Field of Education Sciences
The Field of Education Sciences was established in 2018 within the Doctoral School of Psychology. Its main objective is to provide advanced doctoral training that fosters internationally relevant research competencies.
Research subfields include (but are not limited to):
- Teacher training and education
- Psychology of learning and education
- Inclusive education
- Instructional design
- Educational policy and management, etc.
Doctoral supervisors
Thematic areas of interest (2025)
Conf. univ. dr. habil ILIE Marian
- Design de instruire;
- Dezvoltare curriculară;
- Formarea pedagogică a cadrelor didactice (universitare și din învățământul preuniversitare);
- Abordări ale predării;
- Motivație pentru alegerea carierei didactice.
Prof. univ. dr. habil MARA Daniel
- Educație incluzivă;
- Educație interculturală;
- Formarea profesorilor.
Conf. univ. dr. habil PALOȘ Ramona
- Proiectarea experiențelor de învățare în vederea stimulării performanței academice;
- Aspecte organizaționale și personale legate de Professional Learning Communities;
- Variabile personale și organizaționale care influențează formarea profesională a cadrelor didactice.
Prof. univ. dr. habil SAVA Lidia Simona
- Educația adulților și învățarea de-a lungul întregii vieți;
- Politici educaționale;
- Management educațional;
- Pedagogie socială, formare & dezvoltare;
- Formarea cadrelor didactice.
Useful information
Proposed topics for admission (2025)
For the complete list of topics, please refer to the table (link).
The funding status of each topic (scholarship-based budget, budget without scholarship, or tuition fee) is determined based on the admission competition, in accordance with the UVT methodology.
Admission
The admission exam consists of presenting a preliminary research project before the admission committee. In order to present the project, the candidate must draft a preliminary version of the doctoral thesis proposal and obtain the prior written approval of the proposed supervisor for the chosen topic.
The structure of the project should include:
- Project title
- Justification for the chosen topic
- Brief theoretical overview
- Research aim/objective(s)
- Possible hypotheses
- Investigation methods
- Anticipated results
- Discussion
- Highlighting potential elements of originality and personal contributions
- Selective references, cited in APA style (link)
The project should be approximately 15–20 pages in length (including references), using Times New Roman, 12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing, and can be written in Romanian or English, depending on the prior agreement with the supervisor.
At the time of application, the doctoral research project must be submitted electronically and made available to the admission committee at least 48 hours in advance by the Director of the Doctoral School.
The project will be defended orally before the admission committee, with a focus on evaluating the candidate’s ability to respond effectively to questions from the committee members. Each candidate will have 15 minutes for the presentation, followed by 15 minutes of questions from the committee.
For more details regarding the application file, the admission calendar, and the organization of the admission process within the Doctoral School of Psychology, please consult the DSP Admission Regulations and the UVT Doctoral Admission Methodology.
Resources
The Academic Development Center is an academic support structure of the West University of Timisoara, with a training and research coordinator, 4 research assistants, 5 research volunteers and 12 permanent collaborators from the various faculties of the university, contributing in three main areas of activity: research, innovation and professional development (link);
The University Clinic for Psychopedagogical Therapies and Counseling aims to carry out interdisciplinary research in complex therapies for children, adolescents and adults with special needs and, at the same time, CUTCP is a research platform that involves the management of research projects and the development of partnerships and research with stakeholders from outside the university environment (link);
The “Eugen Todoran” Central University Library (B.C.U.) – ranked among the top four university libraries in Romania, it offers doctoral students access to over 1,000,000 documents.
Through the Anelis Plus program, PhD students benefit from free access to major academic databases, including ScienceDirect, Wiley, Sage, Scopus, Springer, and Web of Science.
UVT has provided dedicated research spaces for PhD students of the Doctoral School of Psychology, located both in the building on Paris Street and in the main building at 4 V. Pârvan Blvd., room 303.
Doctoral students have access to a wide range of specialized software licenses for research in behavioral and educational sciences, including:
Statistical data analysis tools: Lisrel 9.2, HLM 7.0, IBM SPSS Statistics 24, STATA 15, EQS 6.1, Xcalibre 4; Comprehensive Meta-Analysis v2, R Studio, Latent Gold
Behavioral coding software for observational studies: Observer XT 13 Educational; Text automatic coding tools for content analysis and data mining: LIWC2015 1.2.1
Digital trace collection tools: ColorMyEmotion
Physiological response recording systems: BIOPAC
Experimental study design software: DirectRT, MediaLab, Inquisit
Online assessment and intervention delivery platforms: e-cbt.ro
Psychological testing applications: Vienna Test System, CAS, and over 30 additional psychological tests provided by Testcentral, Psiho Proiect, Cognitrom, and RTS Psychological Testing.
Curriculum
- Doctoral students admitted in the first year in 2024 (link)
- Doctoral students admitted in the first year in 2025 (link)
Courses
Completion of studies
For more details about the IOSUD-West University of Timișoara study completion procedure, please visit the Doctoral Studies > Completion of doctoral studies page (link).
For field-specific details, please consult the following:
- Order of the Ministry of Education and Research no. 3018/2025, dated January 13, 2025, on the approval of the minimum mandatory national standards required for awarding doctoral degrees, published in the Official Gazette no. 78 of January 29, 2025
(applicable to doctoral students admitted from 2025 onward) (link) - Order of the Ministry of National Education no. 5110/2018, dated September 17, 2018, regarding the approval of the minimum national standards for awarding doctoral degrees, published in the Official Gazette no. 817 of September 24, 2018 (link)
(applicable to doctoral students admitted before 2025) (link) - The National Guide for Writing Doctoral Theses related to the Field of Study (forthcoming publication)
- Sections concerning the graduation procedure in the Regulations of the Doctoral School to which you are affiliated