PhD studies consist essentially in a Learning by Doing process in which the doctoral student acquires researcher skills by performing a substantial research project under the supervision, coaching and tuition of a doctor, the thesis supervisor. Other training activities, as well as the interaction with other members of the research group are only means of fomenting the learning of the basic skills of a doctor.

THESIS SUPERVISION

The Comissió Acadèmica del Programa de Doctorat (CAPD) is the collegiate body responsible for running the program. The CAPD is chaired by the program coordinator and its members are: a representative of each school involved in the program, namely, Facultat Internacional de Comerç i Economia Digital La Salle, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura La Salle, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Engineria La Salle and Observatori de l’Ebre, plus the director of educational policies of La Salle-URL, the director of academic staff policies of La Salle-URL, the director of research policies of La Salle-URL and the director of Observatori de l’Ebre.

The CAPD is responsible for the thesis supervision. Every research area has a number of tutors and directors associated with the research group conforming the program faculty.

The group leader and the program Coordinator select the appropriate thesis tutor and supervisor depending on the research topic of the doctoral thesis.

Faculty members are doctors linked to the doctoral programs and hence to the research groups recognized by Ramon Llull University, with accredited research experience. They will be considered to havethe necessary research capacity and experience if they meet the following requirements:

• Recent scientific activity,
• At least one six-year period (sexennium) or equivalent
• They must be part of the Academic Committee.

If necessary, the thesis can be co-directed by two doctors once the Academic Committee authorizes the co-direction of the project.

Doctoral students will be framed into one of the research groups involved in the program, which are the following,

Acronym	Reference	Description
DS4DS	2017SGR0920	Data Science for the Digital Society
GREITM	2017SGR0941	Research Group in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Management.
GRETEL	2017SGR0934	Research Group in New Technologies for Education
GRG	2017SGR1286	Research Group in Geophysics
GRITS	2017SGR0977	Research Group in Internet Technologies and Storage
GTM	2017SGR0966	Research Group in Media Technologies
IAR	2017SGR1327	Integrated Architectural Research Group

 

 

THESIS MONITORING

Once the research topic has been agreed between the student and the supervisor, the Academic secretary will open a log in the information system. This log must contain the different activities of the PhD student and must be accessible by the thesis supervisor, the tutor, the student and the program Coordinator.

The activities must be written on the DAD document by the PhD Student and validated by the thesis director.

During the first year, from the time of enrollment in the doctoral program, the student must draw up a research plan including:

1. State of the art of the thesis topic
2. Working methodology
3. Thesis objectives
4. The means and time frame necessary to meet these objectives
5. Timeline
6. A detailed plan on a research stay abroad

The thesis supervisor and the tutor must validate the contents and must include a brief report. The research plan must be saved in the information system and it must be public.

The basic premises of the program are:

• Transversality and multi-disciplinarity. To interlink the diversity of knowledge fields embraced by La Salle and Observatori de l’Ebre research groups.
• Internationalization. To carry out research in conjunction with the large network of international research centers with which our researchers collaborate.

Doctoral students will maintain a log called (Document d’Activitats del Doctorat) where they will record their participation in conferences, seminars and workshops, as well as the publications they produce (papers, articles, technical reports). The DAD will facilitate the follow-up of the training and research activity.

Training activities considered include the following items.

1. Courses. The program includes courses on the following topics: Writing scientific papers, Presentations, Entrepreneurship, Outreach, Research quality, Career development.
2. Mobility, including stages in other research centers, attendance to conferences.
3. Writing journal articles, conference papers and technical reports, filling patents.
4. Outreach activities to communicate the outputs of research.

Training activities must be validated by the thesis supervisor and the tutor. The tutor will give this information to the Academic Committee in order to supervise and validate the activities report.

Preferably, the outcomes of the research should be published in journals with a high impact factor and should be presented in international conferences in order to publicly disseminate the research work.

MOBILITY

Among the training activities, mobility should be singled out as one of the main enablers for young researchers to foster their communication skills and it is also an opportunity for doctoral students to approach researchers outside their own groups.

Mobility includes stages in other research centers and the attendance to conferences. Actually, the program students are expected to present their thesis work in a conference. Mobility activities must be approved by the Thesis advisor and tutor. The program provides limited funding for attending conferences. Each student may apply for support once in the program. Further funding for mobility activities must rely on grants or funds from the research group.

REGULATIONS FOR REGISTRATION AND DEFENSE OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS

The regulations for the registration and defense of the doctoral thesis are compliant to the Ramon Llull Regulations found in https://www.url.edu/en/research-and-innovation/phd/documents

The Academic Committee provides the PhD student a document explaining the general rules to register and defend the thesis.  Articles published on impact factor journals, patents, contributions to international congresses and research stays abroad are requisites in order to submit the thesis.

To register the thesis, the PhD student submits, with the agreement of the thesis supervisors, the doctoral training log (DAD) and the report of activities (IAD) as well as the complete PhD document. It must contain the state of the art, the definition of the thesis objectives, the research plan and the conclusions. A report with an authorization of the thesis supervisor and the tutor is needed. The thesis director must propose a dissertation committee to the program Coordinator who must send the thesis document to the proposed members in order to be evaluated.

The dissertation committee proposal should contain three candidates in addition to two substitutes, a president, a secretary, and a member. Only a minority of the panel should be from La Salle URL or the Observatori de l’Ebre (or, in the case of an inter-university doctoral degree course, from any of the universities involved). Members should be recognized experts in their field. We strongly recommend one member of the dissertation committee to be a lecturer or a doctor of La Salle or the Observatori de l’Ebre as well as one of the substitutes.

Finally, the thesis supervisor may request a five-members dissertation committee plus two substitutes, provided that the reasons for this are justified and then approved by the Academic Committee. If possible, the dissertation committee should include at least one PhD. from a foreign center.

If the author of the thesis has requested the International Doctorate certification, the dissertation committee must include at least one PhD. from a higher education institution or research center outside Spain. This examiner may not be the supervisor of the period of study or research at the foreign institution. Neither the supervisor(s) nor the reader may sit on the dissertation committee. If the doctoral student wants to submit the doctoral thesis as a collection of published articles, it must fulfill the following requirements: at least 1 International congress Peer-Review and at least 2 articles published in indexed journals as well as the requirements set out in the General Rules of the PhD of the URL.

The Academic Committee must evaluate the reports and must authorize the thesis defense according to the general rules of the PhD. The dissertation committee proposal must be authorized by the Academic committee and must be submitted to the Doctoral Committee of the URL in order to validate the panel.

DURATION

Full-time doctoral studies must be completed within a maximum of three years, full-time, from the candidate’s admission to the program to the presentation of the doctoral thesis. If the candidate has not applied to deposit the thesis within three years, the Doctoral Program Academic Committee (CAPD) may authorize an extension of one year which, in exceptional cases, may be extended by a further year.
Doctoral studies may be carried out on a part-time basis for duly justified reasons. The part-time nature of these studies must be authorized by the Academic Committee responsible for the program and may last for a maximum of five years from admission to the program to the presentation of the thesis. In these cases, an extension of two further years might be authorized, and, in exceptional cases, may be extended by a further year.

The authorization of the above extensions will be a reasoned resolution and applications will be studied on the basis of family, work, personal or research reasons.
The time frames outlined above will not take into account periods of leave or absence due to pregnancy, illness or any other cause laid down in current legislation.

PERMANENCY REGULATIONS

The Academic Commission will annually evaluate the doctoral student (IAD) in order to decide about the student permanency. A positive evaluation will be indispensable in order to continue on the Doctoral Program. If there is a negative evaluation, the doctoral student will present again the required documents to the Academic commission which will be evaluated again after a further six months.

 

REGULATIONS

General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University

The program follows the General rules of doctoral organization at Universitat Ramon Llull, which can be found at https://www.url.edu/sites/default/files/content/file/2019/01/02/36/normes-generals-organitzacio-doctorat-url.pdf

General regulations of the doctoral studies can be found at http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/02/10/pdfs/BOE-A-2011-2541.pdf.

Other regulations related to Doctoral Studies can be found at https://www.url.edu/en/research-and-innovation/phd/documents

 

Complaint procedure and suggestions

Doctoral students can make suggestions or comments by writing an email to doctorat@salle.url.edu 

To file a complaint, the PhD student will first talk to his or her thesis director. It is imperative that potentially conflictive issues are addressed at an early stage before they lead to a deterioration of the thesis work. If the student considers that the complaint has been insufficiently addressed, s/he must then talk with the tutor and at last with the program coordinator. If they are not able to find an acceptable solution to the conflict, a recourse will be addressed to the CAPD.

Situations which cannot be resolved through these procedures can proceed to the stage of formal appeal to director of La Salle Campus Barcelona or the director of the Observatori de l’Ebre. Likewise, the student may also contact the Student Ombudsman of the University Ramon Llull, whose functions are described in Article 20 bis of the Statute of the Ramon Llull University, no.291, published in the Official Gazette of December 3, 2004, which are publicly available at https://www.url.edu/en/url/institution/statutes

PhD Coordinator: Dr. Xavier Vilasis Cardona
La Salle – Universitat Ramon Llull
Quatre Camins, 30
08022 Barcelona
e-mail: doctorat@salle.url.edu