The Thesis Deposit
The Thesis Deposit is the period that begins with the application for deposit submitted by the doctoral candidate and ends with the decision of the Academic Doctoral Committee (CAD) on the approval of the defence of the thesis and the appointment of the Tribunal.
a) Monitoring of the originality of the doctoral thesis
Prior to the beginning of the deposit phase, the originality of the thesis will be monitored according to the control mechanisms approved for this purpose by the School Management Committee. If the thesis does not pass the originality test it cannot be accepted for deposit.
Once all the documentation has been received (application of the doctoral candidate and the proposal of the director's reviewers) the thesis will enter the deposit phase
b) Assessment of the Thesis by External Reviewers
The Academic Doctorate Committee shall appoint the two external reviewers who, anonymously, will report on the work presented indicating whether the thesis is accepted for defence or not accepted for defence. In the latter case, it shall indicate the recommendations to be incorporated or modifications to be made to the thesis.
The Academic Doctorate Committee, in the light of the reviewers' reports, will decide and communicate to the doctoral candidate and supervisor:
- That the Thesis can be defended, and the jury for the thesis defence will be officially appointed.
- That the thesis should be reviewed and modified according to the recommendations made in the reviewers' reports. In the latter case, the doctoral candidate, after incorporating the above recommendations, must re-submit their thesis to be re-evaluated.
Reading and defence of your thesis
The doctoral thesis must be evaluated in the act of presentation and defence where the doctoral candidate must present and defend their research project before the members of the jury and other attendees.
a) Format of the event
This event will be conducted in public and face-to-face. Exceptionally, for justified reasons, the doctoral candidate and the thesis supervisor may request that the Academic Doctorate Committee authorises the defence of the thesis in virtual or semi-virtual format (by video conference).
b) Designation of the jury
The Academic Doctoral Committee shall designate the members of the jury to judge each doctoral thesis, in accordance with the criteria established by the Management Committee, on the proposal of the supervisor of the corresponding thesis. The jury is appointed by choosing specialists from the subject area to which the thesis belongs.
c) Period of publication
In this evaluation process and before the defence, the university must guarantee the dissemination of the completed doctoral thesis so that other doctors can submit observations on the content. In this sense, the thesis will remain in public deposit for consultation for 15 working days before the date of the defence and reading of the thesis.
d) Qualification of the thesis
After the defence and discussion of the thesis, the jury must issue a written assessment report and the overall qualification granted to the thesis of either Fail, Pass, Good or Excellent.
If the thesis has obtained the overall rating of Excellent, the jury may propose that the thesis obtain a Cum Laude distinction if a secret vote in favour is issued unanimously. The vote must take place individually in a closed envelope. The count will be carried out by the Director of the Doctoral School who will issue the final mark and from the Doctoral School this will be communicated to the doctoral candidate, the thesis supervisor, and the members of the jury.
e) Management of the event and corresponding documentation
The Doctoral School is responsible for managing the procedures and the thesis defence and reading, in accordance with the protocol established by the School Management Committee and also for providing the necessary documents to process the application for the title of doctor.