Master & Doctoral Course

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Ph.D. Degree

Last update: 2025/4/10

International students, whose conferral of degree on Mar.25/except Mar.25, are expected to stay in Japan until the day of conferral.

ABD international students are expected to stay in Japan until Pass/fail deliberations.

Requirements to earn doctorate, doctorate examination method and three-year completion

Thesis (JDP must check the affiliation conditions of each university.)

*The thesis may not have been previously submitted as a degree thesis to another graduate school.
*The thesis must have been written under the guidance of the supervising professor after admission to the doctoral course, and must have been the result of experiments and research. For more details, please refer to "Degree Application Guidelines".
*The thesis (an original article) must have been accepted by an English-language refereed journal　(hereafter "English journal"), and as a general rule, it must have been published in print. However, this shall not apply when even though the thesis has not yet been published, a certificate of acceptance from the English journal publishing institution or a certificate of scheduled publication is submitted.
*The applicant must be the first author of the thesis. The applicant's name must appear as the first author of the publication, and the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine and the division that applicants apply for Ph.D. must be specified as the author's affiliation.
*As a general rule, the doctoral thesis paper must have been published in a English Journal covered by both MEDLINE of PubMed and SCIE of Web of Science (WOS). Journals covered by PMC/ESCI are not accepted.
*If there are multiple lead authors, a consent form (and pledge) from the other lead authors and corresponding authors must be submitted.

(1) Requirements to earn doctorate

To examine a doctoral dissertation, the medical special committee of the graduate school committee will examine graduates of doctor's course and doctors approved by thesis respectively, for dissertation submitted by those who satisfy the required research career criteria, and confer doctorates on those who have passed the examination successfully.

The requirements for a graduate of doctor's course application: those who registered for more than four years on a doctoral course at our graduate school and has acquired 30 units; and completed a preliminary examination at the graduate school meeting for reading research papers, a dissertation published in English journals with referee practice (English dissertation of primary work) or paper being published.

Requirements for application for paper doctor: Those who satisfy the research career requirements as defined based on their final educational background, who passed the foreign language examination, a main dissertation published in English journals with referee practice (English dissertation of primary work) or paper being published, and has more than one other paper.

(2) Methods of examination

Candidates submit the dissertation to the medical special committee of the graduate school committee. When the candidates pass the examination of their dissertation and oral examination made by three commissioners, then the medical special committee of the graduate school committee judge acceptance or rejection of candidates.

(3) Short-term completion (completion in 3rd year or in the middle of 4th year) *For April enrollment students only

Requirement for application: Those who registered at the doctoral course of our graduate school for more than three years and achieved excellent research results and completed more than 30 units, and recommended by the advising professor and passed the short-term completion examination, and also passed research papers preliminary examination committee at the graduate school meeting for reading research papers, can apply for examination of graduates of doctor's course. The system is intended to allow short-term graduation of students with excellent performance, to support their jump to the next step, such as studying abroad or becoming a teacher. Please refer to "Orientation for the Doctoral Degree application (P.13-P17)" below. For more information, please send e-mail to Student Affairs Division: med@t.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp