Admission to the PhD School in Statistics

A.Y. 2014 – XXIX cycle

Admission to the University’s Research Doctorate Schools and Courses is governed by a competition that allocates scholarships on the basis of comparative merit. Comparative assessment is made by the Boards of Examiners (one per School), appointed according to the University regulations. After the selection process has been completed, each Board of Examiners draws up a merit list. Scholarships are allocated according to the ranking established in the merit list. Applicants may be of any age or citizenship, but must have a 2nd cycle degree or a single cycle degree from an Italian university or an equivalent qualification from other countries of at least four years' duration. In recent years, competitions were regulated through two distinct calls.

1) Foreign Student Scholarship Announcement  

The University of Padova, through the funding of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, offers research fellowships to foreign students to attend Doctoral Schools/International Courses. The total number of grants for all doctoral schools of the University of Padova, period 2013—2015, will be 15. During the 3-year doctoral programme, successful candidates are offered full board and lodging. The grants include all University and Department fees, full board at the University accommodation and provide an additional personal scholarship of about 13,600.00 € per year for a total of 3 years.

For courses that will start in January 2014, the call for applications will presumably be opened in June with deadline September. These grants are awarded on the basis of qualifications only and do not require an entry examination. 

2) Ordinary Admission announcement (open to Italian as well as to foreign students) 

Ordinary admission to Doctoral Schools and Courses is governed by a competition announced separately from the one described in item 1 above. The call for the admission to all doctoral schools of the University of Padova is published, usually in September each year, at the Web page of the University of Padova following  >Research>Doctoral degrees - PhD Programmes. 

The total number of positions, for all PhD Schools of the University of Padova will be around 300. The number of positions available to the PhD School in Statistics is announced as soon as defined by the University. On average, the PhD School in Statistics counts on  8 positions per year. Most positions are covered by a scholarship of about 13,600.00 € per year for a total of 3 years. Some of the positions might be linked to special research topics, specified in the announcement. In all the other cases, the choice of the research topic is free and a proposal is to be submitted by the end of the first year.

The grants are awarded on the basis of qualifications only. Qualifications include: undergraduate and/or master final mark, thesis, curriculum, scientific publications, list of examinations successfully passed and marks obtained, at most 2 letters of recommendation, GRE and TOEFL (if available). Having already been awarded the degree is not necessary for application, but it is necessary to obtain the degree before the admission procedure starts.  The cv and the letters of recommendation follow a template. In year 2012, the templates were: CV_2012 (pdf), LETTER_2012 (pdf).

Please, note that foreign candidates who have been awarded a minumum three-year scholarship by some international scientific committee (e.g., Marie Curie or Erasmus Mundus scholarship) can be admitted extra quota.

Interested candidates are highly encouraged to contact