Doctoral Thesis Defense and Evaluation

Requirements and documentation to be submitted

Once the Doctoral Thesis has been written, the doctoral student will request authorization from the Academic Committee of the Program for the submission and deposit of the Doctoral Thesis.

The student must have completed at least two academic supervision enrolments (via payment of the fees concerned) and successfully passed an evaluation of the Research Plan.

Required documentation 

• The authorization and the depositing of the Thesis form to be submitted in full, which will include the Supervisor's authorization of the Thesis, providing the results of the assessment of the Thesis (Forms).
• Latest version of the Doctoral Student's Activity Document -DAD- (Forms).
• Data for the Doctoral Thesis Database (TESEO) form: a summary of the thesis, no longer than one page and in word format, must be submitted. The UNESCO classification areas of the Thesis must also be indicated (the rest of the data will be filled in by the Vice-rectorate for Postgraduate and Research).
• Proposal for Doctoral Thesis Examining Board (Forms).
• Suitability reports on/research curricula of the members of the Examining Board (Forms).
• A hardware-based copy of the Thesis should be handed in.  

Additional documentation

In the following cases, the student concerned must provide additional documentation:

If the Thesis involves opting for the International Doctor Mention:

• The completed Form applying for the International Doctor mention, indicating the language chosen for the writing and public defense of the Doctoral Thesis (Forms).
• Accreditation of the international period of stay/research concerned.
• Reports issued by the international experts concerned.

If the Thesis has been completed as a compendium of previously published articles:

• Application Form for Doctoral Thesis authorization by compendium of publications (Forms).
• Report of the Doctoral Thesis Supervisor(s) for the authorisation of Thesis by compendium of publications (Forms).
• Quality report of an article for the authorisation of Thesis by compendium of publications (Forms).
• Waiver by non-doctoral co-authors to submit the same work as part of another doctoral thesis or theses (Forms).

If the Thesis is subject to confidentiality clauses:

• Application Form for "Confidential Thesis", which will include the Supervisor's report on such application (Forms).
• The original or certified copy of the documents proving that the Thesis is subject to processes of protection or transfer of knowledge and technology.
• The copy of the Thesis in two versions: the reduced version, in which the contents affected by the duty of non-dissemination or by the duty and/or right of confidentiality will be eliminated, and the complete copy, which will be kept on file at the University under a commitment of confidentiality.
• Doctoral Thesis Confidentiality Commitment of the members of the Thesis Examining Board (Forms).

Proposal for Doctoral Thesis Examining Board

The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program, havind heard the Thesis Supervisor, will send to the Vice-Rector of Postgraduate and Research the proposal of the Doctoral Thesis Examining Board submitted by the doctoral student.

The Examining Board will be made up of three first-line members and two substitute members, and with regard to its composition, the following criteria will be taken into consideration:

• The Examining Board will be made up of three first-line members and two substitute members with research experience in the field of the Thesis, all of them holding a Doctorate Degree, linked to universities or higher education or research bodies and with accredited research experience. This experience will be understood to be accredited in the case of Doctors who belong to the bodies of University Professor, University School Professor or University Lecturer or who are qualified for access to these bodies or who are accredited for the post of Hired Doctoral Professor. Research Professors, Research Scientists and Ramón y Cajal Research Scientists and Distinguished Research Scientists of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) will also be considered to have accredited research experience. In other cases, the Academic Committee of the Program may consider the research experience to be sufficient to form part of the Examining Board following an analysis of the doctor's curriculum vitae, which must be attached to the proposal.
• Professors belonging to University Teaching Bodies, or to the CSIC research scales, may form part of the Doctoral Thesis Examining Board even if they are in any of the modalities of the situation of leave of absence or retired.
• Neither may the Thesis Supervisor, nor the Co-Supervisors, nor, were it the case, the Tutor concerned, form part of the Examining Board, except in those cases of Theses submitted within the framework of bilateral co-supervision agreements with universities abroad which may foresee so.
• The Examining Board will be made up of three first-line members and two substitute members. Two of the three members of the Examining Board will be external to the UIMP and to the institutions collaborating in the Doctoral Program, while the third may belong to one of the aforementioned institutions.
• The President of the Examining Board will be the member with highest academic rank, age and seniority within the said rank. The position of Secretary will be allotted to the member with the lowest academic rank, age and least seniority.

Authorization by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program

The Academic Committee will send the Thesis to two researchers, experts in the subject area of the Thesis and with no direct links to the doctoral student, the Supervisor nor the Doctoral program, who will be asked to assess its content within a period of three weeks and give their opinion on whether or not it is appropriate to authorise its deposit.

Once both reports have been received, the Academic Committee will authorise, or not, the deposit of the Thesis.

• Authorisation for the deposit of the Doctoral Thesis (Forms).

In the event of the deposit of the Thesis not being authorized, the Academic Committee, in writing, will notify the doctoral student and the Thesis Supervisor of the reasons for its decision. The doctoral student must respond to this report before proceeding with a new deposit.

Once the Academic Committee has authorised the deposit of the Thesis, it will send to the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research the application form for authorisation for the defense of the Thesis together with the documentation generated during the training of the doctoral student and the proposal for the Doctoral Thesis Examining Board.

The Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research will verify that the doctoral student meets the requirements established for the presentation and defense of the Thesis and will inform him/her of the authorisation for its deposit. 

Required documentation

Once the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research has informed the doctoral student of the authorisation to deposit the thesis, the doctoral student will present in the General Register of the UIMP two copies of the Thesis in paper format, duly bound and paged, and will include in the documentary repository the .pdf file of the Thesis that will be created by the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research for this purpose.

Guidance calendar for the deposit and defence of the Doctoral Theses

In this link you can consult a Guidance calendar for the deposit and defence of the Doctoral Thesis

Period of exposure to the research community

The Thesis must remain deposited for twenty calendar days, not being computable for this purpose the period from 1 August to 1 September, nor the non-school period corresponding to the Christmas and Easter holidays.

During the period of exposure, any doctor may request to examine the Thesis and, where appropriate after being forwarded, write to the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research the considerations it deems appropriate to formulate, except in the case that the Thesis is under a confidentiality agreement, where the approved procedure that can be consulted in this link will be applicable.

Authorization by the Vice-Rectorate of Posgraduate and Research

Once the period of exposure of the Doctoral Thesis has ended, the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research will decide whether the defense of theThesis is authorised or whether, on the contrary, the Thesis should be withdrawn.

In the event of the defense of the Thesis not being authorized, the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research, in writing, will notify the doctoral student, the Thesis Supervisor and the Academic Committee of the reasons for its decision. 

Appointment of the Doctoral Thesis Examining Board

Once the defense of the Thesis has been authorised, the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research will appoint the Examining Board that will assess the Thesis and will communicate this decision to the Academic Committee of the Program and to the Doctoral student.

Within the time limit specified in the notification, the Vice-Rectorate for Postgraduate Studies and Research will send each of the members of the Examining Board a copy of the registered Thesis.

• Appointment of the Doctoral Thesis Examining Board (Forms).

Payment of the Doctoral Thesis defense fee

Once the defense of the Thesis has been authorised, and prior to the act of defense, the doctoral student must pay the corresponding fee for the doctoral thesis defense, by means of a payment letter that will be provided to him/her at the UIMP Student Administration Office.

Call for Doctoral Thesis defense

The act of defense (or act of reading) of the Doctoral Thesis will take place between one and a half and three months after the Thesis has been deposited by the doctoral student. This period may be increased, up to a maximum of three months from the time of authorisation of the defense, by resolution of the Academic Committee.

The proceedings involving the defense of the Thesis are to be convened by the President and notification of them be communicated by the Secretary to the Academic Committee, at least 15 calendar days prior to the event. The  Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research will ensure that the Thesis defense ceremony is publicised as widely as possible.

• Reading of the Thesis concerned: Notification of Date (Forms).

Defense of the Doctoral Thesis

The Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research will send in due time to the Secretary of the Examining Board the documents to be completed at the act of defense (or act of reading) of the Doctoral Thesis. 

With the exception of the Secretary of the Examining Board, the other members of the Board may participate in the defence of the Thesis by videoconference. When such a circumstance arises, the Secretary of the Board will include it in the assessment report, including the reasons for it.

In the event that one of the members of the Examining Board is unable to attend the act of defense, he/she may be replaced by one of the two substitutes. In this case, the majority of the members must always be external to the UIMP and to the institutions collaborating in the Doctoral Program. The secretary of the Examining Board must send a written statement to the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research in which the member of the Examining Board justifies his or her inability to attend, as well as the name of the substitute member who will take his or her place. The absence of one of the members of the Board will result in the suspension of the act of the defense and a new reading date will have to be set, in which case it will not be necessary to convene the panel at least 15 days in advance.

For the valid constitution of the Examining Board and for the purposes of holding the act of defense, deliberations and grading, the provisions of the Law on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and Common Administrative Procedure will apply to collegiate bodies.

The Thesis defense will take place in a public session during the academic calendar, excluding August and the Christmas and Easter holidays. 

The proceedings involving the defense will be held publicly in open session and will consist of an explanation of, as well as a defense of, the research work carried out, the methodology, the content and the results obtained, with a special mention of its original contributions, by the Doctoral student, in the presence of the members of the Examining Board. The duration of the proceedings may not exceed 60 minutes.

The members of the Examining Board will ask the Doctoral candidate as many questions as they deem appropriate for no more than 90 minutes. Those Doctors attending the public proceedings will be able to formulate questions at the time, and in the manner, laid down by the President of the Examining Board.

Related Link:

Instructions for the Doctoral Thesis Reading Session - Act of Defense

Assessment of the Doctoral Thesis

The Examining Board will issue an assessment report on, together with an overall grade for, the Thesis, which will be either "not apt", "pass", "highly acceptable" or "excellent". The Examining Board will be able to assign the mention of "cum laude" if the overall rating is excellent, to be expressed, were it the case, in the sense of the unanimous affirmative vote of all of its members. The counting of votes for the award of “cum laude” will be held in different session corresponding to the defense of the Doctoral Thesis.

La Universidad establecerá un procedimiento para otorgar menciones honoríficas "premio extraordinario" a las tesis doctorales que lo merezcan por su alto nivel de calidad, menciones que quedarán reflejadas en el correspondiente certificado académico. A tal fin se remitirá a los miembros del tribunal una fórmula de evaluación para las tesis doctorales que hayan obtenido la calificación de "sobresaliente cum laude", en las que cada miembro del Tribunal anotará de forma secreta su recomendación sobre si sería procedente la concesión del premio extraordinario.

The University shall establish a procedure for awarding "Extraordinary Award" honourable mentions to Doctoral Theses that merit it due to their high level of quality, mentions that shall be reflected in the corresponding academic certificate. To this end, an evaluation formula will be sent to the members of the Examining Board for doctoral theses that have obtained the qualification of "outstanding cum laude", in which each member of the Board will secretly note down their recommendation as to whether the exceptionalism award should be awarded.

The Secretary of the Examining Board shall deliver the documentation, once completed, to the Vice-Rectorate of Postgraduate and Research.

• Assessment report and evaluation of the Reading of a Doctoral Thesis (Forms).
• Assessment report for the honourable mention "Cum Laude" (Forms).
• Assessment report with the purpose of convening the Doctoral Studies Extraordinary Award (Forms).

The Filing and Safekeeping of Doctoral Thesis

Following the reading of the Thesis, of the two copies of it which have been officially stamped by the UIMP General Register, left in deposit by the Doctoral student, being publicly available, and signed by the members of the Examining Board, one will be kept in store by the Organ responsible; and the other, the safekeeping of which has been entrusted to the Doctoral Studies Commission, will be sent to the UIMP Library to be filed and documented.

Those in charge of this Library will periodically send a statement of the theses received to the Vice-Rector of Postgraduate and Research, which will validate the said list for purposes of compliance with the legal provision concerning the safe filing of Doctoral Theses on the part of the Doctoral Studies Commission concerned.

Doctoral Thesis Database (TESEO)

The Doctoral Studies Commission will undertake to send to the General Administration Office of the Council of Universities the necessary information so that the data concerning Doctoral Theses read is collected in the database TESEO via the computer application set up for this purpose.

Related link:

Doctoral Thesis Database (TESEO)