The PhD Program in Psychology presented here to be taught in accordance with RD 99/2011, integrates the different current and discontinuing PhD programs of the Faculty of Psychology into a single PhD program. This previous experience in teaching PhD programs with similar characteristics to the one presented here comes from the conversion of previous PhD programs with a Quality Mention and some of them received a favorable report from ANECA to obtain the Mention towards Excellence in their first call as we will describe below.
Previous history
The University of La Laguna has more than 30 years of experience in the organisation and delivery of Psychology courses. Throughout this period, Psychology courses have been in high demand, which continues to be the case today. During all this time, doctoral training has been provided in different formats or modalities (courses, programmes) and in accordance with the existing training structures: initially as part of the PhD of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, but with specific training in Psychology (as stated in parentheses in the title), later within the Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences, and finally, with the creation of the Faculty of Psychology, as a specific PhD in Psychology. Since the creation of the Faculty and the departments most closely linked to the Psychology degree (Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatments, Department of Cognitive, Social and Organisational Psychology, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology and Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Behavioural Sciences), PhD programmes in Psychology have been formalised and, with minor modifications, have been maintained until the appearance of the new regulations. If we focus on the last five years, 5 PhD programmes have been taught at the Faculty of Psychology, 3 of them in force according to decree 1393/2007, and another two in the process of being discontinued. These PhD programmes are integrated into the current proposal in the new PhD Programme in Psychology at the University of La Laguna. The quality of this PhD offer is another factor to take into account: three of the PhD programs included in it obtained a Quality Mention: Cognitive Neuroscience and Education, Family Intervention and Mediation, and Text and Speech Comprehension; and the first two passed the ANECA criteria for obtaining the Mention towards Excellence in their first call.
Research capacity of the Faculty of Psychology
As befits its history, the Faculty of Psychology of the ULL has a research potential that is supported by a series of objective indicators. One of them is the rankings that assess production by scientific fields and disciplines, such as the renowned I-GR ranking for Scientific Fields and Disciplines, which is based on publications with an ISI impact factor. In this ranking, in its latest edition (2012), the ULL appeared as the 5th university in the Spanish State in Psychology in the section of scientific disciplines (and among the first 5, it occupied the 2nd position in qualitative impact related to the citations received).
Potential demand for the PhD Program in Psychology
The potential demand for the PhD Programme in Psychology and its interest to society is supported by the same reasonable and sustained demand from postgraduate students for doctoral programmes with similar characteristics that have been taught at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of La Laguna. Thus, for example, the data on enrolment and theses read, according to the data provided by the Vice-Rectorate for Postgraduate Studies, New Studies and the European Higher Education Area, indicate that 114 students have enrolled and 54 theses have been read in the last five years.
Another factor to be noted, relevant to the potential demand for the new PhD Programme in Psychology, refers to the wide range of official master's degrees with several editions and which have a significant number of students.
To illustrate this point, the number of students enrolled in each of them in the 2012/13 academic year is indicated below. The strength of this master's offer indicates a reasonable and sustained demand from postgraduate students for the Doctoral Program, which, on the other hand, has the unavoidable function of meeting this demand with the necessary quality standards.
In short, the data presented above are a guarantee of the sustainability of the Doctoral Program in Psychology.
One potential to be noted regarding the master's degrees that are being taught is their ability to attract students from the Ibero-American sphere, whose presence is strengthened year after year. The number of theses read in the last five years (54) also represents support for the viability of the doctoral program, as well as the number of students enrolled in all the doctoral programs that are integrated into the new doctoral program in Psychology (114).
Potential researcher for the PhD program in Psychology
As regards the scientific productivity demonstrated in the programme itself, this is confirmed by the solvency of its staff of researchers/doctors in terms of six-year periods and publications. Many of these researchers occupy the top positions in the ranking of professors in Spain in scientific productivity in studies covering the period 2004-2009 and which we will list below. According to the results obtained by (*) Musi-Lechuga, Olivas-Ávila, Portillo-Reyes and Villalobos-Galvis (2005) in a study published in the journal Psicothema in which the scientific production of Spanish Psychology is analysed through the records of articles in journals included in the Web of Science database of the Full Professors (CU) and Professors (PTU) of the different academic areas of Psychology, some of these researchers are among the ten professors with the highest production of articles in journals registered in the Web of Science database in their respective areas of knowledge. According to the study carried out by (**) Salgado and Páez (2007) they are also among the ten researchers with the highest h* of the six areas of knowledge into which academic Psychology is divided in Spain.
More recently, according to the results obtained by (*) Olivas-Ávila and Musi-Lechuga (2010) in a study published in the journal Psicothema in which the scientific production of the most productive tenured Psychology professors in Spain in the Web of Science is analyzed, many of these professors are in the top positions in the ranking among the ten professors with the highest production of journal articles registered in the Web of Science database in their respective areas of knowledge.
It is also worth highlighting the significant publication output of the theses read, as indicated in section 6 on Human Resources. The capacity to attract research resources is demonstrated by the 14 competitive national projects that support the lines of research that make up the ULL's PhD programme in Psychology. Finally, in terms of the quality and solvency of the human resources and equipment provided, the programme is supported by the success of previous programmes, their continuity, and the fact that three of them have obtained a Mention of Quality, as already described.
Integration of the PhD program in Psychology at the ULL Doctoral School
It should be noted that the PhD program in Psychology would be integrated into the ULL Doctoral School. The ULL Doctoral School was approved by the Governing Council on September 26, 2013. While this is being put into full operation, action will be taken as indicated in the Resolution of January 17, 2013, which provides for the publication of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna.
This resolution has laid the foundations for the organisation of its doctoral programmes adapted to the new regulations. The aim is to maintain its doctoral indicators and establish a strategy that will allow it to enhance its research results, taking them beyond those currently existing.
The idea is that its new doctoral programs will act as drivers for the research developed in the institution, and will promote greater attention to its researchers in training, while regulating the processes of extinction of doctoral programs articulated in accordance with previous regulatory provisions.
Integration of the doctoral programme into the ULL's R&D&I strategy
The PhD programme in Psychology is part of the R&D&I strategy of the ULL, which includes the development of the Tricontinental Atlantic Campus (CEI-CANARIAS) (International Campus of Excellence), a space of excellence that should be, from 2015, an Atlantic reference in Europe as a receiving and catalytic hub for talent in teaching, research, innovation and transfer projects with Africa and Latin America, and under the common denominator of a comprehensive sustainability model for its development. The Campus is already becoming an indispensable element for the development towards the new economic, productive and social structure of the Canary Islands. One of the actions of the aforementioned Tricontinental Atlantic Campus is directly linked to the research lines of the PhD programme in Psychology. In this case, we are referring to action no. 8 (Wolfgang Köhler Atlantic Neuroscience Centre), which has as its main objectives the incorporation of lines of research and intervention that have an impact on the quality of life of people in the field of neuroscience (life cycle, neurodegenerative disorders, risk groups, etc.); the promotion of the transfer of results in the design of intervention strategies and development of cooperation; workshops in neuroscience for researchers from the African continent and Latin America, creation of a tri-continental programme for mobility and recruitment of talents; postgraduate teaching, etc. Likewise, results are expected in terms of the improvement of diagnostic and intervention systems in mental health and learning difficulties, design of intervention strategies to improve quality of life; promoting mobility and recruitment of talents among researchers at a tri-continental level, etc.
Improvements in competitiveness are based on a sustainable and global approach, which will strengthen key sectors, promote new sectors linked to the thematic areas of specialization of the Campus and help generate employment. This model will take advantage of the geostrategic position of the Canary Islands as a bridge from Europe to West Africa, Macaronesia and Latin America. For this reason, the Tricontinental Atlantic Campus will act as a university hub within the national project to strengthen the Canary Islands as a strategic tricontinental European bridge in the Atlantic.
The subprojects that define it cover all areas of excellence: teaching improvement, adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), scientific improvement, innovation and knowledge transfer, campus transformation and internationalisation. The PhD programme in Psychology falls within this area.
At CEI-CANARIAS, educational platforms of quality and excellence are developed within the framework of the International School of University Postgraduate Studies, while at the same time strengthening large infrastructures of excellence. In fact, a series of University Masters and Doctoral Programs have been taught at the Faculty of Psychology, many of them with a Quality Mention, and which are now intended to be integrated into a single Doctoral Program in Psychology, which has allowed it to attract excellent students and researchers of international prestige. The effort and progress of the ULL has been fundamental in recent years, as a catalyst for talent through its training activities, carrying out nearly 80% of the research carried out in the Canary Islands, transferring the knowledge generated to society and the productive fabric and acquiring true commitments for a productive model based on knowledge.
The ULL actively participates in the Tenerife SA Science and Technology Park, with the Canary Islands Biomedical Research Centre (CIBICAN) being one example. The choice of the materials-sustainability axis as a preferred one in the R&D&I activities to be developed in the future Scientific and Technological Pole, PCT La Laguna, associated with the PCCT, has as fundamental arguments, on the one hand, the research resources currently available by the University of La Laguna and, on the other, the strategic demand for research results in the aforementioned areas both at public and private level.
Program content
The PhD program in Psychology at ULL aims to train doctors in different areas of psychology. Through the doctoral program, students will be able to obtain theoretical, technical and practical knowledge necessary for advanced research in four main areas: Clinical and Health Psychology, Cognitive and Emotional Neuroscience, Language, Educational Psychology and Methodology, and Family, Social and Community Intervention and Mediation.