Doctoral education is an individual journey and structures must give support to individual development, and not produce uniformity or predictability.*

Project RODOS (Restructuring of Doctoral Studies in Serbia) is a three-year project (2013-2016) funded by the TEMPUS programme (Structural Measures-Governance Reform subprogramme) of the European Union (grant number 787517.36 , reference number 544093-2013). The project addresses one of the most acute problems in Serbian HE: harmonization of doctoral studies with the needs of academia, industry and society at large, as well as with the current EU practice. The wider objective of this project as a structural measure is to restructure doctoral studies in Serbia in line with the Bologna Process and Salzburg Principles, emphasizing quality of research and integrative processes which involve universities, research institutes and industry, and result in the establishment of Doctoral Schools.

In line with the first Salzburg Principle, the goal of doctoral education is to cultivate the research mindset, to nurture flexibility of thought, creativity and intellectual autonomy through an original, concrete research project. It is the practice of research that creates this mindset.*

The Project will generate as outputs/outcomes improved QA standards for doctoral studies, new bylaws for public funding of doctoral studies and research policy for doctoral studies and a roadmap for cooperation with industry and civil sector. A new bylaw for the establishment of Doctoral Schools, which integrates HEI’s and contributes to the improvement of the position of students as young researchers, will be adopted, together with the corresponding accreditation standards, including joint doctoral degrees. Four Doctoral Schools in the above mentioned fields will be established in order to check the newly defined structure; the study programs will be accredited and the first group of students enrolled.

Structuring doctoral education means achieving flexible structures to expose early stage researchers to a wide range of opportunities, ensuring personal and professional development and to provide institutional support for career development and mobility.*

* Salzburg II recommendations, European universities’ achievements Since 2005 in implementing the Salzburg Principles, by the European University Association, www.eua.be