The Regulations for Postgraduate Education approved by the Governing Council of the Universitat de València on November 29th 2011 establishes the following procedure in the different articles specified:

Article 15. Doctoral Theses tutors

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.

Article 16. The supervision of Doctoral Theses

The academic committee responsible for the programme will assign each doctoral student, within a maximum period of six 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.

Article 17. Doctoral commitment document

After the first registration, the doctoral student, the University, the tutor and, where appropriate, the supervisor must jointly sign the doctoral commitment, concerning, among other matters, the procedure for resolving any conflicts that may arise, aspects relating to intellectual or industrial property and, in general, the functions of supervision of the doctoral student's research activity.

Article 18. Activities Report and research plan of doctoral students.

  1. Once the first registration has been completed, a personalised activity document will be drawn up for each doctoral student, recording all the activities of interest for the development of the doctoral student, as well as the development of the thesis, for the purposes of review by the tutor and the thesis supervisor and evaluation by the Academic Committee of the corresponding doctoral programme.
  2. Prior to the end of the first act, the doctoral student will draw up a research plan, endorsed by the tutor and the supervisor. This plan must include the methodology and objectives, the means and the time schedule, as well as a favourable report from the Universitat de València's Ethics Committee in Experimental Research, in the cases indicated. This plan may be improved throughout the doctoral student's stay on the programme and must be endorsed by the tutor and the director.
  3. Research plans involving experimentation on humans or human biological samples, animal experimentation and the use of pathogenic biological agents or genetically modified organisms shall be subject to evaluation by the Ethics Committee.
  4. Annually, the Academic Committee of the Programme will evaluate the research plan and the activities document together with the reports to be issued by the tutor and the supervisor. A positive evaluation will be a prerequisite for continuation in the programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, which must be justified, the doctoral student must be re-evaluated within six months, for which a new research plan must be drawn up. In the event of a new negative evaluation, the doctoral student will be definitively withdrawn from the programme. The interested party may lodge an appeal against these decisions, which do not exhaust administrative channels, which will be heard by the Principal or the person he/she delegates, following a report from the Postgraduate Studies Committee.
  5. A favourable report from the Academic Committee on this Activities Report and the research plan will be required for enrolment in subsequent years.

These documents must be registered at the Postgraduate Centre’s Third-Cycle Unit.