In accordance with Royal Decree 99/2011, which regulates official doctoral programmes, the doctoral degree certificate shall bear on its front the words ‘Thesis co-supervised with University U’ (where University U is the other university at which the thesis is carried out), provided that the following conditions are met:

The doctoral thesis is supervised by two or more PhD holders from two universities, one Spanish and one foreign, who shall enter into a co-supervision agreement.
During the period of study required to obtain the doctoral degree, the doctoral candidate must have completed a stay of at least six months at the institution with which the co-supervision agreement has been established, carrying out research activities, either in a single period or in several. These periods and activities must be set out in the co-supervision agreement.
Please note that you must enrol at all the signatory institutions and comply with their requirements and regulations in all aspects of the doctoral programme, including fees, progress reviews (assessments), the submission and defence of the thesis, in the same way as other students.

The joint supervision arrangement must be authorised by the Standing Committee of the Doctoral School, and it is also necessary for the universities to sign an agreement setting out the specific details of each case. Joint supervision arrangements may be entered into with universities worldwide.

In order to initiate the procedures for the signature of a joint agreement for a doctoral student with another university, the following administrative requirements must be fulfilled:

• That the Doctoral Student is admitted to a doctoral programme at the Universitat de València and as at the other university who the agreement will be signed with.
• The form for joint supervision agreement must be submitted to the Doctoral School duly signed by the applicant and those responsible for the Thesis at the Universitat de València (tutor, director and academic coordinator of the Doctoral Programme).

The University of Valencia, in collaboration with the PhD student, will negotiate with the other university the wording of the agreement, which must specify, amongst other things:

The co-supervisors of the thesis.

The specific periods that the PhD student will spend at each of the two universities, bearing in mind that the minimum period of stay at both the University of Valencia and the other university is six months.

The university at which the thesis defence will take place: regardless of where the defence takes place, the thesis must be submitted to both universities.

The languages to be used in the writing of the thesis and during its defence.

The university at which the tuition fees will be paid for each academic year: although the doctoral candidate will be enrolled at both universities throughout the entire period, fees will only be paid at one university; specifically, fees for each academic year will be paid at the university where the doctoral candidate spent the longer period.

The commitment by both universities, on the basis of a single thesis defence, to award the corresponding doctoral degree, subject to prior payment of the relevant issuance fees to each institution.