Royal Decree 99/2011, of January 28, 2011 which regulates official doctoral studies, establishes: On an annual basis, the Academic Committee of the program will evaluate the progress of the doctoral candidate in terms of the research plan and the document of activities, together with the reports to be issued by the Director and/or the tutor for this purpose. In the event that the Academic Committee detects important deficiencies, the doctoral student must be reevaluated within a maximum period of six months. In the event that the deficiencies continue to occur, the Academic Committee must issue a reasoned report, after hearing the interested party, and the doctoral candidate will be definitively withdrawn from the program.
In the case of the Universitat Politècnica de València , the steps of this process are as follows::
- During the month of June, and regardless of the date of registration, the doctoral student will submit an annual self-evaluation report regarding the progress of their research plan and experiences in the doctoral program using the Thesis Management platform.
- This report will be reviewed by the thesis supervisor(s) and/or tutor during the first two weeks of July. They will issue an evaluation in the Thesis Management platform to be taken into account by the Academic Committee (CAPD). The supervisors (or tutor) may ask the student to improve the report, for which he/she will have 5 additional days.
- The CAPD will evaluate the Student Activity Record: research plan and specific training activities, together with the self-evaluation report and the evaluation issued by the director (or tutor). A positive evaluation is a prerequisite for continuing in the program.
In the event of a negative evaluation by the CAPD, which will be duly motivated, the doctoral candidate must be re-evaluated starting in December, for which purpose a new self-evaluation report must be prepared and evaluated by the thesis supervisor (or tutor). In the event of a second negative evaluation, the doctoral candidate will be definitively withdrawn from the program for non-compliance with the UPV regulations for continuance in doctoral studies.
Important dates and deadlines for the annual evaluation process
– Student self-evaluation report: from June 1 to June 30.
– Evaluation by the director: until July 20. Deadline for improvements, if necessary (5 days).
– Evaluation by the Academic Committee of the program: September.
In the event of receiving a negative evaluation from the academic committee in September, the process will be repeated starting in December:
– Self-evaluation report submitted by the doctoral student: from December 1st to December 31st.
– Evaluation by the director: 1st half of January. Deadline for improvements, if necessary (5 days).
– Evaluation by the Academic Committee of the program: February.
In the case of receiving a second negative evaluation by the Academic Committee in February, the process of withdrawal from the doctoral program will be initiated for non-compliance with the rules of permanence in doctoral studies.
How to complete your self-evaluation progress report
Access the Thesis Management application from your personal INTRANET page (as a student), or from the following address: http://aplicat.upv.es/tesis-app
If you are already logged in, the application will load directly, otherwise it will ask for identification (ID and password).
The option to complete your self-evaluation report can be found in the menu of Elaboration phase // Annual Progress report- Self-evaluation. You must click on the row that appears in blue.
Once in the self-evaluation form, you must complete all four sections:
– Percentage of completion of the proposed objectives (%)
– Summary of results obtained
– Dissemination (participation in congresses, articles, chapters, …)
– Interaction with the thesis supervisor
In addition, if your first enrollment is/was in the 2024/2025 academic year or later, you must also report on the percentage of completion of the training plan of your thesis or on possible deviations from the original, when applicable.
As the self-evaluation is being prepared, it can be saved (“Save” button) and continued later.
The maximum number of characters for each field is 4000.
You can paste text into the fields from another text document (a plain text editor such as Windows Notepad is recommended; editors such as Word may introduce unrecognizable characters when cutting and pasting). If you use the “copy/paste” option, do not forget to check how this information is displayed once saved.
To finalize the self-evaluation report and submit it, click on the “Validate” button. Once the report has been validated, it cannot be modified.
CAUTION: If the self-evaluation report is not validated, it will be considered as incomplete and it will not be reviewed.
During the review period by the thesis supervisor, the student may be asked to improve the self-evaluation report. In these cases, the student will be given a period of 5 days to incorporate the improvements indicated by the supervisor.
The thesis supervisor may only request these improvements in cases where a student has completed his or her self-evaluation report .
The final evaluation of the thesis supervisor will be ‘Favorable’ or ‘Unfavorable’ and may include observations.
In all cases, the report will also be reviewed by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program. And the committee must also issue its evaluation, which will be ‘Favorable’ or ‘Unfavorable’.
In the latter case, the student must submit a new self-evaluation report in December, as explained above.
The results of the evaluations by the Academic Committee will appear in the student’s academic record.
Other actions to review when submitting your self-evaluation report
At the time of submitting your self-evaluation report you have the opportunity to:
- Propose a change in the proposed title of your thesis.
- Update the information regarding the SDGs on which your thesis has an impact.
- Incorporate the ethics committee report in those cases in which it is required. Remember that if you detected that you are obliged to request authorization from the Research Ethics Committee when you submitted your research plan, and you did not upload the Ethics Committee approval at the time, you are obliged to upload it during the next annual evaluation period after approval of the research plan.
These changes will be revised by the thesis supervisor and by the Academic Committee during this same annual evaluation process.
Frequently Asked Questions
I have just registered for my PhD and I have not yet obtained the approval of my research plan.
The regulation establishes that the research plan must be approved by the Academic Committee within one year after the date of the first registration. If you have just enrolled and you still do not have the research plan approved, you must still submit your self-evaluation report. In these cases, indicate your situation (recently registered) and confirm that you do not have the research plan approved yet.
If the one-year period has passed since your first registration and your research plan is still not approved (or the one-year period expires within the progress evaluation period) you must first submit your research plan and then complete the self-evaluation report. Otherwise, the Academic Committee will issue an Unfavorable evaluation.
I am on sick leave at the time of the self-evaluation report.
If you have been active at any time during the course to be evaluated (September 1 through August 31) you must complete self-evaluation report process. If for any reason you are unable to complete the self-evaluation report, contact your thesis supervisor so that they can take this into account at the time of evaluation.
Only in cases where the leave is registered and covers the entire course, are you exempt from submitting the self-evaluation report.
I did not submit my self-evaluation report on time.:
1.- You will no longer be able to submit it through the platform.
Prepare your self-evaluation report in a document that includes the Percentage of completion of the objectives, Summary of the results obtained, Dissemination (participation in congresses, articles, chapters, …) and Interaction with the thesis director.
If this occurs between July 1-15 (deadline for your thesis supervisor(s) to evaluate your progress), send it to them and ask them to complete their evaluation and upload the document to your repository on the Thesis Management platform.
If this occurs between September 1-30 (deadline for the Academic Committee of your Program to evaluate your progress), send your self-evaluation report to your supervisors and ask them to contact the academic committee of your program, including their evaluation of your progress, so that the committee can register their evaluation, and upload the document to your repository in the Thesis Management platform.
5.- If all these deadlines have passed, your Academic Committee will have issued an Unfavorable evaluation and you will have to repeat the process in December.
I forgot to include key information in the self-evaluation report and I have already validated it.
If this occurs between July 1-15 (deadline for your thesis supervisors to evaluate your progress), ask them to request improvements to your self-evaluation report. This will give you 5 extra days to make the corresponding corrections.
My thesis advisor has issued an Unfavorable evaluation of my self-evaluation report.
Your self-evaluation report will also be reviewed by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program. And the committee must also issue its evaluation, which may be ‘Favorable’ or ‘Unfavorable’.
My Academic Committee issued an Unfavorable evaluation of my self-evaluation report.
In case of an Unfavorable evaluation by the Academic Committee, the evaluation process will be repeated. The doctoral student must submit a new self-evaluation report in December, which will be reviewed first by the thesis supervisor and then by the Academic Committee of the program. You will receive a notification when the self-evaluation process opens in December.
In the event of a second Unfavorable evaluation issued by the Academic Committee, the process of withdrawal from the doctoral program will be initiated for non-compliance with the UPV regulations for continuance in doctoral studies.