General information

The Program offers MSc (Dissertation) and PhD (Thesis) awards. There are no tuition fees and the Program can award Federal (CAPES, CNPq) and State (FAPEMIG) fellowships to qualified students for the entire period of study. The present (March 2013) monthly fellowship for an MSc student is R$ 1.350,00 and for a PhD student is R$ 2.000,00. All fellowships are considered non-taxable income. According to University rules, the maximum period to pass the MSc viva examination is 24 months and for the PhD is 48 months. Typically our average MSc student takes 20 months to complete his studies whereas the PhD student takes 40 months. A student who has not completed all degree requirements at the end of the approved time must petition the Postgraduate Committee for an extension of his/her terminal date (no longer than 6 months).

A supervisor is needed when applying for registration. In no instances a student can be registered without a supervisor. All approved students must be aware that registration is mandatory and made online every semester. According to University rules, failure to do so means exclusion.

A qualifying examination is required by the Program for all PhD students. It must be taken up to 18 months after registration. Students must have also completed 75% of all course requirements and obtained preliminary results on his/her project. The qualifying examination is a chance for students to strength his/her areas of interest and demonstrates that the thesis theme is a coherent research proposal. In addition, faculty can recognize whether flaws exist in a student’s work that should be corrected.