PhDs

UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL PROGRAMS OFFERED ACADEMIC YEAR 2026-2027

PhD thesis

The doctoral thesis will consist of an original research work prepared by the candidate in any field of knowledge. The thesis must qualify the doctoral candidate for the self-employment in the field of R&D&I.

The thesis may be developed and, where applicable, defended in the languages commonly used for scientific communication in its field of knowledge. The defense will be a public academic ceremony in which a expert panel will evaluate and grade the doctoral candidate's work.

In order to be defended, the text will have to meet the minimum requirements established in the Royal Decree 99/2011, of January 28, which regulates official doctoral studies, he Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the ULL and the specific instructions of the academic committee of the doctoral program in question. 

The committee evaluating the doctoral thesis will be composed according to the requirements established by the university. All members of the committee must hold a doctoral degree and have proven research experience. In all cases, the committee will be composed of a majority of members from outside the university and from collaborating institutions in the School or program. The following must be taken into account when appointing the committee:

  1. It must be made up of three regular members (president, secretary and member) and two alternates. Of the regular members, one must, as a general rule, belong to the University of La Laguna and the other two must be people external to the University of La Laguna and the doctoral program. Workers from collaborating entities of the University of La Laguna will be considered external personnel, provided they do not have a contractual relationship with the university, nor are part of the doctoral program.
  2. All members of the committee must hold a doctorate degree and have proven research experience, meeting the same requirements as those for being a thesis director.
  3. The principle of balanced composition between women and men must be guaranteed, as indicated by Organic Law 3/2007, of March 22, for the effective equality of women and men.
  4. In no case may the person who supervised the thesis or the person who supervised the doctoral student be members of the committee, except in those theses co-supervised with foreign universities where this is established in the corresponding agreement. Nor may they be co-authors of previous works, nor relatives of the doctoral student up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity.
  5. The presidency of the tribunal will be held by the member with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.
  6. The composition of the committee must take into account the particularities established in the case of opting for the international mention, as indicated in articles 29 and 30 of the ULL Doctoral Regulations.

Note: Doctors from outside the ULL who are going to be part of the thesis committee must request credentials to access the Electronic Office by clicking here.

Instruction from the General Secretariat of the University of La Laguna on the declaration of school days for the purposes of the deadline for the submission of doctoral theses for public exhibition.

Other matters:

Resolution of the Management modifying the maximum amounts of expenses for the celebration of doctoral theses.

Thesis Court

International PhD Mention

The title of Doctor may include on its front the mention "international doctorate", provided that the following circumstances apply:

  1. That, during the training period necessary to obtain the doctoral degree, the doctoral candidate has completed one or more rooms (always at least one month) whose combined duration is at least, three months outside of Spain in a prestigious higher education institution or research center, studying or carrying out research work. 
    • The stay and activities must be endorsed by management of the thesis and authorized by the academic committee, and will be incorporated into the doctoral student's activity document.
    • For more information on international mobility, please see this link
  2. That part of the doctoral thesis, at least the summary and conclusions, have been drafted and presented in one of the languages commonly used for scientific communication in their field of knowledge, different from any of the official or co-official languages of Spain.
    • This rule will not apply when the stays, reports and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country.
  3. That the thesis was informed for a minimum of two expert doctors belonging to a non-Spanish Higher Education institution or research institute.
  4. That at least one person expert belonging to a higher education institution or research center not Spanish, with the title of doctor or doctoral, and different from the person responsible for the international stay claimed for this mention, has been part of the evaluation panel of the thesis.

Requirements 1 and 3 must be completed before submitting the thesis. These procedures are carried out through the electronic office: Prior procedures to request the international mention in the title of Doctor

For more information, please consult the following help document: Instructions for international mention.

Thesis modality by compendium of publications

Doctoral candidates who, prior to the presentation of their thesis and with the express authorization of their supervisor, have published or accepted for publication (with DOI) after the date of their enrollment in the doctoral program, may opt to present their thesis in the form of a compilation of publications., a minimum of three articles with a thematic unity that fall within the framework established in their research plan.

  1. Articles must be published or accepted in the list of journals of the Journal Citations Reports or be indexed in reputable databases such as Scopus, Latindex or similar. Only articles published in journals of this category that belong to one of the areas of knowledge of the research line of the doctoral program in which the thesis is included will be accepted.
  2. In the areas of Arts and Humanities and of Social Sciences and Law Contributions may be books or book chapters, provided they have a seal of quality in academic publishing or are included in Scholarly Publishers Indicators in Humanities and Social Sciences.
  3. Following the evaluation recommendations in the latest CNEAI call, the academic committee may not accept as valid To fulfill this requirement, a contribution of low quality, meaning those that have been published in national journals, publishing houses and congresses or in journals with predatory or similar practices.
  4. The three publications must be linked to the doctoral candidate's research plan, and therefore, this must be the first author.

The presentation of a thesis under this modality must adhere to the following indications:

  1.  It must include a general introduction in which the work is presented and justified thematic unit, as well as a global summary of the research objectives, the methodology applied, the results obtained, the discussion of these results and the final conclusions.
  2.  Between the introduction and the summary mentioned above, or as appendices, you should include a complete copy of the works where the personal data of all authors must be included, as well as the complete reference of the journal in which the works have been published or, where applicable, the letter of acceptance.
  3.  The articles used for this modality must include necessarily the parentage of the doctoral student with the University of La Laguna.
  4. At the moment that Start the deposit The thesis will include: (i) authorization from the thesis director for its presentation in this format; (ii) a document accrediting the impact index of the publications that comprise the thesis.
    Likewise, in the case of a joint publication with 4 or fewer authors, the following must be stated: authorization for its use in the doctoral thesis by all of them. In the case of a joint publication with more than 4, authorization for its use in the doctoral thesis must be included from at least the first three and the corresponding author.
  5. Articles that form part of a thesis of this type may not be included as part of any other thesis.

Authorization of co-authors

Application

Industrial doctorate mention

The mention “industrial doctorate” will be granted provided that the following requirements are met: 

  1. That the thesis has developed a research project of industrial interest, Commercial, social, or cultural collaborations with a company or entity in the private or public sector (excluding universities) are permitted. Generally, collaborations with public research organizations or university hospitals are also excluded, unless the thesis content is primarily applied.
  2. That the relationship between the doctoral thesis and the work carried out by the doctoral candidate has been formalized in a scientific-technical report, previously approved by the University of La Laguna. 
  3. That a agreement between the collaborating entity and the University of La Laguna for the academic development of the doctoral thesis, which establishes, at a minimum, the obligations of the parties and the industrial property rights that may be generated.
  4. That the doctoral candidate has been hired by the collaborating entity at least one year During the development of the thesis, a substantial part of the research must have been carried out during that time. Contracts made within the framework of a research project or signed with intermediary entities will not be considered. The doctoral student must be directly employed by the collaborating entity.

Agreement with Company
Agreement with Company with the data of the doctoral student

By resolution of the rector of the ULL, dated December 19, 2013, on the granting of the cum laude mention In doctoral theses, the EDEP will make public the list of defended theses that deserve this mention.

Thesis with cum laude mention

International joint guardianship regime

The requirements for international joint supervision at the University of La Laguna are established in the Regulations for the completion of doctoral theses under international joint supervision.

A thesis under international joint supervision is understood to be the completion of a doctoral thesis. led by research staff from two or more universities, a Spanish and the others foreigners. The thesis may be submitted for defense at one of the universities or higher institutions, obtaining after overcoming it, the doctoral degree from all universities.

  1. To complete a joint supervision thesis, the prior signature of a agreement between the ULL and foreign universities. 
  2. The doctoral candidate must divide the time spent on the thesis among the different entities and spend, at least, 6 months in each of them. You can have one stay or several (with a minimum of one month for each). 
  3. The doctoral candidate must follow the procedure of pre-registration and enrollment established in general for all doctoral students at the ULL. Likewise, it must enroll in all courses academics. 
  4. The agreement will establish what is relevant regarding the payment of registration fees. 
  5. The defense and the composition of the court shall be governed by the regulations and the provisions of the agreement. 
  6. To process a joint supervision agreement, you must first contact the academic committee in which you are interested and then the Doctoral Sub-Directorate (sdirdoct@ull.edu.es).

To request joint guardianship, you must submit the corresponding documentation indicated in the following links:

Theses with intellectual or industrial property protection processes

Among the duties of doctoral students at the ULL is to consult with the EDEP on any matter that may arise. to have an impact on intellectual or industrial property rights, without prejudice to any specific obligations in this regard that may arise in cases such as industrial designation.

When it is considered that the thesis work contains results that may be protected through any of the industrial property rights, the doctoral candidate must communicate this situation to the Knowledge Transfer Office (OTC), copying the Doctoral Sub-Directorate (sdirdoct@ull.edu.es), before initiating the deposit procedure.

The OTC will determine whether the work is eligible for protection via industrial property and, in the event that the novelty requirement is at risk with its presentation, its defense and reading will be proposed by applying the procedures established by the ULL for the presentation of works for protection of results. This decision will be communicated to the EDEP at the time of the start of the deposit.

Theseus

The Doctoral Office will, in due course, send the doctoral candidate the form to complete the TESEO data from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

  • Archive and consultation of doctoral theses at the national level: THESEUS

Bases for Doctoral Thesis

ULL Digital Library: Theses read since January 1987 can be consulted.

Theseus and the bases of doctoral theses

Theses in deposit and theses authorized for defense

Thesis deposit

After completing the thesis, and with the approval of his/her supervisors, the doctoral student will submit it electronically to the EDEP so that it can be processed in accordance with the requirements of Articles 24 and 26 of the ULL Doctoral Regulations. 

The thesis document must follow the mandatory EDEP template, which can be downloaded here:

  • Instructions on the first pages of the doctoral thesis
  • Cover template in case you only need an institutional logo
  • Cover template in case two institutional logos are needed

In order for the process to be completed, the doctoral candidate must be registered in the corresponding academic year and must begin the procedure within the period of stay.

The deposit procedure consists of two procedures at headquarters: one for the management of the required reports from external evaluators and another for the proposal of the tribunal and the processing of the public exhibition.

The most important issues are detailed below, but you can also consult the following information document:

Doctoral thesis deposit guide 

External evaluators

All doctoral theses must be evaluated by two experts in the field To authorize their defense, candidates will be nominated through the established procedure and, if applicable, authorized by the academic committee. Please note the special requirements for international distinctions. 

The thesis document that is sent must be the definitive, since it can only be modified if requested by the evaluators. 

The deadlines and procedures for the evaluators will follow the instructions detailed here: Instruction from the EDEP Secretariat establishing the procedure and deadlines for external evaluations.

To make things easier for both doctoral students and evaluators, you can find helpful documents here: 

Tutorial for doctoral students

Tutorial for external evaluators

Presentation of requirements

Once the external evaluator procedure has been approved by the academic committee and prior to the defense of the doctoral thesis, the doctoral candidate must continue in the second procedure at headquarters. 

In it, you must justify that you comply with the defense requirements:

  1. The acceptance or publication of at least onea scientific contribution derived from the thesis with the following clarifications:
    • The doctoral candidate must appear as first or second author; corresponding author; or last author, in those areas where this position is relevant.
    • In duly justified cases, such as in areas where the review processes in certain high-quality journals are very lengthy, a work that is in the process of being resubmitted and reviewed may be accepted. The academic committee will be responsible for evaluating this justification.
    • Following the evaluation recommendations in the last CNEAI call, the academic committee may not accept as valid for compliance with this requirement a contribution of low quality such as, for example, those that have been published in national journals, publishers and congresses or in journals with predatory or similar practices.
  2. The presentation and defense in public, at least on two occasions, part of his research work (communication, presentation).  
    • One of these presentations can be given at a departmental seminar, or one organized by the doctoral program or the EDEP. However, at least one of these presentations must be given at a conference, seminar, or congress of [unspecified institution]. national or international prestige.
    • You should also consult your academic committee to find out about any specific requirements for your doctoral program.

Thesis Court

The thesis will be evaluated by three expert doctors, of which at least two must be external to the ULL and the doctoral program. Gender balance must be respected. In addition, please take into account the specific requirements for the international award.

Five expert people must be proposed (three main members and two substitutes) who will be approved or not by the academic committee.

Defense of the thesis

Once the academic committee has given its approval on all aspects, the EDEP will issue a resolution registering the thesis and beginning the period of 10 business days of public display. In the next link All the theses from the ULL can be viewed on display

Note: Information regarding the consideration of certain days as school days for these purposes

If there have been no setbacks, the thesis It can be defended in a public academic ceremony. between 7 calendar days and three months after the communication. 

The doctoral candidate will receive information about the administrative procedures for preparing the defense. They can consult the help guide. Instructions for the administrative preparation of the thesis defense

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address : Avda. Astrophysicist Francisco Sanchez, SN. Calabaza Building 38200 San Cristobal de La Laguna.

Phone: (+34) 922 31 72 69

Mail: doctorado@ull.es

On-line:  Web page /  Appointment required /  Procedure for complaints, suggestions and compliments