Monitoring of PhD students

Supervisor Allocation

The Academic Commission of the PhD Program (La Comisión Académica del Programa de Doctorado) (CAPD) will appoint a tutor for the monitoring of the work as a researcher of the PhD student at the time of accepting the admission.

The tutor must be a professor assigned by the program with acredited research experience and permanent relationship with the USC, or on temporary leave for being part of research excellence programs. The PDI without a permanent relationship may be a tutor during the time of the contractual relationship with the USC.

Thesis Supervisor Allocation

In the maximum period of three months since the formalization of the enrolment, the Academic Commission will appoint to each PhD student a doctoral thesis supervisor or supervisors.

This assignment may be made to any Spanish or foreing doctoral cadidate with accredited resarch experience (art. 25.3.a of the Regulations for Doctoral Studies of the USC) regardless of the university, center or institution in which he/she provides his/her services. The thesis supervisor may be the same person designated as tutor.

The co-direction of the thesis may be exercised by any Spanish or foreing doctoral candidate who does not have accredited research experience, as long as he/she meets one of the requirements established in article 26.5 of the USC Doctoral Studies Regulations.

So that the supervisor appointed by the Academic Commission can be registered in the application, it will be necessary to have been previously listed on the database "Register of Directors" at the USC. In the case of not being in the mentioned database, the coordinator of the Doctoral Programme can request their inclusion sending to edius@usc.es the corresponding models found in the -Dirección de tesis- drop-down menu on the Forms and models website.

Change of Tutor or Supervisor

Along the doctoral research work, the Academic Commission of the Doctoral Programme ( Comisión Académica del Programa de Doctorado) can, with a justified reason,modify the appointed tutor and supervisor or supervisors of the thesis, with or without a request from the person concerned.

The PhD student can request from the Academic Commission of his/her program, the change of tutor or supervisor via their Virtual Secretary, presenting a reasonable proposal before such commission.

Thesis co-supervision

A thesis may have more than one supervisor when there are academic or interdisciplinary reasons, or in the case of programs developed in collaboration with other institutions/universities.

The maximum number of supervisors of a thesis shall be two. For the appointment of a third supervisor, the following requeriments must be met:

• The CAPD proposal
   
• The authorization of the EDIUS
   
• One of them must be the tutor
   
• The assignment is motivated by the thematic interdisciplinary nature of the thesis in which the three supervisors belong to differente fields of knowledge; tha the thesis is developed within the framework of a national or international proyect obtained through a competitive call for proposals in collaboration with another center or national or foreign institutions; tha the thesis is developed under a cotutelle regime.

The authorization from the EDIUS, after a proposal fron the CAPD, is required for the assignment of a second director 36 months after the beginning of the studies for full-time studentes, or 63 months when the dedication is part-time. In the case of mixed dedications, article 20.1 will be applied. This incorporation must be accompanied by a modification of the research and training plan.

This will not be possible if the doctoral student is in an extension period.

To request authorization from the EDIUS, the program must send to edius@usc.es the corresponding models found in the -Dirección de tese- drop-down menu on the Forms and models website.

The student can request the CAPD to assign hiem/her a new supervisor. This procedure is not available through the Virtual Secretary.

The authorized profile is the person who acts as tutor or supervisor of a PhD student, in charge of transferring all the evaluation or management reports to the University's computer platform

This authorized profile is designated by the CAPD and must be linked to the USC for, at least, the full duration of the thesis.

The Documentary Supervision Agreement (CDS) is the document that includes the functions of supervision, tutoring and monitoring of doctoral students. It specifies the conditions for carrying out the thesis, the rights and duties of the doctoral student, including possible intellectual and/or industrial copyrights arising from the research, acceptance of the dispute resolution procedure, as well as the duties and rights of the tutor and thesis supervisor (positions that may be occupied by the same person).

Doctoral students starting their studies from the academic year 2021-2022 do not have to include it in the Activity Document.

Acceptance of the Documentary Supervision Agreement

Acceptance by:

1. The PhD student after registering (in the virtual secretary).
    
2. The tutor (in the virtual secretary) after the acceptance of the CDS by the PhD student.
    
3. The thesis supervisor at the time of the assignment by the CAPD. (Non-USC teachers will receive an email to accept the CDS)
    
4. To the coordinator, without notification, it will appear in the SV as pending issues once the CDS is accepted by the student and the tutor.

During the thesis stage, the PhD student must register all significant activities completed during such stage.

The mentioned activities will be registered via Student Virtual Secretary (in the section “PhD student file RD99/2011”) and will be regarded and validated by the tutor or supervisor (authorized profile) and annually by the Academic Commission of the Program (CAPD)

Even so, the PhD students must keep the original documents which will accredit the activities completed.

Given that, in order to deposit the thesis the Academic Commission of the Doctoral Programme (CAPD) demands, among other requirements, that all the programmed activities must be completed. It is recommended that you make sure that the activities are duly registered and marked as completed in the activities document.

The research and personal training Plan is the document that must include the methodology to be used by the doctoral student and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and time schedule to achieve them. The personal training section will include the forecast ot the training activities that will be developed during this period of doctoral training, including, in any case, those establishe as mandatoy by the doctoral program.

When?

• Initial research plan: In the case of being the first year of enrolment in the Doctoral Program, in the maximum period of six months from the date of enrolment and always before the end of the academic year. Doctoral students enrolled in the second call must have submitted their plan before July 31.
   
• Research plan modification: Each PhD student will be able to modify their PI when necessary.

In the case of a negative evaluation, which shall be duly motivated, the PhD student must prepare a new Research Plan within the period established by the CAPD, which may not exceed three months from de date of rejection.

How is it processed?

In the Student Virtual Secretary (in the section “PhD student file RD99/2011”). It can only be done if there is evidence of the allocation of a tutor or supervisor in the application. Automatically, the application will provide, at the disposal of the tutor or supervisor (authorized profile), the PI for the evaluation and subsequent approval by the selected Academic Commission of the Doctoral Program (CAPD).

It is recommended to fill in this document as soon as possible as its approval is a requirement to participate in calls for pre-doctoral grants.

• Research Plan Manual (Student Virtual Secretary)

The monitoring of the research work of doctoral students will be evaluated annually by the Academic Committee of each Doctoral Program through the assessment of the Activities Document and the development of the Research Plan.

Previously, the tutor or supervisor who appears as the authorized profile must accept (or not) the activities of the student and subsequently generate his/her report. Once the report has been issued by the authorized profile, the coordinator of the PhD program will transfer the evaluation of the Academic Commission to the application, so that it will appear in the doctoral student's file as positive or negative.

In the case of a negative evaluation, which will be duly motivated by means of a CAPD report, the doctoral studente will be re-evaluated according to the deadline set by the USC, which will never exceed six months from dthe previous evaluation.

In the event that the negative evaluation is maintained, the CAPD will issue a definitive negative report weith reasons. Against this definitive evaluation, a reasoned review may be requested before the CAPD within the established deadlines.

In case of rejection of the claim, the doctoral student will be definitively wihtdrawn from the Doctoral Program.

• Annual Calendar
• Annual report manual for SVPDI users