PhD in Mathematics and Statistics (interuniversity)

Monitoring of the PhD student

a) Description of the procedure used to appoint a tutor and thesis director for the doctoral student.

The Academic Committee of the programme will be responsible for the assignment and coordination of the doctoral tutors and directors linked to the programme and will be responsible for the validation of the training and research itineraries proposed by them. It will also develop training initiatives for the team of tutors on the doctoral tutoring model itself, as well as on the development of the tutoring plans that materialise their activity.

The academic committee of the program, after listening to the doctoral student, may assign a new tutor provided there are justified reasons.

The tutor

The tutor will be a teaching or research staff member of any of the universities involved in the doctoral programme, assigned, with their prior consent, by the academic committee of the programme. The tutor must be a doctor with proven research experience.

The PhD Tutor will have the following responsibilities: to welcome the PhD student, design and propose an individualised training and research itinerary, ensure its follow-up, help him/her to find a thesis supervisor and guide him/her and provide him/her with support during the first academic year of the PhD programme, particularly during the first semester of the programme. For the PhD student, the PhD Tutor will be an academic point of reference, especially at the beginning of the programme, and will coordinate the interaction between the PhD student and the academic committee of the programme.

Once the Tutor has verified that the PhD student is completing the training itinerary established for him/her adequately, he/she will ensure that the professor or researcher who can carry out the duties of the PhD student's doctoral thesis supervisor is identified. In addition, with the support of the Academic Committee of the programme, the Tutor will facilitate the assignment of the PhD student to his/her future supervisor. The Tutor, initially assigned to the PhD student, may assume the duties of thesis supervisor when the subject of the thesis and the interests of the PhD student so require.

The thesis director

The academic committee of the programme will assign a thesis supervisor to each doctoral candidate within a maximum period of 6 months from the first enrolment. The academic committee of the programme will assess the candidate's previous experience in directing research plans and doctoral theses and the Director's availability to take on the supervision. The agreement of both the future thesis supervisor and the doctoral candidate will also be ensured. The supervision of a doctoral thesis will be conditional on the candidate successfully completing the additional training, if any, preparing the research plan and having it approved in the first academic year of the doctoral programme.

The thesis supervisor is the person ultimately responsible for the consistency and suitability of the PhD candidate's training in research and cross-disciplinary skills. As a basic requirement, the potential supervisor will be required to meet the corresponding requirements demanded by the regulations in force at the different universities, in the event that they are not included in the requirements to accredit research experience as indicated in the previous point.

The thesis director will work with the doctoral candidate to achieve, first, the presentation and approval of the doctoral research plan and, subsequently, the preparation and defence of the doctoral thesis, in accordance with the procedures and deadlines established in the applicable regulations. The thesis director will regularly monitor the doctoral candidate's research plan, guiding and directing him/her as he/she develops it. As he/she progresses in the development of the plan, he/she will ensure that the doctoral candidate takes the initiative and gains autonomy. The thesis director will ensure that the research plan has an original, formative and innovative character, and that it is feasible in the terms that have been proposed, as well as that it is consistent with the line of research to which it has been linked.

The thesis director will ultimately be the doctoral candidate's main academic advisor at the University, once he or she has completed the activities that have been incorporated into his or her personal training itinerary during the first semester of the doctoral programme. In the case of doctoral candidates who are beneficiaries of competitive predoctoral grants, the director will also be responsible for the activity that the grantee carries out within the institution. The thesis director will be responsible for supporting and guiding him or her regarding temporary stays at other higher education institutions or research centres, regarding his or her participation in research projects, regarding the publication and dissemination of the results obtained in his or her research and regarding the development of any other research initiative that is considered relevant to carry out.

Once the director has been assigned, the Doctoral Letter will be signed, a commitment document that establishes the rights and obligations of the doctorate. The Doctoral Letter, which will be signed by the doctoral student, the thesis director, the tutor and the coordinator of the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program, will contain the following content:

  • the doctoral programme with specification, in the case of a joint programme, of the universities participating in it;
  • the assigned tutor and director;
  • the status of full-time or part-time doctoral student;
  • the activities to be carried out to complete the research period and, where applicable, the training supplements to be taken;
  • the period of time available to the doctoral candidate to proceed with the reading of the thesis;
  • the conditions for authorization to read the thesis;
  • the means of challenging and resolving potential conflicts;
  • the intellectual property rights that may apply to you with respect to the work carried out during your training.

b) Procedure for controlling the registration of activities of each doctoral student and the certification of their data.

The doctoral candidate's training itinerary, research plan and doctoral thesis are recorded in the academic record of the Doctoral School responsible for the programme.

After the first registration of the PhD student, an individualised document of activities will be generated and maintained, the Document of Doctoral Student Activities (DAD), which will include all activities related to his/her academic life. In particular, it will include the research plan that the PhD student must prepare before the end of the first year. This plan, which may be improved throughout the PhD studies, must be endorsed by the tutor and the director, and must include the methodology that will be used, as well as the objectives that are desired to be achieved with the research. In addition to this, the DAD will include the training activities carried out, publications, stays at other centres, grants or scholarships, participation in conferences and seminars, etc. Likewise, it will include changes in tutor or director.

The DAD will be an electronic record, kept by the responsible Doctoral School corresponding to the coordinating University. Each participating University will keep a copy of the DAD of the doctoral students belonging to it. The doctoral student, the assigned tutor and director and the members of the Academic Committee will have access to the DAD. The DAD will be an instrument of continuous evaluation of the researcher in training and will include evidence of their training in research and in transversal competences. For this reason, it will be given to all members of the thesis committee.

c) Procedure for the annual evaluation of the Research Plan and the record of the doctoral student's activities.

The local academic committee will prepare a report that will be sent to the Academic Commission, assessing the Research Plan presented by the doctoral student and
will propose, in a reasoned manner, its approval or not, although the decision on this and other evaluations falls exclusively to the Academic Committee of the program.

The tutor and the director will regularly review the doctoral student's activity document and the Academic Committee of the programme will evaluate it annually, in accordance with the calendar established by the Doctoral School. These reports will be incorporated into the activity document.

To prepare these reports, the local academic committee of the programme will appoint a committee made up of three professors from the programme, before which each doctoral candidate will briefly present the activities carried out, the progress in the research and possible deviations from the research plan. This committee may include an international expert in cases where the subject matter of the research or its evolution makes it advisable.

The local academic committee will issue reports on the progress of doctoral research to provide relevant information to the Academic Committee of the program in the performance of its functions of monitoring and evaluating the activity carried out by the doctoral student.

Based on these reports and the evidence provided by the doctoral students in their activity document, the Academic Committee will determine whether the doctoral student should be enrolled in the following academic year.

When the PhD candidate has completed the preparation of the thesis, always in accordance with the deadlines established in the regulations for continuing with the PhD, the local academic committee will prepare a final report on this work and, if appropriate, will grant the candidate's reasoned request to deposit the thesis with the Academic Committee of the programme. In view of these reports and the document of activities, the Academic Committee may accept or reject the deposit of the thesis. In the event that there are no previous publications on the results of the thesis in JCR journals in one of the fields of mathematics, the Academic Committee may appoint two independent informants, experts in the field of the doctoral thesis, to provide an evaluation of the thesis that will be taken into account by the Academic Committee before authorising its reading.

d) Provision of stays for doctoral students in other national and international training centres, joint supervision and European mentions.

The director will facilitate the doctoral student's research stays in national and international centers, suggesting the most suitable ones and facilitating the
integration of the doctoral student into it.

The programme will promote internationalisation, both through joint supervision agreements and through collaboration with researchers from other countries and between professors from the different participating universities. It will also ensure that a high percentage of theses are defended in the international doctoral modality.