It is absolutely vital that the student has the appropriated director for completing successfully the doctoral programme. The good practices of the director are therefore crucial and an inadequate supervision is one of the main causes of failure.

To choose the director almost never is a problem, because the student usually knows the work of the research group and almost always knows personally his/her future director. However, such is the importance of the task of the director that we must reflect about the attitude that directors must have with their students, as for the doctoral student the choice of a compatible director always will be one of the keys for success.

The directors should urge students to reflect if they are really passionate or believe in the work they are doing. The task of writing a thesis is not easy and much more compared with the business world where people work less than you, they have fixed schedules and above all they earn much more money. Passion is one of the keys for success.

When choosing, if there are several options, the best is to forget personal issues and choose a topic that motivates you and you find interesting, because is a decision easy and simple compared to choosing a director. Once you have decided the topic you should look for the director that is working in this research line, as this will be the key for obtaining support and complicity. Also, you should take into account that usually you will learn more from casual conversations than from research tasks.

Secondly, you should keep in mind that the director will be the person that will advise you throughout the research project and he/she will do it personally as in his/her category of erudite in the subject matter. For this reason it will be essential that you choose the right person. The director should encourage you when the experiment fails, challenge you when you become arrogant and overall direct you towards the success in the defence of the thesis. To choose a director that think like you is very important, as there are many disciplines and ways of being different. The feelings during the first meeting will be very important because here is where you should perceive if the director will be the person who will be there when you need it.

It is advisable to ask to other doctoral students about their relationship with the director, to learn about their mood. Also, if initially you can work with different directors is much better because it will allow you to choose for the person who will work better.

• On the other hand you should take into account that the thesis directors are already stereotyped, so you can choose the director who best fit into your preferences. You can find different types:
• On one end there are the professors with high reputation and experience, who can introduce you people of great influence. In return, they will have not enough time for helping you.
• On the other end there are the recent doctors who because of their inexperience have more time for get involved in your project or in their own project that they want you to participate in it. With them you cannot relax as they will be behind you all the time.
• Finally, another option may be choosing a teacher that soon will retire, as their experience can help you to have a more relaxed attitude. They never will lead you to make a project too much ambitious but their experience will serve you for making an interesting project that will give you enough results for completing the research successfully.

The choice of the director entails your inclusion in his/her work group. It is very important that you feel supported by the people around you, as many times their advices will very valuable and they will help you even more than the director. A research group of medium size is the most appropriate.

Other advices that you should take into account when working in a research group:

• Not to avoid foreign director simply because they speak another language. The questions of things that you don’t understand are always welcome.
• Not to compare you with other colleagues. There are no fixed rules in the research processes, as some doctoral students may have a more prolific dynamic of publications than others or they may arrive to more original results before, without having to think that you are not working properly.
• Assert yourself as soon as possible. New ideas can come out from the newly arrived, so you must not be afraid of showing your own perspectives.

Once you have chosen the director, it may be the case that you are not happy with the work of the director. In this case we recommend you to speak as soon as possible with the director for solving the problem. If the problem is not resolved the student should speak with the coordinator of the doctoral programme for telling him/her the complaints about his/her director and this matter will be dealt by the doctoral committee.