PHD Program in Information Technologies and their Application in Management, Architecture and Geophysics

THESIS SUPERVISION

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 have the necessary research capacity and experience if they meet the following requirements: recent scientific activity, at least one six-year period (sexennium) or equivalent and 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.

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. Eventually, a planning about 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.

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.

Eventually, the thesis supervisor may request a five members’ dissertation committee plus two substitutes, explaining to the Academic Committee the reasons of this panel. 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 explain 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

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.