Eligibility Criteria
The following are the eligibility criteria for Open Category Applicants:
- The applicant must be pursuing a doctorate in Law -- or in a cognate discipline, as long as the dissertation-in-progress is substantially related to law.
- The applicant’s University must not be an ATLAS partner. (This is specified to make clear that doctoral candidates from ATLAS partners may not apply to attend ATLAS separate from the internal selection process already in place at each ATLAS partner.)
- The applicant must have advanced English-language competence, sufficient to permit the applicant to interact productively with accomplished English speakers during the Agora (notably during the Dissertation Research Seminar).
- By the time of the start of the Agora, the applicant must have: (1) been enrolled in a full-time doctorate for at least the nine months preceding the Agora; and (2) completed at least one piece of written work related to the dissertation that can be shared with the other participants in a Dissertation Research Seminar; this work may be a dissertation proposal; but, if so, it must be a substantial effort carried out as part of the doctoral program in progress and not simply have been a proposal (or modification thereof) such as what accompanied the applicant’s application for admission to her or his institution’s doctoral program.
- Merit, as demonstrated by: (a) a record of academic excellence, (b) serious potential to produce an outstanding dissertation, and (c) reasonable prospects to make a significant contribution to knowledge, scholarship and/or public policy in the applicant’s post-doctoral career.
- Independent financial means to attend. (For the initial years of the Agora, no bursary support for Open Category students is expected to be available.)
