Accepted study programme on NAKVIS 30.9.2021

Conditions for progression to the second year: Students progress to the second year if they have completed first-year requirements totalling at least 48 ECTS credits; it is mandatory to complete the course units a) Mobilities Studies and Tourism Studies Epistemology and b) Research Methods in Tourism. Conditions for progression to the third year: To progress to the third year, students must have completed all first-year requirements and second-year requirements totalling at least 48 ECTS credits. In addition, candidates must complete individual research work with disposition preparation and PhD theme submission and submit their dissertation disposition. Progression under exceptional conditions: If a student fails to meet the progression requirements but can show justified grounds for this, the FT UM Academic Affairs Committee may approve exceptional enrolment in the next year at the student’s request and set a deadline by which the student must meet the missing requirements. Justified grounds are determined in the Statute of the University of Maribor. Repeating a year: During their time of study in the programme, students have the option to once repeat a year or change the study programme due to failing to meet study requirements. Repeating is possible in cases defined by the Statute of the University of Maribor if a student meets at least half of the requirements for the year in which the student is enrolled, amounting to a minimum of 30 ECTS credits. Repeating a year is also possible for a student who completed study requirements for the year in which the student is enrolled amounting to under 30 ECTS credits if justified grounds arose as determined in the Statute of the University of Maribor. Repeating a year is subject to approval by the FT UM Academic Affairs Committee based on the student’s written application and enclosed written proof of justified grounds as defined by the Statute of the University of Maribor.

The aim of the University of Maribor’s third-cycle study programme in Contemporary Tourism Studies is to form a profile of a doctoral candidate who will be qualified to conduct research in the tourism sector and capable of managing tourism development projects and who will direct the future development of tourism through critical reflection. As tourism studies are decidedly interdisciplinary in nature and relate to various forms of tourism, the knowledge and skills that the study programme encompasses are designed so as to provide doctoral students with in-depth knowledge of the profession, which they proceed to build upon through specific tourism content. The whole is complemented by methodological-research knowledge and skills, by means of which an individual becomes qualified to conduct research independently, bringing new scientific findings and enabling the continuation of scientific work on the one hand and practical application of the knowledge obtained on the other. Through their ability to critically reflect, the knowledge gained by the doctoral candidates will enable them to further engage in scientific research by publishing scientific monographs and articles or by participating in or managing highly complex research projects. This study programme has another important objective, as it encourages students to pursue continuous studies at all levels and rounds off the entire study vertical at the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Maribor.

After completing the study, doctoral candidates will: 1. produce new knowledge in tourism studies: • understand and master theoretical imagination and conceptual and analytical thinking about mobility and tourism practices, • be thoroughly familiar with and critically reflect on paradigms and epistemology of tourism studies, • define themselves in a substantiated and reflected manner within the interdisciplinary field of tourism studies, • apply interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to tourism research, • independently produce new knowledge on tourism through scientific and research work, 2. promote sustainable development of tourism as a positive social force: • critically reflect on the current issues in tourism and relating to their knowledge of trends in an independent and substantiated manner, • understand the structures of how tourism functions and interpret connections between various parts of the tourism system, • research and critically analyse power relationships in tourism, • develop innovative and sustainable solutions and predict the consequences of various phenomena in tourism, • plan and manage tourism development projects, • critically judge security situations in tourism and determine the adoption of measures to ensure the safety of tourism participants, • help form strategic policies for tourism development at the level of destinations and organisations, • develop legislative proposals in the field of tourism, • demonstrate a socially responsible attitude to tourism implementation in practice.