The UIC may reach agreements with foreign universities to jointly tutor doctoral theses. In this case, the doctoral candidates need to do their work under the supervision and control of a thesis supervisor in each of the two centres subject to the agreement.
These agreements can only be signed in the first twelve months of the research work, taking the start date as the registration date of the thesis project. The preparation time of the thesis should be divided between the two centres.
To formalise a jointly-tutored thesis, an agreement has to be signed between the two participating universities specifying at least the following information:
The joint supervisors of the thesis.
The periods of time that the doctoral candidate has to spend at each university.
The agreement on the payment of the tutoring fees or equivalent charges.
The university where the public defence of the thesis will take place.
The commitment of the two universities, on the basis of a single defence of the doctoral thesis, to issue the corresponding doctoral degree certificate subject to payment of the relevant fees.
The thesis must be registered in a doctoral programme of the UIC. If it is also registered with another university, the enrolment date will be taken as the first one.
The fees for the defence of the thesis will only be paid to the university where the defence actually takes place, information on which will be specified in the agreement.
Theses presented under the joint supervision regime must be written in one of the languages accepted by one of the universities involved, and must be accompanied by a summary in the official language of the other university.
If the defence of the thesis takes place in a different university from the UIC, the doctoral candidate should deposit the doctoral thesis at that university under the same terms and conditions as if he/she were defending it at the UIC.
The thesis board will be set up in accordance with the regulations of the university where the defence is to take place.
The defence of a jointly-tutored thesis must be done in one of the languages accepted by the university where the defence is to take place, and must be accompanied by a summary for oral presentation in one of the languages accepted by the other university.
The publication, use and protection of the results of jointly-tutored theses deriving from common research in the relevant departments must be guaranteed in accordance with the specific provisions of each country.