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First Year
Once you have registered for the first year of your doctoral thesis at Academic Administration you should begin the following:
- Research plan and personal training plan for doctoral students
- Activities report
Research proposal
Within six months from the date of appointment of a thesis supervisor you should complete your research proposal (PI).
The PI must be assessed by your thesis supervisor/s and, if applicable, by your tutor. It will then be evaluated by the Academic Committee for the Doctoral Programme (CAPD). Once evaluated you will be informed of the result by email.
A PI must be approved to continue with the doctoral programme. If the PI has not been approved, you have six months to prepare and submit a new proposal. If the PI is rejected on two consecutive occasions, you will be permanently withdrawn from the programme.
The PI may be modified or detailed at any time during the period of thesis preparation, as long as changes are duly justified and approved by the CAPD.
Once your research proposal (PI) has been validated, you will have to present it to the supervisory board for assessment at the end of each academic year (see the “Second and following years” section). If you have registered during the 1st period, you will pass the supervisory board’s assessment at the end of the 1st year. If you have registered during the 2nd period, you will pass the supervisory board’s assessment at the end of the 2nd year.
All these applications are made online through the 'Tracking your doctoral thesis' module, which is the IT management tool of doctoral studies.
Deadlines for submitting research proposals are:
| Doctoral students registered in the first period | 30 April |
| Doctoral students registered in the second period | 1 September* |
* Except for the PhD in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the PhD in Bioinformatics and the PhD in Sport and Human Movement Sciences, the date of which will be communicated by the academic coordination.
Doctoral Student Activity Report
The Doctoral Student Activity Report (DAD) is a register of all the training and research activities that you carry out during your doctoral studies. The DAD can be regularly redesigned and reviewed online, through the 'Tracking your doctoral thesis' module, by your supervisor(s) or, if applicable, your tutor, and is checked once a year by the CAPD.
It is your responsibility to keep the DAD up to date and provide your supervisor with the relevant certificates as proof of the activities you have carried out.
Annual supervisory board
The Academic Committee for the Doctoral Programme (CAPD) is responsible for the assessment process and ensures that, by the end of your studies, you will have acquired the core and specific competencies that the doctoral programme has defined in accordance with Spanish Royal Decree 99/2011. It also guarantees the quality and progress of doctoral theses.
Once the first year of the doctoral programme has been completed, you give an oral presentation at a Monitoring Comittee with three experts in the field, who may or may not be involved in the doctoral programme, and who will assess the research you have carried out so far.
The CAPD arranges the supervisory board meetings at the end of each academic year. The calendar for the meetings and other requirements doctoral students must meet are published on the website.
In exceptional cases, where the supervisory board meeting overlaps with a research visit or field work, CAPD may allow the meeting to be held in another way.
After the first supervisory board meeting the CAPD will assess the following documents every year:
- Research proposal
- Doctoral Student Activity Report
- Report from your supervisor(s) and, if applicable, your tutor
- Report from the supervisory board
The results of all these evaluations, whether satisfactory or not, will be included in 'Tracking your doctoral thesis' module, the IT management tool for doctoral studies.
To remain in the doctoral programme your assessment must be considered satisfactory.
If your work is considered unsatisfactory, and justifiable reasons are given, you will be reassessed within six months. If the second assessment is unsatisfactory you will be permanently withdrawn from the doctoral programme.
Formalities required
- PhD Student: During the Monitoring Committee you have to explain the work done so far within the framework of the development of your doctoral thesis during 15-20 minutes. Remember that the day of the Monitoring Committee you have to submit a copy of your Doctoral Student Activity Report (DAD) updated and a copy of your Research Plan. You can download these documents directly from the doctoral application in the Virtual Campus.
- Supervisor: Before the celebration of the Monitoring Committee, you should evaluate the work done by PhD student in the last academic year, through doctoral thesis module, and upload the report into the thesis module. You can download the report model here.
Modification of the doctoral thesis project
You can change your thesis supervisor, tutor or title at any time before the deposit of your thesis.
The substitution or addition of a supervisor or tutor has to be justified in this application form and sent to the Academic Administration.
If you change your thesis supervisor or tutor, you also need to send a new commitment agreement duly signed.
Transferring to another doctoral programme
You can trasnfer between doctoral programmes, if duly justified, by sending this application form to Academic Administration so that the CAPD may approve the change.
A transfer between doctoral programmes may require additional training, depending on the CAPD’s decision on the new doctoral programme you have applied for, as well as a change in the thesis supervisor/s.
The CAPD of the new doctoral programme will decide whether a new research proposal is required or not. If so, you will start the process of annual supervision from the beginning.
Extension request
You can request an extension by sending this application form duly justified to the Academic Administration, so that the CAPD of your doctoral programme can issue a resolution.
When requesting an extension, it's necessary to accredit that the thesis is in the final phase and that has the approval of the director and headmaster, if it's needed.
Withdrawal request
You can request a temporary or a definitive withdrawal by sending this application form duly justified to the Academic Administration, so that the CAPD of your doctoral programme can issue a resolution.
Doctoral students may request a temporary withdrawal from the doctoral programme for a maximum period of one year. Temporary withdrawal may be extended for a further year if it's duly justified.