Program organization

At the University of La Laguna, various actions are established to promote the direction and co-direction of doctoral theses. These actions include recognition of the work of directing and coordinating these theses in the calculation of the teaching load included in the specific regulations on "Estimation of the teaching assignment in undergraduate and postgraduate degrees" and in the "Management Support Plan".

There are also access routes that allow researchers and/or professors who do not have research merits that allow them to be thesis directors to join doctoral programs. In fact, the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies, article 10, section 4 establishes that: "Without prejudice to the provisions of the previous section, a new researcher or a professor or researcher with a minimum of research experience who does not meet the requirements established to be a thesis director may assume the functions of co-director. In any case, he or she must have a civil service or contractual relationship with the university or organization that collaborates in the development of the program. There may not be more than one co-director of this profile."

Article 10 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna indicates the requirements necessary to be a doctoral thesis director, these are:

• Be in possession of at least one section of research merits, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1086/1989, dated 28 August, on the remuneration of university teaching staff (BOE No. 216, dated 9 September), amended by Royal Decrees 1949/1995, dated 1 December (BOE No. 16, dated 18 January 1996); 74/2000, dated 21 January (BOE No. 19, dated 22 January), and 1325/2002, dated 13 December (BOE No. 305, dated 21 December), or equivalent merits for those who do not have access to the assessment of these sections because they do not belong to the university teaching bodies.
• Be in possession of three sections of research merits, according to the provisions of Decree 140/2002, of October 7 (BOC No. 139, of October 18) and have directed a doctoral thesis, or have co-directed two.
• In the event of not having access to the evaluation of these sections (associate professors, assistant professors and contracted researchers) they must prove that they have equivalent merits. In any case, both tutors and directors must be included in one of the lines that make up this program.

Procedure for assigning a tutor and director

Once the student has been admitted, the Academic Committee will assign him or her a tutor from among the professors who are part of the program, taking into account the student's academic training, his or her preferences regarding lines of work and the acceptance by the candidate for tutor at the student's proposal.

Within a maximum period of three months from registration, the Committee will assign the student (at his or her own proposal and with the consent of the proposed director) a thesis director who may or may not coincide with the tutor and who will be a professor from the doctoral program.
Every PhD thesis registered in the programme must have a Director or Co-director. In all cases, the research activity of the director or co-director must be included within one of the lines of research of the Doctoral Programme.

Activity Record Control and Data Certification

Regarding the procedure used to control the activity record of each doctoral student and certify their data, the program proposes, depending on the training activity in question, that it be the Tutor or the Director, or both, who collect this information and send it to the Academic Committee of the program for certification, since according to article 15, section e) of the ULL Regulations, it is said committee that has the function of annually evaluating the Research Plan and the Training Plan contained in the activity document of each student of the program within the established deadlines for this. In any case, this monitoring will be channeled through the Electronic Office of the ULL in order to leave documentary evidence and will be certified through two channels: the internal activities of the doctoral program through the certification of the tutor and the director of the Program and for external activities, they will have to provide the corresponding certification. Likewise, each year the research plan of each student will be evaluated by the Monitoring Committees of each doctoral student. The Monitoring Committee will be formed at the suggestion of the tutor and with the approval of the Academic Committee and will be made up of three professors/researchers assigned to the doctoral program who will annually evaluate the doctoral student's research plan. Subsequently, the Monitoring Committee will inform the Academic Committee of the assessment carried out for its ratification.

The participation of international experts in the Monitoring Committees has not been planned; in the case of Doctoral Theses with international mention, these experts will form part of the Doctoral Thesis Defense Tribunal and/or in the issuance of reports prior to the presentation of the thesis.

Forecast of doctoral students' stays in other centres

The academic committee must approve the provision of stays for doctoral students in other national and international centres, co-supervisions and European mentions, according to the Procedure for requesting the International Mention in a doctoral thesis at the ULL.

Supervisory Commitment Document

The supervision functions of doctoral students will be established by means of a documentary commitment, signed by the vice-rector responsible for postgraduate matters, the doctoral student, his/her tutor and his/her director or co-directors. The document must include the unconditional acceptance by the doctoral student and the director of the respective rights and duties regime provided for in the REODULL and in section 5.1 of this report. It will also include a conflict resolution procedure, and will consider the aspects relating to intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise within the scope of the doctoral programme.

Regulations for the presentation and reading of the Doctoral Thesis

The regulations for the preparation, presentation and processing of the thesis defense, including those relating to the proposal and appointment of the committee, and the modalities of International Mention, compendium of publications and joint supervision of this program are included in the REODULL (Chapter III, art 24-30), and in accordance with the Doctoral Regulations of the University of La Laguna (BOC of January 25, 2013):

Regarding the grading of the Doctoral Thesis, the Resolution of February 25, 2014, which provides for the publication of the modification of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna for its adaptation to Royal Decree 534/2013, of July 13 (BOC of March 5, 2014), will apply.

The Doctoral Thesis

According to this regulation, the thesis will consist of an original research work that enables the author to work independently in the field of R&D&I. It may be developed and defended in the usual languages of scientific communication.

Presentation of the Doctoral Thesis

Upon completion, the doctoral candidate will present the thesis to the Academic Committee of the program in the established format.

This will be sent to the Doctoral School accompanied by:

1. authorization from the director for presentation and defense,
2. favorable report from the tutor,
3. conformity of the Academic Commission stating that it meets the requirements established by the program, and
4. request for the mention “International Doctorate”, if applicable.

The Doctoral School will certify by means of registration and stamp that the thesis complies with the requirements established in the REODULL for its deposit. The thesis will remain on public display for 15 school days. During this period, any doctor may present any objections, suggestions or proposals for improvement that he or she deems appropriate to the Doctoral School, stating his or her agreement or disagreement with the public defence.

The Doctoral School will guarantee the publicity of this period of public information. In exceptional circumstances, determined by the Academic Committee of the program, such as the participation of companies in the program, the existence of confidentiality agreements with other entities or the possibility of generating patents derived from the thesis data, the university will enable the procedure to protect these data from publicity.

Doctoral Thesis Tribunal

The thesis will be evaluated by a panel proposed by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral School program, made up of five doctors who are experts in the subject to which the thesis refers. The qualifications of the members of the evaluation panel will be supported by their curriculum vitae, which will state their specific merits in the area or in related areas.

The tribunal will be made up of three full members (president, secretary and member) and two substitutes. Two of the full members must be external to the ULL with a civil service or contractual relationship with other universities or research organisations. The directors and the tutor of the doctoral student may not form part of the tribunal.

The defense will be held within a period of no more than 3 months from its authorization. If it is not defended within this period, the process must be started again. The Doctoral School will give the defense the appropriate publicity. The defense will be public and will take place during the academic calendar term.

The defence will consist of the presentation by the PhD candidate of the justification of the work, the methodology used, the content and the conclusions, with special mention of the original contributions. The defence may be carried out in Spanish or in any of the official languages of the European Union, in which case it is guaranteed that the tribunal can assess it appropriately.

The members of the tribunal may express their opinion and ask any questions they consider appropriate, to which the doctoral candidate must respond.

The doctors present at the event may also ask questions to the doctoral student at the time and in the manner established by the president of the tribunal.

The jury will have the PhD student's activity document. This document will not give rise to a quantitative score, but will constitute a qualitative assessment tool complementary to the thesis itself.

The examining board will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis in accordance with the following scale: Fail, Pass, Notable and Outstanding, as established by Royal Decree 534/2013, which modifies the grading system established by Royal Decree 99/2011. The publication of Royal Decree 534/2013, dated 13 July, modifies the provisions of Royal Decree 99/2011 regarding the grading system and the mechanisms for awarding the Cum Laude mention for doctoral theses. Only three sections 6, 7 and 8 of article 27 of the current Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna do not comply with the provisions of Royal Decree 534/2013. Given the higher hierarchical rank in terms of regulations of the aforementioned Royal Decree, the grading system applied at the University of La Laguna for doctoral theses is the one indicated in Royal Decree 534/2013 since its entry into force, and already indicated previously.

Regarding the mechanism for granting the Cum Laude mention, it was established by the Rector's Resolution of December 19, while the modification of the indicated sections of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies by the Governing Council, in its session of January 2014, is taking place. The aforementioned Rector's Resolution can be consulted through the following link: link.

International Doctorate

The title of doctor may include on its front the mention "International Doctorate" when the following circumstances occur:

1. that during the period of doctoral training, the doctoral candidate has completed a stay of at least three months in a prestigious non-Spanish research centre or higher education institution, pursuing studies or carrying out research work endorsed by the thesis director and authorized by the Academic Committee of the program,
2. that part of the doctoral thesis, at least the summary and conclusions, has been written and presented in one of the usual languages of scientific communication, other than any of the official languages of Spain. This condition will not apply when the stays, reports and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country,
3. that the thesis has been reported by a minimum of two expert doctors belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research center, and
4. that at least one expert belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research centre, with a doctorate degree, and other than the person responsible for the stay mentioned in circumstance a), has been part of the thesis evaluation committee.

Thesis by compendium of publications

Doctoral students who, prior to submitting their thesis and with the authorization of their supervisor, have published or accepted for publication at least three articles on topics in line with their research line and plan in scientific journals that appear in the Journal Citations Report after their enrollment in the doctoral program, may opt to submit their thesis in the form of a compendium of publications. The submission of a thesis in this form must include a copy of the works, which must include the personal details of all the authors, the complete reference of the journal in which the works have been published or, where appropriate, the acceptance letter.

The presentation of the thesis at the Doctoral School will include:

1. Authorization from the thesis director for presentation in this format.
2. Document proving the impact index of the publications that make up the thesis.
3. If any of the work presented has been carried out in collaboration with researchers other than the thesis supervisors, a document must be submitted in which the supervisor declares that the essential part of the work included in the articles has been carried out by the author of the thesis, and another in which the other authors express their agreement that the corresponding articles be used for the presentation of the thesis under this modality.

Articles included in a thesis of this type may not be included as part of another thesis. Co-authors of the submitted works may not be proposed as members of the committee that will judge the thesis.

Joint guardianship actions

In order to facilitate scientific cooperation with research teams from other institutions and to facilitate the mobility of doctoral students, joint supervision actions with a university from another country may be developed within the framework of doctoral studies.

The joint guardianship procedure must meet the following requirements:

1. Admission to the doctoral programme and the deposit and defence of the doctoral thesis will follow the regulations governing doctoral studies at the corresponding university.
2. Candidates will carry out their work under the responsibility of a director at each of the interested universities.
3. Joint supervision will be carried out within the framework of a specific agreement between the two interested universities, which will establish which of them will issue the doctoral degree, with the other recognizing said degree.
4. The preparation time for the thesis will be shared between the two universities. The stay at either of them will never be less than nine months and may be done in one go or in several periods.
5. The publication, exploitation and protection of the results of the research carried out will be ensured by the two institutions in accordance with the specific procedures of each country.
6. The thesis will be defended only once at either university.
7. The committee before which the thesis must be defended will be designated by mutual agreement between both institutions in accordance with the regulations of the university where it is defended.
8. The thesis will be written in the official language of one of the two universities, or failing that in English, supplemented by a summary, which will include the conclusions, written in the other language.