Thesis supervision

The ULL develops actions to promote the supervision and co-supervision of theses, and the academic coordination of doctoral programs. One of them establishes the recognition of the work of supervision and coordination 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" which are detailed in section 6.2 of the report.

Apart from the mechanisms for recognition/computation of the work of tutoring/direction referred to above, the University of La Laguna has contemplated systems to encourage the incorporation of new researchers or professors with research results that do not allow them to act as thesis directors, since they have not been validated by recognition of evaluations of research merits. In this sense, the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies in its article 10, section 4 establishes that: «Without prejudice to the provisions of the previous section, the functions of co-director may be assumed by 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. 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.»

The aim is for these researchers/professors to acquire the appropriate level to be able to join the programme as directors when they meet the conditions established by the ULL in its Regulations for being able to do so.

Also, in the latest amendment of the Regulations for the Hiring of Assistant Professors, Collaborating Professors, Contracted Professors, Associate Professors and Assistants of the University of La Laguna The corresponding scales, within the research activity block, include having directed doctoral theses as an assessment criterion.

The requirements established by the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at La Laguna in order to act as a doctoral thesis director are established in article 10:

• Thesis supervisors must be PhDs and have at least one section of research merits recognised in accordance with RD 1086/1989. In the event that they do not have access to the assessment of these sections (associate professors, assistant professors and contracted researchers) they must have equivalent merits (accreditation of 5 relevant contributions according to CNEAI criteria). Alternatively, professors with three research merits recognised in accordance with the provisions of Decree 140/2002, of 7 October (BOC nº139, of 18 October) and having directed one thesis or co-directed two may also be doctoral thesis supervisors. In any case, both tutors and supervisors must be part of one of the lines that make up this programme.

The supervision of a doctoral thesis may be shared by two researchers. The inclusion of a co-director must be authorized by the Academic Committee of the program and will be subject to academic reasons such as interdisciplinarity in the research topic or joint supervision with researchers from other national or international centers. Without prejudice to the above, a new researcher with a minimum of research experience who does not meet the requirements to be a director may act as co-director. In any case, he or she must have a contractual relationship with the ULL or center that collaborates in the development of the program.

A professor may not supervise or co-supervise more than four doctoral theses simultaneously. This limit may be raised if the supervised theses give rise to more than two publications in journals included in the first two quartiles of the impact index of the specialty according to the "Journal Citation Reports", or in the case that one of the supervised theses is in the form of co-supervision with researchers from other national or international centers. On the other hand, if one of the supervised theses is defended in a period of more than four years, or has not given rise to publications within a period of one year after its defense, the limit will be reduced.

One of the short- and medium-term priority objectives of this programme is to encourage interaction between our PhD students and researchers from leading centres. In section 1.4 we list the agreed and non-agreed actions that we currently maintain with centres and researchers in different areas. These collaborations have given rise to several doctoral theses with European and international mention in recent years and we expect them to increase in the future. The regulations for the doctoral degree with international mention (Art. 15 of RD 99/2011 and Art. 28 of REODULL) require the participation of international experts in monitoring, preparing reports and evaluation panels.

• The REODULL (art. 20) recognises the following rights and duties of doctoral students: common rights and duties of university students and specific rights and duties of doctoral students established in the University Student Statute approved by RD 1791/2010, of December 30; rights and duties that, in their capacity as ULL students, are recognised and result from the ULL statutes insofar as they are applicable to third-cycle students. In particular, they are subject to the following duties: to complete the training activities established in the doctoral programme, to present the work carried out to the director in the format and time frame that has been previously agreed upon, to consult with the director before carrying out any additional activity to their training, to comply with safety regulations at work, to include the ULL in all communications and publications in which the results of the research carried out are disseminated, and to comply with the ethical standards established at the university. The Commitment Document will include the unconditional acceptance by the doctoral student and director of the respective rights and duties provided for in the REODULL, and will consider the aspects relating to intellectual property rights and the conflict resolution procedure, in accordance with the provisions of its article 22.
• In the context of the Doctoral School that is being launched at the ULL, a guide of good practices for the supervision of doctoral theses is being drawn up. Until its final edition, this doctoral programme adheres to the "European Charter for Research and Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Research", assuming the principles of intellectual freedom, ethical praxis, professional responsibility, transparent and effective financial management of funds, joint responsibility of institutions in the appropriate dissemination of results and the effort in continuous training and the role of established researchers in the dynamisation of younger researchers. Furthermore, the responsibility is assumed to ensure that research projects comply with the methodological, ethical and legal requirements applicable to animal research, the use of genetically modified agents or organisms and research on humans, in accordance with Law 14/2007, of July 3, and RD 1716/2011, of November 18, regarding biomedical research and the treatment of biological samples of human origin.
• Likewise, the ULL will guarantee the principles and rights regarding pluralism, ideological and religious freedom, non-discrimination based on ethnicity, nationality or sex, and equal opportunities with special attention to disabled people (section 3.2.6 of this report), as well as confidentiality in the custody and processing of personal data of doctoral students in its possession.