Doctoral Programme in Veterinary Medicine and Health

Students holders of official Spanish Graduate degrees in Veterinary Science, Medicine, Pharmacy, Biology, Biochemistry, Science and Technology of Food or other degrees that the Academic Committee evaluates and considers acceptable, plus a Master's Degree in Research in Veterinary Medicine and Health or others that the Committee considers equivalent, will not need to take supplementary training.

Graduates in Veterinary Science with 300 ECTS credits, who have completed the subject Final Project with a research project equivalent in training value to the credits for research from the master's studies, may also access.

Should this equivalence not exist, which will be evaluated by the Doctoral Programme Academic Committee, it is compulsory for students to take supplementary training.

Other profiles:

Holders of another Spanish doctoral degree in equivalent areas obtained as per the previous university planning standards.

International students:

Students with a foreign degree can apply for admission to doctoral studies, without certification, after verification by the University that they demonstrate a level of studies equal to the Spanish official University Master's Degree in Research in Veterinary Medicine and Health. The degree from the issuing country must also provide access to doctoral studies.

The selection of students for admission to the program will be based on the following criteria:

1. Academic transcript:: maximum 25%.
2. Curriculum: maximum 25%.
3. Dissertation proposal: maximum 40%.
4. Knowledge of English: maximum 10%.

In the event that the proposal or report is uncertain, the candidate and the proposed guardian/co-director shall be heard before the Commission. All students applying for admission to the program must accompany their request for at least one feasibility report, which will consist of a Letter of Reference from one of the teachers tutoring the program that guarantees the feasibility of the realization of a thesis in the line of research to which the student will be linked.

• Admission profile

  No training complements:

  1. Be in possession of Bachelor's degrees in Veterinary Medicine, Medicine, Pharmacy, Biology, Biochemistry, Food Science and Technology or other degrees that the Academic Commission studies and deems acceptable and a Master's Degree that the Commission deems appropriate.

  2. Students with research proficiency or with the DEA degree obtained through the previous USC Doctorate in Medicine and Veterinary Health programmes will also have access.

  3. Graduates in Veterinary Medicine, with 300 ECTS credits and who carried out a research project in the final dissertation subject, equivalent in formative value to the research credits from the master's studies.

  4. Be in possession of another Spanish doctoral degree in equivalent areas obtained in accordance with previous university regulations.

  Other profiles:

  • For any other profile, the CAPD will study the cases individually, being able to admit or not the students and establishing additional training if necessary. These supplements may not exceed 15 ECTS.

  • Specifically, doctoral students who do not present a degree of 300 credits, and taking into account the obligation to supplement it with a master's degree, the CAPD recommends the completion of the master's degree closest in terms of content to that of the program itself; specifically, students have the possibility to take the following master's degrees at Campus Terra; in addition, the degrees at the Santiago campus also teach master's degrees that can complement students outside of ARROLAS 3 to achieve the 300 credits in their degree and incorporate basic knowledge for research.

  • In addition, if the CAPD deems it appropriate, applicants for inclusion in the programme may be instructed to enrol in the degree subjects deemed appropriate, following the indications of the USC General Enrolment Rules. These supplements will, for the purposes of public prices and the awarding of scholarships and study grants, be considered doctoral-level training. In the event that it is carried out in advance, its development will not count towards the effects of the time limit established for the completion of the thesis.

  • Finally, students who extend their training for the completion of their doctoral thesis (research, statistics, ...) will be able to achieve these goals with the additional training that this doctoral programme has designed for this purpose.

  Foreign Degrees:

  • Students with non-approved foreign degrees may apply for admission to the doctoral programme as long as a level of training equivalent to that of a university master's degree awarded in the country issuing the degree is proven for access to doctoral studies. This admission will not imply, in any case, the approval of the previous degree or the recognition for purposes other than those of access to these courses.

• Requirements

  Access

  1) In general, for access to a doctoral programme it will be necessary to be in possession of the Spanish degrees, or equivalent, and university master's degrees.

  2) Likewise, anyone who is in any of the following cases may access:

  a) Be in possession of a Spanish university degree or from another country that is part of the European Higher Education Area that enables access to the master's degree, in accordance with what is established in article 18 of the R.D. 822/2021 and pass a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in the set of university studies, of which at least 60 must be at master's level.

  b) Be in possession of a university degree, the duration of which, according to the rules of Community law, is at least 300 ECTS credits. These graduates must take the training supplements required by the programme, except that the study plan of the corresponding degree includes research training credits equivalent in training value to the research credits from master's studies.

  c) University graduates who, after obtaining a place in training in the corresponding test for access to specialised health training places, pass with a positive evaluation at least two years of training in a programme to obtain a university degree in one of the specialties in Health Sciences.

  d) Be in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems, without the need for its approval, after verification by the university that this accredits a level of training equivalent to that of the Spanish university master's degree and that entitles the issuing country of the degree to access to doctoral studies. This admission will not imply, in any case, the approval of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than that of access to doctoral studies.

  e) Be in possession of another Spanish doctoral degree obtained in accordance with the previous university regulations.

  f) Be in possession of a university degree that corresponds to level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education, in accordance with the procedure established in Royal Decree 967/2014, of November 21, which establishes the requirements and the procedure for the approval and declaration of equivalence to the degree and at the official university academic level and for the validation of foreign Higher Education studies, and the procedure to determine the correspondence to the levels of the Spanish Framework of Qualifications for Higher Education of the degrees of Architect, Engineer, Licensed, Technical Architect, Technical Engineer and Diploma.

  3) Doctoral students who will start their doctoral programme in accordance with previous university regulations will be able to access doctoral teaching prior to admission, in accordance with the provisions of the USC Doctoral Studies Regulations. In any case, they must meet the requirements established generally in said legislation for access to doctoral studies.

  4) Graduates, architects or engineers who are in possession of the Diploma of Advanced Studies obtained in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 778/1998, of April 30, or who have reached the research sufficiency regulated in the Royal Decree, may access doctoral studies 185/1985, of January 23.

  5) Graduates, architects or engineers who are in possession of a master's degree or in accordance with Royal Decree 56/2005 or Royal Decree 822/2021, or have exceeded 60 ECTS of master's studies, may access doctoral studies.

  6) Those with diplomas, technical engineers or technical architects who can prove they have 300 ECTS credits in the set of university studies, of which at least 60 must be at master's level, can also access.

• Specific requirements

  1. A viability report issued by a teacher within the framework of the line of research to which it is linked.
  2. Doctoral students must have minimum linguistic competences in Galician or Spanish. The student/for must have accredited a minimum level of knowledge of English equivalent to level B1. The English level will be accredited with the corresponding official certification of those included in the list of accreditations recognised by USC Centro de Linguas Modernas (CLMs) for the different levels of the Common European Framework: https://www.usc.gal/es/servizos/clm/acreditacion/index.html .

• Admission rules

  1. Academic Record: (20%).

  2. Prior research experience and its results (20%). Supporting documentation must be submitted.

  3. Adequacy of the research project (20%).

  4. Professional experience (10%). Supporting documentation must be submitted (insurance history certificate, copy of contracts, grants, etc.)

  5. Other credited aspects in the curriculum of the candidate (10%). Supporting documentation must be submitted (Research stays, courses completed and taught related to the research line of the programme, competence in a foreign language with a 1 level or higher and competence in other languages besides the native language, etc.)

  6. Personal Interview (10%). It would be carried out in the event that the other criteria were not sufficient to select the students applying for admission.

  7. Other (10%): proven knowledge of using statistical software, image and video editing, bibliography managers and scientific databases.

• Title extinction

  El programa de doctorado podrá extinguirse por alguna de las siguientes causas:

  Que no supere el proceso de renovación de la acreditación establecido en el artículo 10 del RD 99/2011.

  • Que no acredite el cumplimiento de los requisitos establecidos por la normativa estatal o autonómica vigente.

  • Que se formule una propuesta de extinción del programa al amparo de los procesos de revisión y mejora del título de acuerdo con el procedimiento aprobado por la universidad.

  • Que concurra cualquier situación excepcional que impida el correcto desarrollo del programa de doctorado.

  La extinción producirá los siguientes efectos:

  • Comportará la pérdida de su carácter oficial y la baja en el RUCT.

  • No se podrá matricular nuevo alumnado en el programa de doctorado.

  • En cualquier caso todo el alumnado afectado deberá ser informado de la extinción y de las consecuencias en lo relativo al desarrollo de sus estudios.

  La Universidad adoptará las medidas necesarias para garantizar los derechos académicos del estudiantado que esté cursando dichos estudios en los términos establecidos en la resolución de extinción del plan de estudio, y aprobará el procedimiento de extinción de los programas de doctorado en el seno de la universidad.

• Epidemiological, immunological and molecular studies of parasitic and infectious processes affecting domestic and wild ruminants

  Teachers	Area
  Pablo Diez Baños	Animal Health
  Gonzalo Fernández Rodríguez	Animal Health
  María Patrocinio Morrondo Pelayo	Animal Health
  Rosario Panadero Fontán	Animal Health
  Ceferino Manuel Lopez Sandez	Animal Health
  Alberto Prieto Lago	Animal Health
  Pablo Díaz Fernández	Animal Health
  José Manuel Diaz Cao	Animal Health
  Gonzalo López Lorenzo	Animal Health
  Susana Remesar Alonso	Animal Health

• Animal metabolism

  Teachers	Area
  Cristina Castillo Rodríguez	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  María Marta López Alonso	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Marta Ines Miranda Castañon	Clinical Veterinary Science
  Joaquin Ricardo Hernandez Bermudez	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Jose Luis Benedito Castellote	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Victor Pereira Lestayo	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Rodrigo Muiño Otero	Animal Medicine and Surgery

• Obtaining new pharmaceuticals from natural products

  Teachers	Area
  Luis Miguel Botana Lopez	Pharmacology
  Maria Carmen Louzao Ojeda	Pharmacology
  Maria Amparo Alfonso Rancaño	Pharmacology
  Maria Mercedes Camiña Garcia	Physiology
  Maria Del Carmen Vale Gonzalez	Pharmacology
  Natalia Vilariño Del Río	Pharmacology
  Jesús María González Jartín	Pharmacology

• Food hygiene and toxicology

  Teachers	Area
  Cristina Asuncion Fente Sampayo	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Carlos Manuel Franco Abuin	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Alberto Cepeda Sáez	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Maria Julia Melgar Riol	Toxicology
  Beatriz Isabel Vázquez Belda	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Patricia Regal López	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Jose Manuel Miranda Lopez	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Alexandre Lamas Freire	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Carolina Graciela Nebot Garcia	Nutrition and Bromatology
  Alejandra Cardelle Cobas	Nutrition and Bromatology

• Epidemiological surveillance and integrated biological control of parasitic and zoonotic infections

  Teachers	Area
  Rita Sánchez-Andrade Fernández	Animal Health
  Adolfo Paz Silva	Animal Health
  Maria Sol Arias Vazquez	Animal Health
  Jose Angel Hernandez Malagon	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Cristiana Filipa Cazapal Monteiro	Animal Health

• Animal reproduction and production

  Teachers	Area
  Luís Ángel Quintela Arias	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Antonio Iglesias Becerra	Animal production
  Ana Isabel Peña Martínez	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Juan José Becerra González	Animal Medicine and Surgery
  Pedro José García Herradón	Animal Medicine and Surgery

El Programa de Doctorado de Medicina y Sanidad Veterinaria proviene de la actualización de aquel primer programa de doctorado en el Campus de Lugo denominado Introducción a la Investigación en Patología Animal (1989) a las distintas legislaciones estatales y autonómicas de los estudios de doctorado, y que su fin fundamental fue formar doctores que pudieran desarrollar los más altos puestos académicos, administrativos y profesionales; esta afirmación lo confirman los excelentes currículos de los doctorandos egresados en nuestro departamento.

El programa forma doctores pero también personas, que se sepan desenvolver en el amplio campo de la Veterinaria, para desarrollar sus conocimientos así como para obtener en el futuro otros nuevos, que permitan a estos doctores ser líderes y personas de confianza en grandes empresas, administración y educación. Todo ello se consigue haciendo atrayente la búsqueda del conocimiento general y específico, estimular la crítica y el buscar las soluciones al problema planteado.

Todo esto basado en la comunicación y en el respeto mutuo profesor – doctorando, y como es normal en el currículo de cada uno de los profesores que forman el claustro docente de doctorado, reconocido por sus amplios méritos investigadores, docentes y asistenciales.

• Basic skills

  • Systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of research skills and methods related to that field.
  • Ability to conceive, design or create, to implement and adopt a substantial research or creation process.
  • Ability to contribute to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge through original research.
  • Ability to carry out a critical analysis and evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
  • Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their areas of knowledge in the modes and languages commonly used in their international scientific community.
  • Ability to promote, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic or cultural progress within a society based on knowledge.

• Other competencies

  Develop an ethical and responsible culture and attitude in aspects such as animal and human research, data management and publications.
  • Specialisation in biomedical, ecological and biotechnological aspects.
  • Advanced training in research techniques and leadership ability to lead competitive multidisciplinary teams in both academic and professional contexts.
  • Handle the qualitative and quantitative techniques necessary for the design of experiments in the field of veterinary sciences.
  • Be able to identify the main research challenges within the field of veterinary sciences.
  • Be able to publish one's own research in internationally referenced publications in the field of Veterinary Sciences.

This doctoral programme enables the training of highly qualified professionals, with a profile in demand by different sectors of society. A large number of graduates find employment in the field of teaching and research, especially as professors at different universities. We can also highlight the industrial sector's demand for students trained in this doctoral programme, in order to bring research and innovation to agricultural companies that allow them to improve their competitiveness. Finally, it is also interesting to point out the creation of technological companies and Start-Ups by some students who completed their doctorates within the Veterinary Medicine and Health Programme.

In short, this doctoral programme allows future graduates to open new, more specialised and more promising career opportunities.

The main objective of this Masters degree is to train professionals and researchers in aquaculture; professionals with a solid recognised training at job level and researchers whose training allows them to carry out their research, with cutting-edge technologies, while keeping abreast of problems in production processing.