Thesis tutors and supervisors will be assigned taking into account at least the following criteria:
(1) An attempt will be made to assign to each doctoral student the tutor proposed by the doctoral student him/herself, provided that the proposal is approved by the researcher. Unless otherwise indicated, the general rule shall be that the tutor and the thesis supervisor shall be the same person.
(2) In order to establish the best possible distribution of the tasks of supervising doctoral theses among the professors and among the universities responsible for the degree.
(3) As far as possible, the tutor and supervisor shall coincide, being different when the thesis supervisor is a researcher not belonging to one of the universities of this joint degree; the tutor must always belong to one of the universities of this joint degree.
(4) In the case of a different tutor and supervisor, the tutor, with the consent of the supervisor, may act as co-director.
Based on the review of the CVs and the letters of motivation and reference of the admitted doctoral students, the Academic Committee will assign a tutor to each doctoral student. This information will be sent to each tutor and to each PhD student so that they can meet before the end of the first week of the academic year to discuss their interests and decide whether they wish to continue with the tutor-doctoral student relationship. If both decide to continue with the relationship, the tutor will inform the Academic Committee. After which, the Supervisory Commitment will be signed in the first month after the PhD student's enrolment.
If one of the two parties decides not to continue with the relationship, the tutor and the PhD student will inform the Academic Committee, which, within a maximum period of five working days, will assign a new tutor to the PhD student, requesting the opinion of the PhD student (preferably by means of an interview) and will communicate the final decision to both parties (tutor and PhD student), as well as the reasons for this new assignment. The tutor and student will then sign the supervision agreement within the next five working days.
The Academic Committee, within a maximum period of six months from the registration of the PhD student in the PD, will assign a thesis supervisor, respecting, as far as possible, the interests of those involved. To this end, and beforehand (before the end of the second month after enrolment), the academic committee will seek the opinion of the tutor, the proposed supervisor (whenever possible, both figures will coincide in the same person) and the PhD student. Once the assignment has been received, the Director and the PhD student will inform the Academic Committee of their agreement within 5 working days of the appointment. In the event that the PhD student or the Director is not satisfied with the assignment, he/she shall notify the Academic Committee within 5 working days of the appointment, giving reasons, and the Academic Committee shall proceed within 10 working days to make a new assignment, which shall again be submitted for acceptance by both parties.
At any time during the doctoral programme, the Academic Committee, for justified reasons and having heard the doctoral student and the Director, may modify the appointment of a tutor to a doctoral student. The Academic Committee may also authorise the co-direction of doctoral theses. At least the tutor or one of the co-supervisors must belong to one of the universities that make up this PD.
Director and PhD student will formalise the acceptance of the rights and duties of their relationship by signing the Doctoral Supervision Agreement within a maximum period of 5 working days after having communicated the acceptance of the relationship to the Academic Committee.
If there is a change of tutor/director and this is from another of the universities of the joint degree, the two universities involved will facilitate the change of enrolment, with the consequent refund and new payment of the PhD enrolment fees.
The functions of supervision, tutoring and monitoring of doctoral students will be reflected in a Supervision Commitment, signed by the Coordinator of the doctoral programme, the tutor, the supervisor and the doctoral student, after their admission to the doctoral programme. This Supervision Commitment will be included in the Student Activity Document.
Before 30 May of the first year enrolled in the Doctoral Programme, the PhD student will prepare a Research Plan (RP), which will include the following information:
- Introduction and justification of the subject to be studied
- Working hypothesis and main objectives to be achieved
- Methodology to be used
- Means and material resources available
- Time schedule adjusted to three years
- Main bibliographical references.
This IP, endorsed by the thesis supervisor and, if different from the thesis supervisor, by the student's tutor, will be approved by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme and will be included in the student's Activities Document.
In the second and third year, the content of the PhD student's Research Plan will be updated with the following aspects:
- Revision of objectives covered and competences acquired with respect to the planning initially presented (in the 1st year) for the research period corresponding to the year of research in progress.
- Objectives and tasks set for the research year in accordance with the Thesis Project. The tasks scheduled for this phase of the research include transversal and specific training, i.e. the activities carried out and reflected in the Activities Document.
- Summary of the most relevant results and fulfilment of the objectives set and, if applicable, difficulties encountered that have prevented their execution.
- Readjustments or changes in the objectives and tasks set for successive years of research.
- Satisfaction with the thesis supervisor's supervision. Frequency of meetings with the supervisor to review your progress. If not, explain the reasons.
- Reasoned forecast of the need to request an extension at the end of the third year of research.
The Academic Committee of the PD will be responsible for the annual evaluation of the Student's Activity Document, the Research Plan and the state of development of the doctoral thesis. This evaluation function will be facilitated by the annual assessment/monitoring reports that will be carried out by the tutor and the Thesis Director (reports that will be unified into a single one, in the event that both tutor and Director coincide), as they will deal with aspects relating to the quality of the PhD student's training, the suitability of the activities carried out to his/her research work and the progress made in the completion of the Thesis. More specifically, tutor and Director will report on the following elements and will conclude with an assessment of the doctoral student's performance in terms of favourable or unfavourable:
- Degree of compliance with the programmed activities and, where appropriate, the changes introduced in the planning.
- Degree of use/performance of the activities carried out for the PhD student's research work.
- Type and frequency of monitoring of the doctoral student's progress, e.g. monthly meetings.
- Progress made towards the completion of the doctoral thesis and the acquisition of competences. Indicate whether any difficulties have been encountered.
- General assessment of performance, with respect to the fulfilment of tasks, results obtained (publications, conferences, etc.) and competences acquired.
From the 2nd year of research onwards, the estimate of the time needed to complete the thesis is analysed and, if necessary, whether it is foreseen that an extension will be required at the end of the 3rd year of research. In the event that the Director considers the successful completion of the research to be unfeasible, he/she will indicate the reasons for this. These reports will also be incorporated, together with the Annual Assessment Report of the Academic Committee, into the Doctoral Student's Activity Document.
Positive evaluation by the Academic Committee will be a prerequisite for continuing in the PD. In the event of a negative evaluation, which will be duly motivated, the PhD student must be re-evaluated within six months, for which purpose a new Research Plan must be drawn up. In the event of a new negative evaluation, the PhD student will be permanently withdrawn from the PD.