Students enrolled in programs regulated by RD 99/2011 must undertake training activities based on their prior education and the activities offered by the corresponding doctoral program.
The advisor is responsible for ensuring the doctoral student's training aligns with the program principles. The program's academic committee will assign an advisor to each doctoral student once they have completed their enrollment. This assignment can only be given to a faculty member of the doctoral program.
Each doctoral student will have access to their personalized Doctoral Student Activity Document (DAD) through the Doctoral Student Academic Monitoring Portal. This document will list all activities deemed necessary by the advisor. The activity document will be periodically reviewed by the advisor and evaluated by the program’s academic committee.
The range of training activities may be organized by:
- International Graduate School. - Doctoral Schools - Doctoral Program (see the respective program's website).
Before the end of the first year, the doctoral student must present a research plan that can be improved and detailed throughout their stay in the program. The research plan must include at least a provisional title, background of the proposed work, methodology, objectives to be achieved, as well as resources and a timeline.
The initial research plan proposal will be submitted under the “Research Plan” tab in the monitoring portal using the template available there. The option to upload the research plan will not be active if supplementary training requirements were established upon admission.
Each doctoral program regulates the procedure and deadlines for defending research plans. Annually, doctoral programs set dates for these defenses. The dates for the presentation and the submission deadline for inclusion in each defense session can be found on the doctoral program’s website.
The University of Granada will assign a thesis director who will be primarily responsible for overseeing the doctoral student's research activities.
A minimum requirement to be a thesis director or co-director is to have at least one recognized research period according to Royal Decree 1086/1989. If this does not apply due to an academic or administrative position, equivalent merits must be accredited. The academic committee of each program may propose additional criteria, which must be consulted with the program itself.
Updated criteria from the CNAI can be found at WEB.
To be a thesis director in doctoral programs under Royal Decree 99/2011, one must apply to be included as faculty or an external collaborator using the form available at this link.
The thesis can be co-directed by other doctors when academic reasons exist, such as interdisciplinary topics or national or international collaborative programs, with prior authorization from the academic committee. This authorization can be revoked if the committee deems that co-direction does not benefit the thesis development.
Co-direction by more than two directors is exceptional and will only be accepted in well-justified cases for reasons like thematic interdisciplinarity (the three directors are from different disciplines) or collaborative national or international programs (the three directors are from different institutions). The novel director co-direction considered by some programs must also be justified in the research plan and cannot be combined with co-direction for interdisciplinarity or national/international collaboration.
PROCEDURE TO INCLUDE A THESIS CO-DIRECTOR:
1. The doctoral program will initially assign one of the directors who signed the supervision commitment provided in the admission application if they meet the requirements to be a thesis director.
2. The co-direction proposal will be made when presenting the research plan, and after its defense before the corresponding evaluating committee, it will be included in the doctoral student's record.
3. If the research plan has already been defended and favorably reported, the new research plan will be presented with or without modifications. In this case, the new research plan will be submitted in the REQUESTS section of the PORTAL (REQUEST TYPE: CPLA - NEXT FIELD: Title of the doctoral thesis - The form includes a “Co-direction” section where the necessity of each proposed director is justified).
4. If the proposed director is not a program faculty member or collaborator, the doctoral student will submit a request for authorization for the proposed director to be included as faculty/collaborator in the FOLLOW-UP PORTAL (Request Type: PART). FORM. Important: This document will be submitted once the research plan is presented.
5. After the research plan defense, the corresponding evaluation committee will report on the advisability of co-direction. Co-direction must be approved by the doctoral program and the corresponding Doctoral School.
6. Co-directions proposed through the FOLLOW-UP PORTAL will be sent to the doctoral program, which will determine their viability and whether a new defense is necessary.
The research plan will be submitted through the Doctoral Student Academic Monitoring Portal:
- As previously indicated, the first submission will be done in the RESEARCH PLAN tab. It will also be submitted in this tab if the initial research plan is rejected and a new version is presented for evaluation. - Subsequent submissions will be done in the REQUESTS tab (total or partial modification of the research plan. Request type: CPLA - TEXT FIELD: Title of the doctoral thesis - The research plan model includes a section to explain the reasons for the modification).
The research plan will be submitted in the following cases:
- Once definitely admitted to the corresponding doctoral program. Doctoral students enrolled in RD99/2011 doctoral programs must submit their research plan through the Doctoral Student Academic Monitoring Portal (accessible through the University of Granada’s Identified Access) before the end of the first year, and it will be evaluated within the deadlines set by the doctoral program.
Students admitted conditionally upon completing certain supplementary training cannot upload the research plan until the completion is verified.
- When modifying the research plan totally or partially. - When proposing changes in the thesis direction or co-direction. - PARTICULAR CASE: If the initial research plan is negatively reported by the doctoral program’s Academic Committee, the student will have 6 months to present and defend a new research plan. This new plan must be submitted through the RESEARCH PLAN tab.
On 19-09-2012, the Doctorate Advisory Council of the University of Granada approved the following Code of Good Practices for Doctoral Thesis Direction.
Article 14 of the Official Doctoral Education and Doctorate Degree Regulations at the University of Granada states in point two:
The University of Granada will establish the supervision functions of doctoral students through a documental commitment signed by the University, the Doctoral Student, their Advisor, and their Director. This commitment will be signed after admission and will include a conflict resolution procedure and aspects related to intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise within the doctoral programs.
The above-mentioned Documental Commitment can be downloaded from the DOCTORAL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC MONITORING PORTAL (Research Plan tab).
It must be submitted at the defense act if only one thesis director is proposed and is already assigned in the monitoring portal.
The school director's signature will NOT be necessary for submitting the documental supervision commitment, as it will be included afterward.
In the case of co-direction or changes in thesis direction, the documental supervision commitment must be submitted after the proposed direction is approved by the corresponding Doctoral School and appears as such in the doctoral student’s academic monitoring portal.
In this case, the student will print the mentioned commitment, collect the corresponding signatures, and submit the original to the International Graduate School. Once signed by the Doctoral School Director, it will be archived in their file.
The school director's signature will NOT be necessary for submitting the documental supervision commitment, as it will be included afterward.
Once the plan is submitted for evaluation and reported by the director, the title of the doctoral thesis cannot be changed.
- If it has not been evaluated, you can revert the research plan submission for evaluation (curved arrow to the right).
- If the plan has been evaluated by the thesis director or is at another evaluation stage before the defense, request from doctoradoinformacion@ugr.es to update the title included in the text field if it does not match the PDF research plan title.
- If you want to change the PDF of the research plan, request from doctoradoinformacion@ugr.es information on how to change the initially included PDF, after evaluation by your thesis director or another evaluation stage before the defense.
Doctoral students have one year to submit and defend the research plan. If this requirement is not met, the above message appears upon portal access.
Such a request can be made to the doctoral program. In this case, two requests must be made through the monitoring portal:
1st request to submit the research plan after the deadline:
- Request type: OTHER REQUESTS
- Text: Indicate “Request to submit the research plan not provided within the established deadline due to reasons stated in the attached document”
- Attached file: PDF document containing the reasons for not submitting the research plan on time.
2nd request including the research plan:
- Request type: CHANGES IN THE WORK PLAN: THEMATIC AND/OR THESIS DIRECTION. (This is the correct option even if it is not a change in the plan).
- Text: Indicate the title of the research plan.
- Attached file: PDF document with the research plan content.
Both requests will be sent to the doctoral program for evaluation. If favorable, the research plan will be included in the PLAN tab of the Monitoring Portal for evaluation by the thesis director and the initiation of the defense procedure.
If the report is unfavorable, the process to terminate the doctoral student’s enrollment in the doctoral studies will begin.