrangements and possible scenarios of the extension of the Eurozone to non-member CEE EU countries. For further details contact Dr. Zoltán Gál, Associate Professor and Senior Researcher (galz [at] rkk.hu).

 

Network structure and macroeconomic stability

The economy is a complex adaptive system, which can be adequately described by network concepts. As a result, advances in network theory can be used to describe economic phenomena. Exploring, analyzing and modelling the different layers of connections between economic agents can improve our understanding of many economic phenomena. At the same time the explicit integration of systems of relationships may help us developing more precise micro and macroeconomic models. The research topic focuses especially on the stability of economic processes and tries to understand and model this subject with tools inherited from network theory or game theory. Requirements: MA in Economics, some experience in modeling and econometrics. For further details contact Professor Tamás Sebestyén (sebestyent [at] ktk.pte.hu).

 

Territorial governance and regional development (public administrative, political science, public policy approaches)

• the mission of local and regional self-governments in planning and economic development.
• national models of management of European cohesion policy  (especially in CEE countries)
• public actors, networks in regional development (partnership schemes and practices)
• comparative studies of territorial governance systems focusing on the meso level
• territorial reform sin Europe (rescaling, regionalization)

For further details contact Professor Ilona Pálné Kovács (palne [at] rkk.hu).

 

Universities and regional development

Universities are unique institutions that provide multiple contributions to economic and social development. The medieval teaching universities were translated into teaching and research universities during the 19thcenturies by first academic revolution, whereas the second academic revolution of the 20th century created the entrepreneurial university model where teaching, research and regional development are the explicit tasks of universities. This research topic focuses on the third mission of universities and all the related aspects of that.  Areas of interest include the legal and institutional changes that support the entrepreneurial turn of universities, the changes of individual attitudes/motivations, respectively risks and educational consequences guiding the entrepreneurial turn. For further details contact Katalin Erdős (erdosk [at] ktk.pte.hu). 

 

Tailor-Made Research Support

A distinctive feature of the International PhD Program in Regional Development is its personal, tailor-made support system aiming to assist independent, quality research and publications. The Scientific Research course in the first semester introduces students to independent research. Research Seminars starting in the second semester provide students the practical knowledge in the design and execution of their own research and then writing publications that follow international standards. By the end of the fourth semester, students are expected to be able to write a research paper that can be submitted for publication consideration to a scientific journal.

 

Tuition fee

The tuition fee for the Program is €12,500 - to be paid in installments in the following schedule:

• 1st semester: €4,000,
• 2nd semester: €3,000,
• 3rd semester: €2,000,
• Doctoral examination: €500,
• Doctoral procedure: €3,000,

Hungary through the Tempus Public Foundation offers scholarships for foreign nationals who intend to pursue their full BA/BSc, MA/MSc or undivided MA or PhD studies in Hungarian state accredited higher education institutions. For details see Stipendium Hungaricum below. 

 

Transfer Data

Transfer data: MNB (National Bank of Hungary)

Account Number: 10024003-00282716-01110009

Swift: HUSTHuhb

IBAN code: HU30-10024003-00282716-01110009

Name of the Receiver: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pecs

 

Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Program

Hungary offers scholarships through Tempus Public Foundation for applicants from designated countries, who would like to pursue full or partial (one or two semester-long) BA/BSc, and MA/MSc or PhD studies at Hungarian state accredited higher education institutions. 

Details and available scholarships >>>

 

Academic Staff

Katalin ERDŐS - Research Fellow, Assistant professor, expert in microeconomics and regional innovation

Mónika GALAMBOSNÉ TISZBERGER - Assistant professor, expert in statistics

Zoltán GÁL - Senior Researcher, expert in regional finance and regional innovation

Dániel KEHL - Assistant professor, expert in statistics

István KÓNYA - Professor, expert in macroeconomics and development economics

Gábor KŐRÖSI - Professor, expert in econometrics

Imre LENGYEL - Professor at University of Szeged, expert in regional competitiveness and regional economic development

Ilona PÁLNÉ KOVÁCS - Professor, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, expert in regional governance

Gábor RAPPAI - Professor, expert in statistics and econometrics

Tamás SEBESTYÉN - Research Fellow, expert in regional economic development

Éva SOMOGYINÉ KOMLÓSI - Research Fellow, expert in regional economic development

László SZERB - Professor, expert in entrepreneurship, small business competitiveness and entrepreneurial finance, Director of the International PhD Program in Regional Development

Attila VARGA - Professor, expert in regional policy and development, policy impact modeling and regional innovation, Director of the PhD School of Regional Policy and Economics