Program Access Information

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

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

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

Prospective applicants should take note of the following information:

• 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/
• Guidance for new students: https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/consejos-para-nuevos-estudiantes/

In addition, the pre-enrolment process for PhD studies is managed through the general pre-enrolment system of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). This provides applicants with an online platform that can be accessed from anywhere.

The online application system includes admission quota management, which ensures that the number of admissions established for the programme is not exceeded.

The admission of each applicant requires two approvals: approval from the Doctoral School, which ensures compliance with the minimum requirements established in Royal Decree 99/2011, and approval from the Academic Committee of the PhD Programme (CAPD), which ensures compliance with the requirements set out in the programme verification report, in accordance with the established criteria and the Evaluation Index (IV) score obtained by each applicant.

The admission profiles are defined below. The recommended admission profile does not require any additional training, whereas the additional admission profiles do.

Recommended Admission Profile: applicants to the PhD Programme in Geomatics Engineering are recommended to have an academic or professional background that includes some of the following specific competences:

• CE1: Understand the physical and mathematical principles underlying geomatics disciplines.
• CE2: Understand the principles and use of sensors and equipment for acquiring georeferenced data, including their measurement capabilities and limitations.
• CE3: Acquire, store, process and represent geomatics information, and assess its quality.
• CE4: Understand and integrate spatial-information metadata into cartographic applications.
• CE5: Configure geoinformation servers and develop geoportals.
• CE6: Design interoperable systems and services based on geomatics data.
• CE7: Perform spatial analysis using databases and geospatial imagery.
• CE8: Integrate geographic information into spatial planning for environmental risk assessment.
• CE9: Apply techniques for representing, visualising and modelling spatial information.
• CE10: Apply artificial intelligence tools in the field of geomatics.

These competences may be acquired through Bachelor’s degrees in Geomatics and Surveying Engineering, Geomatics Engineering or Geospatial Information Technologies, together with one of the Master’s degrees offered in Spain that covers some of the competences listed above, such as:

• Master’s Degree in Geomatics and Geoinformation from the UPV.
• Master’s Degree in Geomatics Applied to Engineering and Architecture (GAIA) at the UPM.
• Master’s Degree in Seismic Risk Analysis Using Geospatial Technologies (MARS) from the UPM.
• Master’s Degree in Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) from the UPM.
• Master’s Degree in Geotechnological Cartography in Engineering and Architecture (University of Salamanca).
• Master’s Degree in Valuation, Cadastral Surveys, and Geographic Information Systems in Rural and Natural Environments (Miguel Hernández University of Elche).
• Master’s Degree in Geomatics, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Models Applied to Forest Management (University of Córdoba).
• Master’s Degree in Geographic Information Systems (Pontifical University of Salamanca).
• Master’s Degree in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (University of Oviedo).
• Master’s Degree in Geotechnology and GIS Project Development (University of Oviedo).
• Master’s Degree in Geomatics and Navigation (Polytechnic University of Catalonia).
• Master’s Degree in Cartographic and Geographic Engineering (Polytechnic University of Catalonia).
• Master’s Degree in Specialization in Geotechnologies for Surveying in Engineering (University of Extremadura).
• Master’s Degree in Sustainable Land and Territorial Management (University of Santiago de Compostela).
• Master’s Degree in Geographic Information Technologies (University of Alcalá).
• Master’s Degree in Remote Sensing (University of Valencia).
• Master’s Degree in Geodesy and Applied Geophysics (University of Jaén).

The former pre-Bologna degree in Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry, as well as equivalent degrees awarded by foreign universities, shall be considered equivalent to this Bachelor’s and Master’s degree pathway.

Other Admission Profiles 

Both the UPM and the UPV may admit applicants whose profiles differ from the recommended admission profile, provided that they demonstrate at least a 50% match with the required admission competences and complete additional training to acquire the missing competences.

Access Requirements

The access requirements are those established in Article 6 of Royal Decree 99/2011 of 28 January, which regulates official PhD studies, as amended by Royal Decree 576/2023 of 4 July:

1. As a general rule, access to an official PhD programme requires an official Spanish Bachelor’s degree, or an equivalent degree, and an official Spanish Master’s degree, or an equivalent degree, provided that at least 300 ECTS credits have been completed across both degree programmes.
2. Access shall also be granted to applicants who meet any of the following conditions: a) Hold official Spanish University degrees, or equivalent Spanish degrees, provided that at least 300 ECTS credits have been completed through these degree programmes and that level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education has been attained. b) Hold a degree awarded under an education system within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), without the need for official recognition, which certifies level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework, provided that the degree grants access to PhD studies in the country in which it was awarded. Under no circumstances shall such admission imply official recognition of the applicant’s previous degree or its recognition for any purpose other than access to PhD studies. c) Hold a degree awarded under an education system outside the EHEA, without the need for official recognition, provided that the University verifies that the degree certifies a level of education equivalent to that of an official Spanish University Master’s degree and grants access to PhD studies in the country in which it was awarded. Under no circumstances shall such admission imply official recognition of the applicant’s previous degree or its recognition for any purpose other than access to PhD studies. d) Hold another PhD degree. e) University graduates who, having obtained a specialised healthcare training position through the corresponding entrance examination, have successfully completed at least two years of a training programme leading to an official qualification in one of the Health Sciences specialisations.

Admission Criteria

Regarding the programme’s specific admission criteria, the UPV requires the following:

• A letter of support from the proposed PhD supervisor. Information on the various research teams and their research areas is available on the programme website. For each team, the members of academic staff, their research profiles and their contact details are also provided.
• Preliminary PhD Dissertation Proposal: a template to be completed in Spanish and English, including the proposed dissertation topic, an abstract and selected bibliographic references. It must be endorsed and signed by the proposed PhD supervisor. It is available online at: https://www.upv.es/entidades/dicgf/documentacion/.

At the UPM, applications must meet the following requirements:

• The applicant’s academic and professional background and general PhD dissertation proposal—which may already be outlined in the motivation letter—must be aligned with the programme’s research areas. This is equivalent to the Preliminary PhD Dissertation Proposal required by the UPV.
• As a specific programme requirement, a researcher participating in the programme must confirm in writing their willingness to supervise the future PhD dissertation. This is equivalent to the letter of support required by the UPV.

Given the international nature of PhD research and the need to consult specialised scientific literature, applicants are recommended to have an adequate command of academic English, equivalent to at least level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Applicants whose native language is not Spanish should demonstrate an adequate command of Spanish and/or ensure effective communication with their PhD supervisor in a common language.

At both the UPV and the UPM, applications to this PhD programme are assessed using the Evaluation Index (IV). Applicants are assessed on a scale from 0 to 100 points, and those obtaining an IV score of 60 points or more shall be admitted to the PhD programme:

IV = 20 * E + 30 * T + 50 * M

Where:

• E: the weighting factor for the overall academic record, covering undergraduate and postgraduate studies, based on the overall average grade on a normalised scale from 0 to 1.
• T: the weighting factor for the Bachelor’s degree.
• M: the weighting factor for postgraduate education.

The values assigned to factors T and M are as follows:

Bachelor’s degree:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Geomatics and Surveying Engineering or the former pre-Bologna degree in Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry: T = 1.
• Degrees in Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Architecture, Environmental Sciences, Agri-Food Engineering, Forestry Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Physics, Geography or Mathematics, or other degrees deemed appropriate by the Academic Committee: T = 0.75.

Master’s degree:

• Master’s degrees covering at least 50% of the competences specified in section 3.1 shall be assigned M = 0.50. This category applies to Master’s degrees unrelated to the Bachelor’s degrees listed above.
• Master’s degrees covering between 80% and 100% of the competences specified in section 3.1 shall be assigned M = 1.
• Master’s degrees covering at least 75% of the competences specified in section 3.1 shall be assigned M = 0.75. This category applies to Master’s degrees related to Bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Architecture, Environmental Sciences, Agri-Food Engineering, Forestry Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, Physics, Geography or Mathematics.

There are two distinct admission profiles: the recommended admission profile, which does not require any additional training, and other admission profiles, which do require additional training.

As established by the applicable regulations, this specific additional training must be successfully completed during the initial stage of the PhD dissertation and within a maximum period of one academic year. For other admission profiles, the Academic Committee may assign up to 20 ECTS credits of additional training. To determine the courses to be assigned according to gaps in the student’s admission competences, the CAPD shall use the table below, which identifies the competences most effectively developed by each proposed course.

The Master’s degrees through which students may acquire these competences are:

• Master’s Degree in Geomatics Engineering and Geotechnologies, in the case of the UPV.
• Master’s Degree in Geomatics Applied to Engineering and Architecture (GAIA).
• Master’s Degree in Seismic Risk Analysis Using Geospatial Technologies (MARS).
• Master’s Degree in Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT).

The courses from the UPV Master’s Degree in Geomatics and Geoinformation through which students may acquire these competences are:

• UPV-1. Geostatistics and Multivariate Analysis.
• UPV-2. Programming for Geospatial Applications.
• UPV-3. Positioning.
• UPV-4. Sensor Georeferencing and Navigation.
• UPV-5. Geospatial Applications on Mobile Devices.
• UPV-6. Distribution of Spatial Information.
• UPV-7. Web Development and Geoportals.
• UPV-8. GIS Application Development.
• UPV-9. Remote Sensing and Map Updating.
• UPV-10. Environmental Cartographic Models.
• UPV-11. Urban Planning and Cadastral Surveying.
• UPV-12. Geovisualization and Modeling.
• UPV-13. Instrumentation for Spatial Data Acquisition.
• UPV-14. Heritage Documentation Techniques.
• UPV-15. Big Data and Geospatial Data Mining.
• UPV-16. Geospatial Content Managers and Smart Cities.
• UPV-17. Geospatial Applications for Geomarketing.

At the UPM, the additional training courses correspond to the compulsory courses from the Master’s degrees listed above:

• UPM-1. Programming for Geospatial Applications (5 ECTS, GAIA).
• UPM-2. Sensor Integration Applied to Photogrammetry (5 ECTS, GAIA).
• UPM-3. Earth Observation Using Remote Sensing Systems (5 ECTS, GAIA).
• UPM-4. Web Development and Geoportals (5 ECTS, GAIA).
• UPM-5. Geodetic Network Adjustment and GNSS Data Processing (5 ECTS, GAIA).
• UPM-6. Seismology (4 ECTS, MARS).
• UPM-7. Seismic Hazard (4 ECTS, MARS).
• UPM-8. Remote Sensing Applied to Seismic Risk Assessment (6 ECTS, MARS).
• UPM-9. Acquisition, Analysis and Visualisation of Geospatial Data (4 ECTS, MARS).
• UPM-10. Artificial Intelligence Applied to Geoinformation (GeoAI) (6 ECTS, GEOINT).
• UPM-11. Machine Learning Projects in Geoinformation (4 ECTS, GEOINT).

For the purposes of public tuition fees, this additional training shall be considered PhD-level training, and the applicable fee shall be that established in the Public Tuition Fee Decree of the Valencian Community or the Community of Madrid, respectively. In the case of joint programmes, students shall pay the fee established in the agreement signed by the participating universities, where applicable, or, in the absence of such an agreement, the fee established by the university at which they are enrolled.