Monitoring of PhD students

Procedures that PhD students should be aware of and deal with in order to present and defend the research plan, carry out academic monitoring of their thesis and process applications.

Supervisor Allocation

The Academic Commission of the PhD Program (La Comisión Académica del Programa de Doctorado) (CAPD) will appoint a tutor for the monitoring of the work as a researcher of the PhD student at the time of accepting the admission.

The tutor must be a university professor bound by the Doctoral Programme and with a permanent bound to some of the participating institutions of the Doctoral Programme, who will have to look out for the interaction of the PhD student and the thesis supervisor as well as the Academic Commission (Comisión Académica).

Thesis Supervisor Allocation

In the maximum period of three months from the formalisation of the enrolment, the Academic Commission will appoint to each PhD student a doctoral thesis supervisor or supervisors.

Such appointment could devolve upon any Spanish or foreign professor, with accredited research experience (art. 26 of the Doctoral Studies Regulations for the USC) regardless of the university, center or institution in which his services are present. The thesis supervisor can be the same person appointed as the tutor.

So that the supervisor appointed by the Academic Commission can be registered in the application, it will be necessary to have been previously listed on the database "Register of Directors" at the USC. In the case of not being in the mentioned database, the coordinator of the Doctoral Programme can request their inclusion sending to edius [at] usc.es (edius[at]usc[dot]es) the corresponding models found in the CAPD drop-down on the Guides and forms website.

Change of Tutor or Supervisor

Along the doctoral research work, the Academic Commission of the Doctoral Programme ( Comisión Académica del Programa de Doctorado) can, with a justified reason,modify the appointed tutor and supervisor or supervisors of the thesis, with or without a request from the person concerned.

The PhD student can request from the Academic Commission of their programme, the change of tutor or supervisor/supervisors via their Virtual Secretary, presenting a reasonable proposal before such commission.

Thesis co-supervision

A thesis may have more than one supervisor when there are academic or interdisciplinary reasons, or in the case of programs developed in collaboration with other institutions/universities.

The maximum number of supervisors will be three. And for the appointment of a third supervisor it is neccessary:

  • The CAPD proposal
     
  • The authorization of the EDIUS
     
  • One of them must be the tutor
     
  • The assignment is motivated by the interdisciplinary nature of the thesis or because it is carried out within the framework of an agreement and/or a competitive call project developed with another national or foreign center or institution.

Authorization from the EDIUS is required for the assignment of a second director after 24 months from the enrollment of a doctoral student. This will not be possible if the doctoral student is in an extension period, except in exceptional circumstances.

To request authorization from the EDIUS, you must send to edius [at] usc.es (edius[at]usc[dot]es) the corresponding models found in the CAPD drop-down on the Guides and forms website.

The student can request the CAPD to assign hiem/her a new supervisor. This procedure is not available through the Virtual Secretary.

The authorized profile is the person, who acts as tutor or supervisor of a PhD student, in charge of transferring all the evaluation or management reports to the University's computer platform

This authorized profile is designated by the CAPD and must be linked to the USC for, at least, the full duration of the thesis.

The Documentary Supervision Agreement (CDS) is the document that includes the functions of supervision, tutoring and monitoring of doctoral students. It specifies the conditions for carrying out the thesis, the rights and duties of the doctoral student, including possible intellectual and/or industrial copyrights arising from the research, acceptance of the dispute resolution procedure, as well as the duties of the tutor and thesis supervisor (positions that may be occupied by the same person).

Doctoral students starting their studies from the academic year 2021-2022 do not have to include it in the Activity Document.

Acceptance of the Documentary Supervision Agreement

Acceptance by:

  1. The PhD student after registering (in the virtual secretary).
     
  2. The tutor (in the virtual secretary) after the registration and acceptance of the CDS by the PhD student.
     
  3. The thesis supervisor at the time of the assignment by the CAPD. (Non-USC teachers will receive an email to accept the CDS)
     
  4. To the coordinator, without notification, it will appear in the SV as pending issues once the CDS is accepted by the student and the tutor.

During the thesis stage, the PhD student must register all significant activities completed during such stage.

The mentioned activities will be registered via Student Virtual Secretary (in the section “PhD student file RD99/2011”) and will be regarded and validated by the tutor or supervisor (authorized profile) and annually by the Academic Commission of the Program (CAPD)

Even so, the PhD students must keep the original documents which will accredit the activities completed.

Given that, in order to deposit the thesis the Academic Commission of the Doctoral Programme (CAPD) demands, among other requirements, that all the programmed activities must be completed. It is recommended that you make sure that the activities are duly registered and marked as completed in the activities document.

This document must contain the methodology that the PhD student will use, the objectives that he plans to achieve as well as the means and the allocated time to achieve them.

When?

  • Initial research plan: In the case of being the first year of enrolment in the Doctoral Program, in the maximum period of six months from the date of enrolment and always before the end of the academic year. Doctoral students enrolled in the second call must have submitted their plan before July 31.
     
  • Research plan modification: Each PhD student will be able to modify their PI when necessary.

In the case of a negative evaluation, which will be duly motivated, the PhD student must draw up a new Research Plan within the period established by the CAPD.

How is it processed?

In the Student Virtual Secretary (in the section “PhD student file RD99/2011”). It can only be done if there is evidence of the allocation of a tutor or supervisor in the application. Automatically, the application will provide, at the disposal of the tutor or supervisor (authorized profile), the PI for the evaluation and subsequent approval by the selected Academic Commission of the Doctoral Program (CAPD).

It is recommended to fill in this document as soon as possible as its approval is a requirement to participate in calls for pre-doctoral grants.

The monitoring of the research work of doctoral students will be evaluated annually by the Academic Committee of each Doctoral Program through the assessment of the Activities Document and the development of the Research Plan.

Previously, the tutor or supervisor who appears as the authorized profile must accept (or not) the activities of the student and subsequently generate his/her report. Once the report has been issued by the authorized profile, the coordinator of the PhD program will transfer the evaluation of the Academic Commission to the application, so that it will appear in the doctoral student's file as positive or negative.

In the event of a negative evaluation, the doctoral student will be re-evaluated in the following year.

In the case of two negative evaluations in consecutive courses, the doctoral student will be permanently removed from the Doctoral Program.