Annual evaluation of doctoral students

Information for the 2023-24 academic year

General considerations

• To pass the evaluation, you are entitled to two examination calls every academic year.
• The academic committee of the doctoral programme must evaluate the following for every doctoral student:
  • Their research proposal.
  • Their activities document.
  • The reports issued by their thesis supervisor and tutor.
• In order to be able to continue on the doctoral programme and register for the next academic year, students must be awarded a passing grade (pass) either in the first call or in the second, if the grade in the first is fail or absent.
• Even if they are on a leave of absence and cannot continue with their research activity, students can add the activities they have already done to the activity document and the research plan, and also be evaluated for these activities. The academic committees of the doctoral programmes must bear in mind the circumstances of the doctoral students when evaluating them. If, despite the flexibility, they do not meet the conditions to be evaluated in the second call, they must be classified as absent due to temporary leave of absence (NB).
  • In these cases, if doctoral students on the second year and above wish to rejoin the programme, they must apply to resume their studies to register. The last positive evaluation obtained will be taken as a reference.
  • If the doctoral students who are on leave are being admitted as new students, there will be no evaluation reference, so they may apply to cancel the registration due to personal interest or illness. Whether they cancel their enrolment or not, if they decide to resume their studies they will have to follow the procedure for accessing a doctoral programme.

Doctoral student activities document - DAD

After completing the registration process, doctoral students will have access to their personal activities document adapted to the deadlines established in the schedule.

Doctoral students must use this document to record all activities relevant to their development, in accordance with academic committee of the doctoral programme.

Research plan

Doctoral students must draft and submit a research plan during the academic year in which they are admitted on the programme and first register for academic tuition.

The plan can be improved and completed throughout the programme, and it must be approved by the supervisor(s) of the thesis, and by the tutor, if necessary.

The academic committee of the doctoral programme sets the calendar, the contents and the specific requirements of the plan (which are, at least, the methodology, the objectives, the resources and a schedule for drafting the thesis.

The research plan must be submitted before the end of the first year and before the annual deadline for evaluation, in accordance with schedule.

Personal training plan

This document is compulsory for doctoral students who begin their programme of study in the academic year 2023-24 and optional for doctoral students who began in the academic year 2022-23 or earlier.

Evaluation periods

For first-year doctoral students pre-registered in the 1st and 2nd pre-registration phase and for second-year students and above, the evaluation calls are:

• The first call is during the month of April 2024.
• The second call is during the month of June.

For doctoral students pre-registered in the 3rd pre-registration phase, the evaluation calls are:

• The first call is during the month of June 2024.
• The second call is during the month of September 2024.