MONITORING
When it comes to the thesis supervision, students will be subject to the regulation stablished in the Royal Decree 99/2011 28 January, by which official doctorate teaching is regulated.
The Regulation of Doctorate studies, approved by the Government Council of the Universitat de València ACGUV 206/2017, 25 July, amended by ACGUV/2018, 10 July, regarding the thesis supervision stablishes:
Article 3. The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme
1. The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme is responsible for the programming, coordination and academic and teaching supervision of the programme activities.
4. The Academic Committee of the Programme has the following responsibilities:
a) To suggest in the Doctoral School the relation of possible doctors for the supervision and direction of a doctoral thesis, as well as the offered lines of research.
b) To propose the admission in the Doctoral Programme.
c) To allocate to each doctoral student the supervisors and tutors of the doctoral thesis, as well as justifiably approving its modification.
d) To make public the required proceedings so as to ensure the quality of doctoral theses in both, their elaboration and the assessment process, before its deposit.
e) To assess every year the personalised document of activities and the doctoral student’s research plan.
f) For the purpose of awarding the international mention in the doctoral degree, to authorise the stay and activities carried out in another State, either in a higher education institution or in a research institution.
g) All of those competences needed for the correct development of their functions.
Article 4 Tutors of doctoral theses
1. Once admitted and enrolled in the doctoral programme, all doctoral students will be assigned by the corresponding Academic Committee a tutor, a doctor with recognised research experience, linked to the unit or School organising the programme, within three months.
2. It is the tutor’s responsibility to ensure the interaction of the doctoral student with the Academic Committee and, specially:
a) taking responsibility on the suitability of the doctoral student’s training and research activity in accordance with the programme;
b) guiding the student in the choice of courses, seminars and other non-formal activities addressed to training research.
Article 5 Supervision of doctoral theses.
1. The academic committee responsible for the programme will assign each doctoral student, within a maximum period of three months from enrolment, a doctoral thesis supervisor, who may or may not be the same as the tutor. This assignment may be allocated to any doctor with duly recognised research experience, regardless of the university, centre or institute in which they work. A doctoral thesis can be co-supervised by a maximum of three doctors.
2.No doctor from the Universitat de València may supervise or co-supervise over 10 theses simultaneously.
3. The supervisor may waive the direction, writing the opinion expressed by the Doctoral Programme Academic Committee that meet the request and shall appoint another supervisor to continue in the doctoral programme.
4. For justified reasons, the Academic Committee may amend, hearing the doctoral student and supervisors, the appointment of the supervisor of doctoral thesis at any time of the completion of the thesis.
5. University regulations involving the activities of faculty will establish the credit equivalence of mentoring and supervision of doctoral theses.
Likewise, the Article 9 states that “The Universitat de València may formalise agreements with foreign universities to develop doctoral theses in co-supervision regime. In this case doctoral students will carry out their thesis work under the guidance and responsibility of at least one thesis supervisor from each of the Universities that have signed the agreement.
When it comes to the Universitat Jaume I, Articles 9 and 10 of the Regulation of Doctoral Studies, ruled by RD 99/2011 (approved by the Government Council nº. 19 of 26 January 2012) regulates the supervision of doctoral theses:
Article 9. Tutor of doctoral student’s activities
The Tutor is responsible for adapting the training and research activity to the principles of the doctoral programmes.
Once the doctoral student has been accepted in the Doctoral Programme, the Academic Committee will assign a tutor to him/her. Any doctor of the Doctoral Programme with proved research experience could be assigned as a tutor.
The tutor will be responsible for the guiding tasks of the doctoral student’s activities and will ensure the interaction between the doctoral student and the Academic Committee. The tutor will issue a report on the Research plan that will be incorporated to the Activities Document of the doctoral student.
The Academic Committee will be able to amend the appointment of a thesis tutor with justified reasons, listened by the doctoral student and the tutor.
Whenever possible, the tutor and the thesis director would be the same person.
Article 10. Supervisor of the doctoral thesis
The supervisor of the doctoral thesis has full responsibility on the management of the doctoral student’s research tasks.
The Academic Committee will assign a thesis supervisor to the student, in a maximum deadline of six months from the doctoral student enrolment in the Doctoral Programme. This supervisor can be any Spanish or foreign doctor with properly accredited research experience, regardless the university, centre or institute where he/she develops his/her work.
The thesis supervisor not only has to be responsible for the coherence and suitability of training activities, but also for the impact and news on their field, for the subject of the doctoral theses and for the guide in planning and suitability to other projects and activities in which the doctoral student is enrolled.
The thesis could be co-supervised by other doctors in the event of academic reasons such as a subject with interdisciplinary nature or programmes developed in national or international collaboration, with previous authorisation of the academic committee.
Supervision tasks in the elaboration of the doctoral these by the doctoral student, as well as the planning and suitability of his/her training activities will be assumed by the thesis supervisor. The thesis supervisor will issue a Research plan annually, which will be included in the Activities Document of the doctoral student.
The Academic Committee could amend the appointment of Supervisor and thesis co-supervisors by justified reasons, listened by the doctoral student and the Supervisor and co-supervisors.
The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme will be formed by a president, a secretary and three board members that must be doctors and lecturers of the moral philosophy field, and will be represented by the two universities taking part in the programme. It will be responsible for appointing the thesis’ tutor and supervisor to the doctoral student. It will also ensure the “good practice” in those supervision and direction tasks and will encourage the direction of Doctoral theses by lecturers/researchers of research structures taking part in the programme, paying attention to the preferences expressed by students on the research lines in which his/her thesis is developed, the equality of opportunities and its availability.
The Universitat de València has a “Doctoral Commitment Document” approved by the Doctoral Subcommittee on 17 October 2011 in which the corresponding rights and duties, and the mutual obligations of the member states are defined. This has the aim to ensure the achievement of the objectives defined in the Programme during the period of the doctoral thesis, and the signatory of the doctoral commitment document.
In summary, in this document there are stablished:
- Mutual commitments in the establishment of a mutual collaboration.
- Obligations and commitment of the thesis supervisor are defined: regulatory commitment, motivation of autonomous initiative, original and innovative nature of the project, as well as coherent with the line of research.
- Obligations and commitment of the doctoral student: Informing the supervisor regularly on the work evolution, its results and commitment to follow the instructions made by the supervisor.
- Confidentiality with provided data and information and commitment for using that information on the corresponding purposes, Intellectual Property Regime, recognising the corresponding copyright according with the current law to the doctoral student.
- Conflict resolution, in which the Coordinator of the Doctoral Programme should act as a mediator.
- Document validity from the moment it is signed to the thesis lecture, anticipating other causes of extinction.
The current programme presented to evaluation includes the document described and will promote the elaboration of a similar Guide on behalf of the Academic Community.
The Committee will encourage the supervision of doctoral theses by teachers/researchers of research structures taking part in the programme, paying attention to the preferences showed by students on research lines in which their theses can be developed, the equal opportunities between researchers and its availability.
Supervising and tutoring the doctoral student are part of the teaching staff’s teaching and research commitment. As approved in the Government Council of the University on 30 October 2012, 20 hours for each thesis lecture or even 30 in case of being an international student are recognised. In the event of being conducted in a co-direction regime, it will be divided among the different directors, which can be requested in the next following years of the thesis lecture.
Likewise, the Committee will enable the multiple supervision in those cases academically justified, such as co-direction of theses by an experienced research and a novel supervisor, or the co-supervision of theses in interdisciplinary lines of research.
Collaboration with other universities and international research centres in the doctoral programme field will be encouraged on behalf of the co-direction of theses by external experts of recognised prestige.
In fact, from the Academic Committee the presence of international experts in monitoring committees, previous reports and theses boards is promoted. This presence is required by the UV current regulation on requirements for the defence and presentation of doctoral thesis, which have to issue favourable reports before the thesis lecture.
Additionally, the current regulation on the board’s organisation of international theses requires the participation of members coming from foreign institutions.
The development of doctoral programmes in both, the Universitat de València and the Universitat Jaume I, benefits the collaboration between external institutions (universities, research centres and business) that are partners in research developed by the teaching staff responsible for the supervision of doctoral theses. In this way, the teaching staff takes part in several international research projects and -as mentioned in the collaboration section- collaborations with teachers and researchers of a wide range of universities are kept, which makes easier the mobility of students assigned at the program and its internationalisation.
On the other hand, several teachers of the programme are part of editorial committees. They are editors or associate editors of international magazines, of directive committees of international scientific associations and have been invited to teach in doctoral and master’s programmes and to take research stays in several international universities.
Furthermore, through the collaboration with the Fundación Étnor strategies for disseminating the obtained results are developed in the more than 200 business, organisations and professionals who form it, so as to ensure the proper transfer of research results not only to agents and institutions who form it, but also to the general society.
Data of the last five years reflect that around the half of the trained doctors have taken a stay in an international research centre, and the future prospect of the doctoral programme is to increase that percentage.
In that way, among the theses defenced in the last years (including the current academic course), the following stays taken for obtaining the International Mention can be reflected: Università di Bologna -Italy (Patrici Calvo), Universidad Católica de Pelotas - Brazil (Dilneia Tabares), Institut für Philosophie de la Goethe-Universität - Frankfurt - Germany (Joaquín Gil), Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics -Oxford - United Kingdom (Lidia De Tienda), Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya - Peru (Francisco Merino), Centro de Investigación Social Avanzada de Querétaro - Mexico (Javier de Haro), Universidad Austral de Chile (Jorge Araya), Universidad de la República (Helena Modzelewski), Universidad javeriana de Bogotá – Colombia (Liliana Robledo).
The programme expects that at least 50% of full-time students and a 25% of part-time students can make a stay during they training and therefore obtain the international mention. However, this share will depend on external resources and the travel grants available. These stays will be done in a co-supervision modality. It is expected that students who stay in a foreign centre do their doctoral thesis with international mention.
In order to promote stays, full-time students in the last year who have not carried out a stay yet, a plan to request external resources will be asked to the student. The document with the mobility plan will be attached to the research plan and the activity document so that it can be approved by the Academic Committee. In this way, the objective is to encourage the stays and the competition for the available economic resources. Exceptionally, in case the students are not planning on asking for external resources for mobility, they will have to include a motivation attached to the research plan and the activity document so that they can be assessed by the Academic Committee.
The Academic Committee will authorise the stay and the activities developed in an international higher education institution or in an international research centre.
It will also indicate whether such activities are considered appropriate to grant the International Certification for Doctoral degrees. To do this, the doctoral students should submit their applications to the Academic Committee with the approval of the thesis director and supervisor with at least fifteen days before the beginning of the stay.
MONITORING OF PHD STUDENTS
The Doctoral Studies Regulation approved by the Government Council of the UV ACGUV 206/2017, on 25 July, amended by the ACGUV/2018, on 10 July establishes the following procedure in the different articles specified hereafter:
Article 4 Tutors of doctoral theses
1. Once accepted and enrolled in the doctoral programme, the Academic Committee will appoint each doctoral student a tutor within three months. It has to be a doctor with accredited researching experience, attached to the unit or School which organizes the programme.
Article 5 Supervision of doctoral theses.
1. The Academic Committee responsible of the programme will appoint to each doctoral student, within a maximum period of three months since their enrolment, one director of doctoral thesis who may coincide or not with the tutor.
Article 6. Doctoral commitment document
After formalising the first year enrolment, the doctoral student, the University, the tutor, and if applicable the director should jointly subscribe the doctoral commitment document, related to, among other questions, procedures of conflict solving which can be applied to aspects concerning to copyright or industrial property and, in general, to the monitoring functions of the research activity of the doctoral student.
Article 7 Activities document and research plan of doctoral students
1. Once the first enrolment is done, a personalised activities document will be issued for each doctoral student, where all the activities of interest for the development of the doctoral student will be recorded, as well as the development of the thesis, under the purpose of being reviewed by the thesis supervisor and director, and being assessed by the appropriate Academic Committee of the doctoral programme.
2. Before the end of the first year, the doctoral student will make a research plan supported by the supervisor and the director. This plan has to include the methodology and goals, the mediums and the time planning as well as a positive report by the Ethics Committee in Experimental Research of the Universitat de València if applicable.
This plan can be improved throughout their stay in the doctoral programme and must be supported by the supervisor and the director.
3. The Ethics Committee will assess research plans which include experimentation with humans or biological human samples, experimentation with animals, the use of biological pathogenic agents or genetically-modified organisms.
4. The Programme Academic Committee yearly assesses the research plan and the activities document together with the reports issued by the supervisor and the director. The positive evaluation will be a requirement to be able to continue in the programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, which must be supported, the doctoral students must be assessed again within six months. In order to do so they must develop a new research plan.
If there is a second negative evaluation, the doctoral student will be permanently withdrawn of the programme. Against these resolutions, which do not exhaust the administrative procedures, the applicant may lodge an appeal, which will be determined upon a report from the Postgraduates Studies Committees by the Principal or by his/her delegate.
5. For the enrolment of successive years a favourable report by the Academic Committee on the personal activities document and the research plan is necessary.
6. These documents will have to be registered and enrolled in the Doctoral School.
www.uv.es/escoladoct/REGLAMENTOS/Reglamento%20de%20Estudios%20de%20Doctorado_cas.pdf
For its part, article 14. of the Doctoral Studies Regulations ruled by RD 99/2011 in the Universitat Jaume I. (Approved by the Government Council nº. 19 of 26 January 2012
Article 14. Supervision and monitoring of the doctoral student
The doctoral students admitted in the doctoral programme will be considered researchers in training and will enrol annually under the concept of doctoral academic supervision of the doctoral programme.
When it involves joint programmes, the agreement will determine the procedures to carry out such enrolment.
The admission to a doctoral programme will imply the assignment of a tutor who must ensure the interaction of the doctoral student with the programme academic committee.
The Academic Committee responsible of the programme will appoint to each doctoral student, within a maximum period of six months since their enrolment, one supervisor of doctoral thesis who may coincide or not with the tutor.
The activities done by the doctoral student in the Doctoral Programme will be registered in the Doctoral Activities Document, which will be done individually by each doctoral student and will be reviewed annually by the tutor and thesis director and assessed by the academic committee of the programme.
The Doctoral Activities Document will include annual reports done by the tutor and the supervisor of the thesis, as well as the annual assessment done by the Academic Committee.
The doctoral student, the tutor, the thesis supervisor, the Academic Committee, the academic body responsible for the Doctoral Programme, the School and the Doctoral School will have access to the Doctoral Activities Document for checking the incorporation of reports.
The Doctoral Activities Document together with the doctoral thesis will form the doctoral final assessment.
Before the end of the first academic year, doctoral students will elaborate a “research plan” that will include at least the methodology to be used and the objectives to be reached, as well as the means and the temporary planning to achieve it. This plan could be improved and detailed throughout its permanence in the programme and must be supported by the tutor and supervisor. It also must be approved by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme, which will add it to the Activities Document of the doctoral student.
Doctoral students should obtain positive annual assessment of the research plan by the academic committee to be able to carry on with the programme.
When the coordinator of the programme is tutor or supervisor of doctoral student’s thesis whose plan is to be assessed, the academic committee will affect the assessment with its abstention.
The Academic Committee yearly assesses the research plan and the activities document together with the reports issued by the supervisor and the director. The positive evaluation will be a requirement to be able to continue in the programme. This assessment will be communicated annually in the corresponding deadlines to the negotiated doctorate of the Management Service of Teaching and Students. In the event of a negative evaluation, which must be justified, the doctoral student must be assessed again within six months. In order to do so they must develop a new research plan. In the event of a new negative evaluation of the doctoral student, the programme will be ended definitely, which could be appealed before the Doctoral School of the Universitat Jaume I.
The Universitat will stablish the supervision and monitoring functions of doctoral students referred in the article 11 of the Royal Decree 99/2011 28 January, through a signed documentary commitment stablished by the Universitat, and that will be signed on behalf of the Universitat by the coordinator of the doctoral programme, the doctoral student, the tutor and the director. This document will be signed within six months after the admission of students to the programme.
The supervision commitment will be incorporated to the Activities Document of the doctoral student.
In the supervision commitment the academic relationship between the doctoral student and the Universitat, the rights and duties, including the possible copyrights of the research will be specified, as well as the acceptance of the disputes settlement procedure.
It will also cover all the aspects regarding any form of protecting the research results (copyright) in accordance to the current legislation in a national and European level to what is stablished in the Research General Regulation of the Universitat Jaume I. When it comes to doctoral theses in the framework of collaborations with business, it must be taken into account the national and European legal framework that regulates the rights on inventions and research, development and innovation grants.
In the Supervision commitment the corresponding obligations of the tutor and the thesis director will be included. Therefore, their signatures will be required once assigned by the Academic Committee.
