The regulations for the presentation and reading of the doctoral thesis are included in Chapter III, Articles 24-29, of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna, which complies with the provisions of RD 99/2011, which can be consulted on the websites of the ULL, the Faculty of Sciences, as well as the ULL Doctoral School.

The thesis may be developed and, where appropriate, defended in the languages commonly used for scientific communication, ensuring that the tribunal that is to judge it has the capacity to do so in the language of presentation.

Proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee

When submitting the doctoral thesis, the academic committee of the program will present to the Doctoral School a proposal of five experts in the subject matter to which the thesis refers, accompanied by their CVs, which will state the merits that qualify them to form part of the tribunal in charge of judging it.

The following shall be taken into account when appointing the court:

a. It must be made up of three full members: a president, a secretary and a member, as well as two substitutes. Of the full members, one must belong to the University of La Laguna and the other two must be external to it and, in any case, with a civil service or contractual relationship with other universities or research organizations. The substitutes will include one from the University of La Laguna and another from institutions external to it. The first will replace the possible absence of the full member of the tribunal belonging to the ULL, and the second, the absence of any of the other full members.

b. All its members must have a doctorate degree and proven research experience, respecting that, as a minimum, the members of the ULL (regular and substitute) must meet the same conditions as those required to be a thesis director at this university.

c. No more than one external member may belong to the same university, or public or private center.

d. Under no circumstances may the thesis supervisors or the tutors of the researcher in training be members of the committee.

e. The president of the tribunal will be the member with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.

f. Exceptionally, the presiding panel may be composed of more than two external members, provided that funding is available to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the additional external member.

The Doctoral School will verify that the proposed committee complies with the provisions of the aforementioned Regulations and will inform the thesis supervisor and the academic coordinator of the doctoral program, as well as the regular and alternate members of the committee, of its composition.

Once the committee has been appointed, the president will convene the public defense of the thesis, informing the Doctoral School of the date, time, and place where it will take place. In any case, this may not take place before seven calendar days after the end of the thesis submission period.

In the event of a justified resignation by a member of the committee, the Doctoral School will replace them with the corresponding alternate. Should the chair resign, this role will be assumed by the member of the committee with the highest academic rank and seniority in that category.

Processing of the defense of the doctoral thesis

After completing the thesis and with the approval of his/her supervisor(s), the doctoral candidate will present it to the academic committee of the program for processing at the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, accompanied by the corresponding summary in the form and format established by the Ministry for inclusion in the relevant databases.

The academic committee of the doctoral program will send two copies of the doctoral thesis to the ULL Doctoral School, which must include:

a. The corresponding authorization from the thesis director(s).

b. The report of the tutor assigned by the doctoral program, if different from the director.

c. The report stating the agreement of the program's academic committee to the public defense of the thesis and which must necessarily state that the requirements for its defense have been met.

d. The application form for the International Doctorate designation, together with the corresponding documentation (listed in the Official Doctoral Studies Regulations of the University of La Laguna) if you are eligible for it.

The Doctoral School will certify, by means of a registry and seal, that the doctoral thesis meets the requirements established in the regulations for its deposit within 15 school days, under the terms established in the academic calendar for each academic year, at the General Secretariat of the ULL.

One of the copies will remain on deposit with the Office of the Secretary, while the second copy will remain on deposit with the Doctoral School. During the deposit period, which will be designated as a public information period, any doctor may make any allegations and observations they deem appropriate to the Doctoral School, stating their agreement or disagreement with the public defense thereof, as well as
Suggestions for improvement to address deficiencies, all with the aim of ensuring quality. The Doctoral School will ensure publicity for this public comment period. Once the public comment period has ended, the Doctoral School will be responsible for authorizing, if appropriate, the defense of the doctoral thesis.

If during the public information period there is disagreement with the defense or proposals for improvement, the Doctoral School will notify the doctoral candidate and the thesis supervisor, as well as the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral program, who will have 10 working days to present the appropriate objections to the Doctoral School. Based on the documentation submitted, the Postgraduate Studies Committee will decide whether or not to proceed with the thesis defense within a period of no more than one month, obtaining, if deemed appropriate, a report from specialists. The Postgraduate Studies Committee of the University of La Laguna must provide the reasons for the rejection.

The defence must take place within a maximum period of three months from the date of authorisation. If the defence has not been carried out after this period, the procedure must be started again.

The Doctoral School must give the defense appropriate publicity, authorizing the use of any electronic means of communication for this purpose.

Once the doctoral thesis has been approved, the ULL will archive it in an open electronic format in an institutional repository and will send, in electronic format, a copy of the thesis, as well as all necessary supplementary information, to the relevant Ministry for appropriate purposes.

In exceptional circumstances, such as the existence of confidentiality agreements with companies or the possibility of patents being issued that affect the content of the thesis, the ULL will implement a procedure to ensure that these aspects are not disclosed.

Doctoral thesis defense

The doctoral thesis defence will take place in a public session during the academic calendar term. The defence will consist of the presentation by the doctoral candidate of the methodology used, the content and the conclusions of the thesis, making special mention of his/her original contributions.

The thesis defence may be held in any official language of the European Union, in addition to Spanish. In this case, it is guaranteed that the jury can assess it appropriately and upon a reasoned request to the Doctoral School, which will decide whether the request is admissible. The members of the jury must express their opinion on the thesis presented and may raise any questions and objections they consider appropriate, to which the doctoral candidate must respond. Likewise, the doctors present at the public event may raise questions and objections to the doctoral candidate at the time and in the manner indicated by the president of the jury, who will indicate the time established for this purpose.

The committee that evaluates the thesis will have the doctoral student's activity document, with the training activities carried out. This monitoring document will not give rise to a quantitative score, but it will constitute a qualitative assessment instrument that will complement the evaluation of the doctoral thesis. The committee will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis. In accordance with the provisions of the second article of Royal Decree 534/2013, of July 12, which modifies Royal Decree 99/2011, the overall grade awarded to the thesis will be in accordance with the following scale: Fail, Pass, Notable and Outstanding. The committee may award the mention of cum laude if the overall grade is outstanding and a positive secret vote is cast in this sense by unanimity. The ULL will enable the necessary mechanisms for the final award of this mention, guaranteeing that the counting of votes for this award is carried out in a session different from that corresponding to the defence of the doctoral thesis. The pertinent regulatory modification by the ULL is already available, first through a resolution of the Rector or the Rectora, having approved the modification of our regulations in the Governing Council of January 30, 2014, which is pending publication in BOC. Once both minutes have been received by the Doctoral School, the director of the same will decide, in view of the proposal issued by the tribunal that has judged this doctoral thesis, on the award of the mention of Cum Laude to the doctoral thesis. In the event of a favorable resolution to the award of the mention of Cum Laude, this will be incorporated into the doctoral student's file. After the corresponding resolution is issued, it will be communicated to the interested party.

All aspects related to the International Mention in the doctoral degree, the presentation of the doctoral thesis in the form of a compendium of publications, and the joint supervision regime for doctoral thesis are set out in the aforementioned ULL Regulations.