Program Access Information

Information for prospective PhD students is available on the UPV Doctoral School’s website:

https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/

All published information is available in three languages (Spanish, Valencian, and English).

The following points of interest for new applicants are worth noting:

• Information about the pre-registration process and its deadlines: https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/presenta-tu-solicitud-2025/
• Information on the various PhD programmes offered: https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/todos-los-programas-de-doctorado-ofertados-en-upv/
• Tips for new students: https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/consejos-para-nuevos-estudiantes/

In addition, the pre-registration process for PhD programmes is managed through the general pre-registration system of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). This provides applicants with an online platform that makes the process accessible regardless of their location.

The application includes enrollment management, which ensures that the number of admissions set by the program is not exceeded.

The admission of each candidate requires two approvals: approval from the Doctoral School, which ensures compliance with the minimum requirements set forth in Royal Decree 99/2011, and approval from the PhD programme’s academic committee (CAPD), which ensures compliance with the requirements outlined in the verification report, in accordance with the established criteria and the evaluation index (IV) score achieved by each candidate.

The program is aimed at graduates with a background in architecture, in any of its areas: theory, architectural design, interior design, construction technology, urban planning, land-use planning, landscape architecture, and architectural heritage conservation. The skills and knowledge required are those typically acquired through bachelor’s and master’s degree programs that qualify graduates to practice professions related to these disciplines.

The reference degree (recommended profile = no additional coursework) covers three cases:

• Architecture graduates from programs established before the Bologna Process, who are admitted without needing a master’s degree, and Architecture degrees at MECES Level 3.
• Undergraduate degree in Fundamentals of Architecture or an equivalent foreign degree (A) MECES Level 2 + a university master’s degree (including the Qualifying Master’s).
• Undergraduate degree in Technical Architecture or Building Engineering, or an equivalent foreign degree (A) MECES Level 2 + university master’s degree.

The university master’s programs referred to here can be of two types:

• Directly related to the field of architecture: Architecture (foundational), Architectural Heritage, Urban Planning, Land Use Planning, Landscape Architecture, Building Construction, Construction Materials, Interior Design (specific master’s degree programs are not listed; rather, thematic fields are indicated).
• Indirectly related to the field of architecture: Visual Arts, Cultural Heritage Management, Development Cooperation, Land Use and Transportation, Environment, Industrial Construction, Design, Geomatics, Project Management (specific master’s degree programs are not listed; rather, thematic fields are indicated).

Applicants must be Spanish or foreign students who meet the legal admission requirements set forth in Royal Decree 99/2011, with a prior undergraduate degree in Architecture or Building Engineering and a master’s degree in the same fields with a strong research focus. Preference will be given to candidates whose professional experience and/or graduate-level education align with the proposed PhD research topic. Particular preference will be given to applicants with knowledge of English (minimum level B2 or equivalent on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, CEFR).

Other Admission Profiles These other admission profiles require the assignment of supplementary coursework. As an alternative to the recommended admission profile, the following degrees are considered: Civil Engineering, Materials Engineering, Design, Art History, Archaeology (or equivalents). All of these must be accompanied by the corresponding master’s degree if they are undergraduate degrees awarded after the Bologna Process came into effect. In these cases, supplementary coursework must be completed, which will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the Academic Committee. All other cases will not be accepted, except for duly justified exceptions that are positively evaluated by the Academic Committee with a specific report.

Admission Requirements

The admission requirements are those set forth in Article 6 of Royal Decree 99/2011, dated January 28, which regulates official PhD programmes, as amended by Royal Decree 576/2023, dated July 4:

1. In general, admission to an official PhD programme requires holding official Spanish undergraduate degrees, or their equivalents, and master’s degrees, or their equivalents, provided that at least 300 ECTS credits have been earned across these two programs combined.
2. In addition, admission is open to those who meet any of the following criteria: a) Hold official Spanish university degrees or equivalent Spanish degrees, provided they have earned at least 300 ECTS credits across these programs and demonstrate Level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education. b) Hold a degree obtained under foreign educational systems belonging to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), without the need for equivalency recognition, that attests to Level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework, provided that said degree qualifies the holder for admission to PhD studies in the country where it was issued. Under no circumstances shall this admission imply the equivalence of the applicant’s prior degree or its recognition for any purpose other than admission to PhD studies. c) Hold a degree obtained under foreign educational systems outside the EHEA, without the need for equivalency, provided the university verifies that it attests to a level of education equivalent to that of the official Spanish university Master’s degree and that it qualifies the holder for admission to PhD studies in the country where the degree was issued. Under no circumstances shall this admission imply the equivalence of the applicant’s prior degree or its recognition for any purpose other than admission to PhD studies. d) Hold another PhD. e) University graduates who, after securing a training position through the corresponding entrance examination for specialized health training positions, have successfully completed at least two years of training in a program leading to the official degree in one of the specialties in Health Sciences may also be admitted.

Given the international nature of PhD research and the need to access specialized scientific literature, it is recommended that candidates have a sufficient level of academic comprehension and communication in English, equivalent to at least level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. For students whose native language is not Spanish, it is desirable that they have an adequate level of Spanish comprehension and/or that they can communicate fluently with their thesis supervisor in a common language. All communications, information, and cross-disciplinary training offered by the Doctoral School are available in Spanish, English, and Valencian.

Admission Criteria

As for the program’s specific admission criteria, we have:

• Endorsement from the faculty members who will supervise the thesis. Candidates will have access to information about the various research teams and their areas of focus through the program’s website. For each team, the faculty members who comprise it, their research profiles, and their contact information are also listed.
• Preliminary Thesis Proposal: Candidates must submit a thesis proposal using the template available on the website. This proposal is required due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the need to understand the thesis’s focus so that the Academic Committee can make the appropriate decisions regarding admission. In the proposal, the applicant must indicate, in addition to the proposed thesis title and supervisor, the rationale (scientific justification), general objective, methodology, work plan, and a preliminary bibliography.

The program’s Academic Committee will be responsible for evaluating student admissions by applying an evaluation index (EI) on a scale of 0 to 100 points. Students who score at least 70 points will be admitted to the PhD programme. The EI will be calculated as indicated in the following scenarios:

1. For applicants with a master’s degree (or an equivalent combination of foreign degrees), the following formula applies: IV = 25f E + 25f T + 40f M + 10f O, where f E is the weighting factor for the academic record for all studies (undergraduate and graduate), based on the overall grade point average on a normalized scale from 0 to 1; f T is the weighting factor for the undergraduate degree; f_M is the weighting factor for graduate-level education; and f_O is a weighting factor between 0 and 1 based on other merits such as additional degrees, language proficiency, research and work experience, scholarships, awards, etc., to be evaluated by the Program’s Academic Committee.

The values for the factors f T and f M are given in the following table: Accredited undergraduate degree programs in:

• Architecture, Technical Architecture, Building Engineering (A): f T = 1
• Civil Engineering, Art History, Geography and History, Fine Arts, Materials Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, or similar degrees (B): f T = 0.75
• Other degrees to be evaluated by the CA based on their relevance to the program’s content (C): fT = 1–0.5

Accredited graduate programs in:

• Master’s Degree in Architectural Heritage Conservation, offered at the UPV; Master’s Degree in Building Construction, offered at the UPV; Master’s Degree in Advanced Architecture, Landscape, Urban Planning, and Design, offered at the UPV; Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Building Rehabilitation and Sustainability offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Industrialized Construction and Building Prototyping offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Habitat Innovation offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Architectural Interior Design offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture offered at the UPV, Master’s Degree in Architectural Heritage offered at the UPCT, Master’s Degree in Building Science and Technology in Architecture offered at the UPCT, Other master’s programs whose content is 100% aligned with the research areas addressed by the PhD programme (subject to prior evaluation by the Academic Committee) (D): f M = 1
• Other master’s programs whose curriculum is 75% aligned with the research areas covered by the PhD programme (subject to prior evaluation by the Academic Committee) (E): f M = 0.75
• Other master’s programs whose curriculum is 50% aligned with the research areas addressed by the PhD programme (subject to prior evaluation by the Academic Committee) (E): f M = 0.50

Only those who achieve a score of f M=1 will be exempt from taking supplementary courses and may enter the PhD programme directly. In the event of admission with supplementary coursework, the Academic Committee will determine the number of credits to be assigned based on the undergraduate and graduate coursework completed, as indicated in section 3.4.

2.- If an applicant does not hold a master’s degree but does hold an official Spanish undergraduate degree at the MECES Level 3, the following equation will apply: IV = 30f E + 60f T + 10*f O, where f E is the weighting factor for the academic record of the undergraduate degree program, based on the overall grade point average on a normalized scale from 0 to 1; f T is the weighting factor for the undergraduate degree, whose value is determined as shown in the table provided for the previous case; and f O: a weighting factor between 0 and 1 based on other merits such as additional degrees, languages, work experience, scholarships, etc., to be assessed by the Program’s Academic Committee.

The values taken by the factor f T are given in the following table:

• Degree in Architecture under the pre-Bologna system and Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture at MECES Level 3 (A): f T = 1
• Graduates with degrees in Civil Engineering, Art History,Geography and History, Fine Arts, Materials Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, or similar degrees with pre-Bologna qualifications or degrees at MECES Level 3 (B): f T = 0.75
• Other degrees to be evaluated by the CA based on their relevance to the program’s content (C): fT = 1–0.5

Only those who achieve an fT score of 1 will be exempt from taking supplementary courses and will be able to enter the PhD programme directly. In the case of admission with supplementary courses, the Academic Committee will determine the number of credits to be assigned based on the student’s undergraduate and graduate coursework.

There are two distinct admission profiles: the recommended admission profile, which does not require the assignment of supplementary courses, and other admission profiles, which do require the assignment of supplementary courses. As stipulated in the current regulations, these specific supplementary courses must be completed during the initial phase of the thesis, within a maximum of one academic year.

In the second case, the academic committee may award up to a maximum of 20 ECTS credits for supplementary courses in accordance with the following guidelines:

• Admission requirement with 100% affinity based on CA – fM coefficient = 1: 0 credits.
• Admission requirement with 75% affinity based on CA – fM coefficient = 0.75: 12 credits.
• Admission requirement with 50% affinity based on CA – fM coefficient = 0.5: 18 credits.
• Other qualifying degrees: 20 credits.

These supplementary courses can be taken through the ten master’s programs affiliated with the program:

• Master’s Degree in Building Rehabilitation and Sustainability.
• Master’s Degree in Industrialized Construction and Building Prototyping.
• Master’s Degree in Building Construction.
• Master’s Degree in Architectural Heritage Conservation.
• Master’s Degree in Innovation in Housing.
• Master’s Degree in Architectural Interior Design.
• Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture.
• Master’s Degree in Architectural Heritage.
• Master’s Degree in Building Technology.

The supplementary courses consist of taking courses of your choice from among those offered in the ten selected master’s programs, with a maximum of 20 ECTS and a minimum of 3 ECTS. Depending on your undergraduate degree, the assigned courses will be from the following areas:

• Other degrees: to be evaluated by the CAPD based on their relevance to the program’s content.
• Civil Engineer: Courses in the area of Architectural Composition and/or Architectural Construction.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Art History: Courses in the areas of Architectural Structures, Architectural and/or Urban Graphic Expression, and Land Use Planning.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and History: Courses in the areas of Architectural Structures, Architectural Drawing, Urban Planning and Land Use Planning, and/or Architectural Composition.
• Bachelor of Fine Arts: Courses in the areas of Architectural Design and Urban Planning and Land Use Planning and/or Architectural Design Projects.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Engineering: Courses in the areas of Architectural Composition, Architectural Design, and/or Urban Planning and Land Use Planning.
• Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design Engineering: Courses in the areas of Architectural Structures, Urban Planning and Land Use, and Architectural Composition.