Monitoring of the PhD student

Composition of the Academic Commission

The organization, design and coordination of the research strategies and the training and research activities of the doctoral program will be the responsibility of the Academic Committee of the Doctorate ATLANTIC ISLANDS: History, Heritage and Legal and Institutional Framework. In accordance with Royal Decree 99/2011, the Academic Committee will be made up of 10 members in accordance with article 11 of the Royal Decree, distributed as follows:

• The coordinator of the doctoral program.
• Seven PhD researchers representing the research lines of the doctoral programme who must adequately represent the diversity of approaches of each of the research lines and of each of the participating universities.
• Two external PhD researchers of recognized prestige.

The coordinator of the doctoral program will be chosen from among the members of the ULPGC who are part of the Academic Commission.

The renewal of the Academic Commission will be carried out under the following terms:

The Academic Committee will review the allocation of representatives by line of research and the representation of external institutions every three years.

The Academic Commission will renew half of the representatives per line of research every three years.

Procedure used for the assignment of a tutor and thesis direction

For the preparation of the doctoral thesis, the academic committee responsible for the Doctoral Program will assign the doctoral student a tutor upon formalizing enrollment in the Doctoral Program (Tutor, Director and Thesis Topic Assignment Form).

• Likewise, the academic committee responsible for the Doctoral Program will assign the doctoral candidate a Thesis Director, within a period of no more than six months from the formalization of enrollment. In agreement with the latter and the doctoral candidate, the latter will be assigned a line of research in which the Doctoral Thesis will be developed (Form Assignment of Tutor, Director and Thesis Topic).
• With prior authorization from the Academic Committee, the thesis may be co-supervised by another doctor, exclusively for reasons of an academic nature (thematic interdisciplinarity, programs developed in national or international collaboration, the incorporation of new researchers to the supervision of doctoral theses or other duly justified circumstances).
• The assignment of tutor, director and thesis topic will be carried out, in any case, at least one year in advance of the submission of the thesis for deposit. This assignment will be necessary for the registration of the doctoral student in the academic supervision in the thesis phase (Form Assignment of Tutor, Director and Thesis Topic).
• Substantial changes to these elements (Tutor, Director and line of research) will require approval by the academic committee responsible for the Doctoral Programme and the Vice-Rectorate with responsibilities for Doctoral studies, the body to which the corresponding applications will be submitted. The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme expects to resolve requests for change within a maximum period of two months.
• The academic assignment assigned by the doctoral thesis supervision and by the direction and co-direction of doctoral theses will be that established by the ULPGC Academic Planning regulations.
• The PhD student's tutor is the researcher responsible for ensuring the PhD student's interaction with the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program.

The tutor will also be responsible for ensuring that the training and research activities of the doctoral candidate are in line with the principles of the Doctoral Programme. The tutor will be appointed by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme from among the professors of the Doctoral Programme.

• The director of the doctoral thesis is the researcher who directs the doctoral student during the preparation of the doctoral thesis and may or may not be a professor of the Doctoral Program. In the case of not being a professor of the doctoral program, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program must accept the direction by a simple majority of its members.
• The supervisors of doctoral theses must be doctors with proven research experience. It will be understood that the supervisors meet this requirement when they have obtained at least one six-year research period from the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity. In the case of personnel not evaluable by this system, they must prove equivalent merits that will be evaluated by the Doctoral Commission using the criteria of the ANEP.
• The director may or may not coincide with the assigned tutor. If they coincide, he or she must be a professor from the Doctoral Program.

Procedure used for activity record control

The functions of supervision, mentoring and monitoring of doctoral students will be reflected in a Supervision Agreement. This agreement will be signed by the director of the postgraduate center, the coordinator of the doctoral program, the tutor and the doctoral student, within a maximum period of one month from the date of registration, incorporating the signature of the thesis director at the time of his appointment.

This Supervision Commitment will be incorporated into the PhD student's Activity Document at the time of its signature by all those involved. The Supervision Commitment will specify the conditions for carrying out the thesis, the rights and duties of the PhD student, including any intellectual and/or industrial property rights derived from the research, as well as the acceptance of the conflict resolution procedure. The duties of the PhD student's tutor and thesis director will also be included.

Once enrolled in the program, each doctoral student will receive a personalized Activity Document for individual registration purposes.

All activities of interest for the development of the doctoral student will be recorded in it, as established by the Doctoral School, and it will be evaluated annually by the CAPD. This document must conform to the format and electronic system established, and there must be documentary evidence that accredits the activities carried out by the doctoral student. The doctoral student will record in his/her Activity Document the activities carried out in the context of the program. His/her records will be evaluated and validated by the tutor and/or director.

The doctoral student, his/her tutor, his/her thesis director, as well as those who participate in the evaluation or management of the file, will have access to the Activities Document for the functions that correspond in each case.

Annual evaluation procedure

Within six months from the date of registration, the PhD candidate will prepare a Research Plan that will include the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them. The plan must be presented and endorsed by the director and tutor's report, and must be approved by the CAPD. This plan may be improved and detailed in the annual evaluation process with the endorsement of the tutor and the director.

The CAPD will evaluate the research plan and the activity document every six months. To do so, it will have the results reports from the research seminars and those issued for this purpose 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, which will be duly justified, the doctoral student must be evaluated again within six months; for this purpose, a new Research Plan will be drawn up. In the event of a new negative evaluation, the doctoral student will be permanently removed from the Programme. The CAPD will meet with all doctoral students at least every six months throughout the programme to monitor the progress of the work carried out up to that point in the research seminars.

Forecast of stays in other centers

Given the international nature of this PhD (Universities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, University of La Laguna, University of the Azores and University of Madeira) the international projection of the PhD students is assured through the completion of these research seminars. However, taking into account that the objective of the programme is the completion of co-directed and/or comparative theses on subjects related to the Atlantic Islands, our PhD students (both full-time and part-time) will have to, first of all, carry out at least one research stay in one of the respective Universities, using the material means and human resources that these Universities make available to them. The research stay will have a minimum duration of one month. In this sense, there is the framework agreement of the Unamuno Network that should facilitate the mobility of professors and students between the Universities involved in the programme.

Theses eligible for the European mention must meet the criteria established by current regulations in their specific calls.

As regards stays in other research centres, one of the aims of this doctoral programme is to encourage the completion of doctoral theses with international recognition, by offering and promoting stays for doctoral students in the universities and research centres that make up the network of collaborating entities of this programme (with a presence in countries such as France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Cape Verde, Mexico, Chile, the United States, etc.). In this sense, the constant exchange with the Universities of the Azores and Madeira ensures the realisation of these stays. Part-time students will be able to enjoy the same mobility opportunities as full-time students based on their respective characteristics. As regards the rates achieved, given the novelty of the interdisciplinary and international collaboration that the doctoral programme entails, for now it is not possible to have reliable data on this matter.