Monitoring of the PhD student

Following the guidelines set out in article 11 of the Royal Decree on Doctorates RD99/2011, and as set out in article 23 of the Regulations on Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna, the supervision of theses and the monitoring of each doctoral student will be implemented taking into account the following considerations.

Supervision of the PhD student

• Each PhD student admitted to the programme will pay an annual fee for academic tutoring.
• Each doctoral candidate will be assigned a tutor by the Academic Committee of the programme. The tutor will ensure the interaction of the doctoral candidate with the Academic Committee of the programme. The tutor's assignment may be modified by the Committee at any time during the doctoral programme, after having heard the doctoral candidate, if there are justified reasons.
• Once the doctoral student has enrolled, the tutor and the director will establish his or her personalized activity document for the purposes of the individualized control record referred to in article 2.5 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna. All activities of interest for the development of the doctoral student will be recorded in it, as regulated by the university, the Doctoral School, the body responsible for the doctoral program or the Academic Committee itself, and it will be regularly reviewed by the tutor and the thesis director and evaluated by the academic committee responsible for the doctoral program referred to in article 14 of said Regulations.
• Before the end of the first year, the PhD student will prepare a Research Plan that will include, at least, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them. This Plan may be improved and detailed throughout the student's stay in the programme and must be endorsed by the tutor and the director.
• Annually, the Academic Committee of the program will evaluate (*) the development of the Research Plan and the Document of Activities developed by the doctoral student together with the reports that, for this purpose, must be issued by the tutor and the director.
• A positive evaluation (*) will be an essential requirement to continue in the programme. In the case of a negative evaluation, the Academic Committee will issue a report justifying it, in which the appropriate corrective measures will be proposed for the next evaluation. In the case of a negative evaluation, the doctoral candidate must be evaluated again within six months, for which purpose a new Research Plan will be drawn up. In the event of a new negative evaluation, the doctoral candidate will be permanently withdrawn from the programme.

(*) The programme provides for the participation of international experts in the monitoring committees which, on an annual basis, must issue the corresponding reports at the request of the Academic Committee of the programme to assess the progress of the Research Plan and the activities carried out by the doctoral students of the programme, their in-person participation in such sessions being subject to the availability and budgetary guidelines of the University of La Laguna. With regard to the participation of international experts in the thesis committees, it should be noted that art. 25 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the ULL establishes that, of the three expert members who make up the committee that will assess the doctoral thesis, two will be external to the University of La Laguna. Therefore, to the extent that the budgetary guidelines of the University of La Laguna allow it, the Coordination of the doctoral program will also promote the participation of international experts in the thesis committees (especially when national experts cannot be counted on) to promote the International Mentions in the doctoral degree contemplated in art. 28 of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna.

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 commitment must be signed as soon as possible after admission and registration and, in any case, within a maximum period of three months from the assignment of a tutor and director.
• The commitment document must include the unconditional acceptance by the doctoral candidate and the director of the respective rights and duties provided for in these regulations. It will also include a conflict resolution procedure, in accordance with the provisions of the following article, and will consider the aspects relating to intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise within the scope of the doctoral programme.
• The commitment document, once signed by the parties involved, will be filed in the student's file.
• The commitment document must conform to the model established for this purpose by the ULL, which will be available on the site where the forms corresponding to the doctorate are collected.

Conflict resolution procedure

• In the event of any non-compliance with any of the points included in the commitment document or the occurrence of any other disagreement related to the development of the doctoral program with respect to each doctoral student, either party may bring this to the attention of the coordinator of the doctoral program, who will act as mediator with a view to reaching a unanimous agreement that puts an end to the controversy.
• If mediation has not resolved the conflict two months after the doctoral program coordinator was informed, the matter will be forwarded to the Graduate Studies Committee, which must issue a resolution within three months, after hearing the parties and the doctoral program coordinator.
• An appeal may be lodged against the decision of the Postgraduate Studies Committee before the rector, under the terms provided for in Law 30/1992, of November 26, on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure.

Mechanisms for promoting the direction or co-direction of theses other than the recognition of the work of directing doctoral theses

Apart from the mechanisms for recognising thesis supervision work, 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 supervisors, since they have not been validated by recognition of research merit assessments. In this regard, the Official Doctoral Studies Regulations itself, in its 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 supervisor 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 organisation that collaborates in the development of the programme. 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 Regulation In the case of the Hiring of Assistant Professors, Collaborating Professors, Contract Professors, Associate Professors and Assistants of the University of La Laguna, the corresponding scales, within the block of research activity, include as an assessment criterion having directed doctoral theses.