Loyola Doctorados

Members of the academic committee:

Araceli de los Rios (Coordinator of the Inclusive and Sustainable Development Program)

Maria José Montero Simó (program professor and line sponsor)

Antonio Sianes Castaño (program professor and line sponsor)

Juan Antonio Senent de Frutos (program professor and line sponsor)

Mª Luz Ortega Carpio (program professor)

Rafael Angel Araque Padilla (program professor)

Responsibilities of the Program's Academic Committee.

1) Each of Loyola University's Doctoral Programs will have an Academic Committee and a Director.

2) The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program is responsible for the academic coordination, updating, and excellence of the corresponding Doctoral Program, as well as for monitoring and supervising the activities carried out by doctoral students, tutors, and doctoral thesis directors.

a) The Academic Committee will be made up of the Director of the Doctoral Program and four doctors with recognized research prestige belonging to the lines of research associated with the program. The researchers who form the group of professors responsible for or endorsing the program will be ex officio members of the Academic Committee. The remaining members shall be appointed by the Vice-Rector for Research from among the doctoral professors of the corresponding program.

b) The director of the Doctoral Program will be one of its professors responsible for or endorsing the program. He or she will be appointed by the Rector, at the proposal of the Vice-Rector for Research. He or she will direct the Doctoral Program and convene and chair the Academic Committee of the Program.

       c) The Academic Committee's functions with regard to the supervision of the Doctoral Program are:

i) To organize and coordinate the training and research activities of the Doctoral Program.

ii) To plan and evaluate the acquisition of skills by doctoral students in the Doctoral Program.

iii) To propose to the School Board new lines of research to be incorporated into the Doctoral Program, the maximum number of students to be admitted, and to define the criteria for their selection.

iv) To inform the School Board about the candidates to be admitted to the Doctoral Program.

v) Advise the EDOC on the additional training required for students who need it.

vi) Manage, monitor, control, and evaluate the mobility activities of the Doctoral Program.

vii) Advise the School Board on any additional requirements that may apply to the incorporation of new research groups and the supervision, direction, and reading of doctoral theses.

viii) Report on the incorporation and separation of professors in the Doctoral Program.

ix) Monitor doctoral graduates from the Doctoral Program.

x) Provide and manage the information necessary to maintain the accreditations of the Doctoral Program, as well as that necessary for the University's quality systems. Specifically, it is the responsibility of the Academic Committee to keep the information on the Doctoral Program up to date on the University's website.

xi) Resolve all issues relating to the Doctoral Program.

xii) Any other function that may be assigned to it by the EDOC Management.

       d) The Academic Committee's functions with regard to doctoral students are as follows:

i) To monitor, control, and evaluate the Activity Documents of doctoral students, their Research Plans, and their annual Monitoring Reports.

ii) To assign the tutor and director of the students' Doctoral Thesis.

iii) To approve the students' first doctoral thesis project.

iv) To authorize part-time doctoral studies, as well as to authorize changes in study mode.

v) To evaluate co-supervision proposals and report to the School Board.

vi) To ensure that theses submitted for reading meet the minimum requirements.

vii) Authorize requests for international recognition.

viii) Propose to the School Board the members of the committee that will evaluate a doctoral thesis, determining the permanent and alternate members.

3) The Academic Committee of a Doctoral Program may be dissolved by the Rector.

Minutes repository

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Meetings held to date:

Tentative dates for the upcoming meetings:

* These dates are subject to change if so decided by the Academic Committee.

Permanence Regulations

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Information on places for the degree

Regulations for the transfer and recognition of academic credits

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Permanence Regulations

Download Permanence Regulations

Information on places for the degree

Regulations for the transfer and recognition of academic credits

Download the regulations

Loyola University regards itself as a Doctoral Research University and, as stated in Art. 55 of its General Academic Regulations, is particularly interested in its teaching and research staff developing the necessary skills and competences to supervise doctoral theses.

In order to encourage and promote this academic and scientific activity, Loyola University awards 150 points per thesis supervised in its staff assessment system. In this regard, it should be noted that a full-time lecturer must earn at least 1,000 points per year (other positions have proportional reductions). In this same section, it awards 300 points for an article indexed in the JCR, 50 points for a communication/paper/poster and 25 points per credit (10 hours) for teaching at doctoral level.

Documents and tools to facilitate the management and supervision work carried out by tutors and supervisors of doctoral training activities and doctoral theses

As stated in point 5 of Article 54 of the General Academic Regulations of Loyola University:

Each doctoral student and their tutor and thesis supervisor will sign a documentary supervision agreement. This agreement will be signed as soon as possible after admission and will include the procedure for settling disputes and aspects relating to any intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise in the context of the doctoral programme.

Its signature implies an agreement between the University, the PhD student and their tutor and thesis supervisor(s), and to this end, the signatories take on a commitment regarding the supervisory functions, the dispute settlement procedure, and any aspects relating to intellectual property that may arise in the course of the doctoral thesis within the scope of the doctoral programme.

The Doctoral School has developed resources to make it easier for tutors and supervisors to follow up doctoral students:

• The Doctoral Student Follow-up and Support Plan, which aims to improve the supervision and support of tutors and supervisors through different actions that allow for the comprehensive training of the doctoral student.

• SIAP Guide for tutors and supervisors, which describes the details of the documentation management platform where tutors and supervisors store all the information related to the doctoral programme.

• Guide for the teaching staff of the Doctoral School, which defines the steps and tasks to be carried out by the teaching staff of the doctoral programmes.

• Protocol for teaching in the Doctoral School, which lists the steps to be carried out by the teaching staff to ensure that the classes are carried out properly.

• Documents referring to the training plan, which are those relating to the planning and follow-up meetings that must be held between the doctoral student and their tutor and supervisor(s) in order to design a training and research itinerary for each academic year, ensuring the smooth progress of their doctoral thesis.

In accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 99/2011 of 28 January, the follow-up of the doctoral programme is the responsibility of the academic committee and, in accordance with Article 52 of the General Academic Regulations, the composition and functions of the latter are as follows:

The functions of the academic committee are as follows:

1. To propose the appointment of the thesis supervisor and co-supervisor to the Director of the Doctoral School and, once the thesis has been read, the change thereof, provided that there are legitimate reasons for doing so.

2. To propose the appointment of the doctoral student's tutor to the Director of the Doctoral School and, once the thesis has been read, the change thereof, provided that there are legitimate reasons for doing so.

3. To carry out the annual assessment of the doctoral student's research plan and activity document.

4. To review the documentation provided by the doctoral student for the doctoral thesis and to authorise or reject the defence of the thesis, submitting a reasoned report on its decision.

5. To authorise the proposed examining board, if appropriate.

6. Any other duties assigned to it by the regulations in force.

Article 54. Doctoral students

1. The status of doctoral student shall be acquired provided that annual enrolment has been made at the university for the academic supervision of the doctoral programme.
2. In the case of joint programmes, the respective agreement shall establish the manner in which the enrolment shall be carried out.
3. Each doctoral student shall be assigned a tutor from among the lecturers on the programme. Their mission is to advise the doctoral student so that they can carry out their research work in optimum conditions.
4. Each student on a doctoral programme shall be assigned a thesis supervisor within a maximum of three months after enrolment.
5. Doctoral students shall be provided with a document of doctoral activities in which all training and research activities carried out by the doctoral student shall be recorded. It shall be regularly reviewed by the tutor and the thesis supervisor, and supervised annually by the academic committee responsible for the doctoral programme.
6. Each doctoral student and their tutor and thesis supervisor will sign a documentary supervision agreement. This agreement will be signed as soon as possible after admission and will include the procedure for settling disputes and aspects relating to any intellectual or industrial property rights that may arise in the context of the doctoral programme.
7. Before the end of the year, each doctoral student under second and subsequent years of academic supervision shall draw up a progress report, which shall be endorsed by their thesis supervisor and tutor, and shall include at least the following aspects: monitoring of the timing and progress of the thesis.
8. The academic committee's assessment of the research plan and the progress report, together with the reports issued for this purpose by the supervisor and tutor, may be positive or negative. In the latter case, the doctoral student will be asked to submit a new research plan or progress report within six months. If the assessment continues to be negative or the report is not submitted, the academic committee shall issue a report explaining the reasons for the student's definitive withdrawal from the programme.
9. Both figures (tutor and supervisor) shall hold a doctoral degree and have proven research experience. To make this assignment, the academic committee of the doctoral programme shall use the following procedure:

Process and criteria for assigning a tutor

The academic committee shall assign a tutor to each doctoral student at the time of admission, in accordance with the following criteria:

• The tutor shall always be a lecturer from the doctoral programme and from the line of research in which the doctoral student is carrying out their doctoral thesis. A tutor may be assigned to one or more doctoral students.
• The tutor may also be the supervisor (or one of the supervisors) of the doctoral thesis, provided that they meet the requirements of the regulations and are approved by the academic committee of the doctoral programme.
• The tutor assigned shall be the same for all years of doctoral training unless one of the parties involved requests otherwise. In such cases, the programme coordinator, with the approval of the academic committee, shall be responsible for issuing a decision.