Supervision of doctoral theses
Chapter III of the UPV/EHU's Doctoral Studies Management Regulations, which is linked below, regulates the development and monitoring of doctoral theses. In general terms, these regulations cover, among other aspects, the deadlines, the procedure for assigning the supervisor and/or tutor, the assessment and monitoring mechanisms, the procedures foreseen in cases of conflict and aspects that affect the field of intellectual property.
Chapter III of the UPV/EHU Regulations for the Management of PhD Studies
Monitoring of doctoral students
Once the doctoral student has been admitted to the doctoral programme, the corresponding academic committee will assign him/her a tutor, a doctor with accredited research experience, from among the upv/ehu teaching staff participating in the doctoral programme, who will be responsible for ensuring the interaction of the doctoral student with the academic committee of the doctoral programme. The tutor is responsible for ensuring that the training and research activity is in line with the principles of the doctoral programme and the corresponding doctoral school.
The academic committee, having heard the doctoral student, may change the appointment of the tutor of a doctoral student at any time during the period of the doctoral programme, provided that there are justified reasons.
Within a maximum period of six months from enrolment, the academic committee responsible for the programme shall assign each doctoral student a supervisor for the doctoral thesis, who may or may not coincide with the tutor. This assignment may be made by any lecturer on the doctoral programme. The supervisor of the thesis is the person responsible for the overall management of the student's training and research tasks, for the coherence and suitability of these activities, for the impact and novelty of the subject of the doctoral thesis in his/her field, and for guiding the planning and adaptation, where appropriate, of other projects and activities in which the student is involved. If the supervisor is not from the upv/ehu, the tutor will act as a liaison with the university.
Those lecturers who at the time of their retirement are supervising a doctoral thesis may continue to supervise it, provided that the academic committee of the programme authorises it. Emeritus and retired lecturers may not supervise doctoral theses.
The thesis may be co-supervised by other doctors when there are academic reasons, such as thematic interdisciplinarity or programmes developed in collaboration with other universities or with national or international r&d+i entities, with prior authorisation from the academic committee. This authorisation may be revoked at a later date if, in the opinion of the academic committee, co-supervision does not benefit the development of the thesis. Under no circumstances will the appointment of more than two supervisors for the same doctoral thesis be accepted.
The academic committee of the doctoral programme, having heard the doctoral student, may change the appointment of the supervisor of the doctoral thesis of a doctoral student at any period during the doctoral programme, provided that there are justified reasons.
Once enrolled on the programme, a personalised activity document will be drawn up for each PhD student for the purposes of the individualised control register. This document will include all the activities of interest for the development of the PhD as regulated by the academic committee of the programme. The training activities will not require structuring in ects credits and may include both transversal training and specific research training in the field of each programme, although in any case the essential activity of the PhD student will be research.
The personalised activities document will be regularly reviewed by the tutor and the thesis supervisor and evaluated annually by the academic committee responsible for the doctoral programme, which will send it to the corresponding service of the upv/ehu. A positive evaluation will be essential for continuation on the doctoral programme.
A documentary commitment will be drawn up that covers the academic and administrative aspects relating to the development of the doctoral thesis, signed by the doctoral student, His/her tutor, his/her supervisor and the coordinator of the doctoral programme, the original of which will be deposited at the corresponding service of the upv/ehu. This agreement must be signed as soon as possible after admission and within a period of no more than six months. It must include a procedure for conflict resolution and cover aspects relating to confidentiality and intellectual or industrial property rights that may be generated during the development of the doctoral thesis.
Before the end of the first year of enrolment, the doctoral student will draw up a research plan that will include at least the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them. This plan may be improved and detailed throughout the development of the doctoral thesis and must be endorsed by the tutor and the supervisor. This plan must be submitted to the corresponding service of the upv/ehu for its registration in the doctoral student's file.
Each year, the programme's academic committee will evaluate the research plan and the activities document together with the reports that the tutor and the director must issue for this purpose. A positive evaluation will be an essential requirement for continuing on the doctoral programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, which will be duly justified, the doctoral 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 doctoral student will be permanently withdrawn from the doctoral programme.
We refer to the section on internationalisation (in 'context') where information is given on the international activity of the research teams and the professors that make them up. Moreover, the different specialisations and scientific interests of future PhD students will determine, where appropriate, the destinations of placements, co-supervision, etc. All these aspects must be detailed in the personalised activity document for each PhD student.
The heads of the research groups, in agreement with the tutor, must offer doctoral students working in their lines of research the possibility of doing stays abroad, and doctoral students must apply for national and European mobility grants from the university. Of course, this type of stay is also open to part-time PhD students. As far as possible, the research groups of the doctoral programme will facilitate the presence of doctoral students at national and international conferences (with preference given to the latter) at their own expense.