FAQs
1. Access to doctoral studies
1.1 The offer of doctorate programs at the UPV
The UPV offers a total of 31 doctoral programs in the fields of Agrifood and Biotechnology, Architecture, Art, Science, Economics and Social Sciences, Civil Engineering, Industrial Engineering and ICT.
In this link you can find the current offer of doctoral programs of this university structured by fields of knowledge.
The information offered for each of the programs is very extensive. By clicking on the program you are interested in, you will obtain general information about the program, as well as specific information about it.
It should be taken into account that all programs recommend preparing a research plan or thesis project proposal prior to applying for admission, as well as having already arranged, with one of the researchers assigned to the doctoral program, the direction of the thesis and/or tutoring of the candidate during his or her doctoral studies.
In case you do not have a director or tutor, you can find information about research lines and research groups in the section “Organization of the doctoral program”. Each research group lists the researchers assigned to it, and you can access the contact address of all of them.
The information included in the sections is also very important:
- “Program Access Information”
- “Development of the doctorate” – “Specific and Cross-curricular training activities.
1.2 Requirements for access to a doctorate at the UPV
The requirements that the applicant must meet to be admitted are regulated by the Royal Decree 99/2011. Please note that the information shown here is only a summary. If you have any questions please contact the Doctoral School.
You can find more details about the access requirements in the following link.
The pre-enrollment or access request will be resolved by the Academic Committee of the program being applied for.
An application may:
- To be admitted
- Being rejected
- To be admitted with Complementos Formativos
Training Complements are assigned when the Academic Committee that studies the application considers that the candidate has a training deficiency to develop the thesis. In these cases it is required that the candidate completes a number of subjects of a master’s degree related to the program. You can find more information about the admission with Complementary Training in this link.
1.3 Documents to be provided to apply for access
The application for admission (pre-enrollment) to doctoral studies starts from this WEB SITE – Make a new pre-registration.
To complete the application you must provide the documentation listed in this link.
In addition to the related documentation, it is advisable to provide a research plan proposal (thesis project), being necessary to have agreed, before starting the application for admission, with one of the researchers assigned to the doctoral program, the direction of the thesis and/or tutoring of the candidate during his doctoral studies.
If any of the degrees you provide is from a non-Spanish university, you must consult with this link.
In case of degrees issued by states not belonging to the EHEA, the academic documents must be duly legalized. The deadline for submitting this documentation will be one year from the date of the first registration.
1.4 When to apply for access to doctorate. Deadlines
There will be two different periods for applying for access to doctoral studies. Each doctoral programme will confirm which period it chooses to receive applications, depending on its characteristics:
– Long period: from mid-June to mid-October.
– Short period: from the beginning of September to mid-October.
In addition, the doctoral programmes that do not cover all their vacancies in the initial period may open a second period from mid-November onwards.
You can check the exact dates at this link.
2. Enrollment in doctoral studies
2.1 First enrollment after admission
The pre-enrollment or access request will be resolved by the Academic Committee of the program being applied for.
An application may:
- To be admitted
- Being rejected
- To be admitted with Complementos Formativos
Training Complements are assigned when the Academic Committee that studies the application considers that the candidate has a training deficiency to develop the thesis. In these cases it is required that the candidate completes a number of subjects of a master’s degree related to the program. You can find more information about the admission with Complementary Training in this link.
Admission to a doctoral program is valid for two academic years. This means that the student can enroll in the same academic year in which he/she is admitted or in the following one.
It is VERY IMPORTANT that the enrollment is only formalized when the student is 100% sure that he/she wants to start the doctorate. If the completion of the thesis is conditioned to the obtaining of a pre-doctoral grant, the registration should not be formalized until this grant is obtained.
Although the citation for the management of this enrollment is done automatically at the time of admission (pre-enrollment) and the period offered is 10 days from admission (the general UPV), this period may be extended by requesting it to the Doctoral School through any channel.
Registration is done on-line through computer applications, starting from the personal page of INTRANET, once identified in the UPV systems as a student, and choosing the option Automatrícula from the Virtual Secretary’s Section.
Before enrolling, the candidate must bear in mind that the academic year begins in September and ends in July, regardless of the date on which the enrollment is formalized, so it is advisable to know the academic calendar of doctoral studies, as well as the structure of phases and development in the chosen program.
2.2 Tuition for other years
Royal Decree 99/2011
Article 11:
Doctoral students admitted to a doctoral program shall enroll annually.
Agreement of the Steering Committee of the Doctoral School of July 15, 2015.
Item 6:
The authorization of a temporary withdrawal requested after October 30 will not be grounds for reimbursement of tuition fees for the course in which it occurs.
Item 7:
Each academic year and until the defense of the doctoral thesis, doctoral students, both full-time and part-time, must register within the established period, for the concept of academic supervision as doctoral students. Without prejudice to the obligation to formalize the annual registration, the computation of the maximum period for the completion of the studies will not be interrupted even if the doctoral student has not registered. The obligation to enroll and the computation of the maximum period for the completion of studies shall not apply to doctoral students who are on leave of absence during the period of their leave. At the end of the period of leave, the doctoral student must register and resume the preparation of the thesis.
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Enrollment for the following academic year is automatically renewed during the second half of July.
Registration will NOT be automatically renewed in the following cases:
- The doctoral student has already defended the thesis in the current academic year.
- The defense of the thesis has already been announced (formal announcement by the president of the examining board) for September 30 of the following academic year.
- The doctoral student has assigned training complements that have not yet been passed. In this case, the student will be summoned to enroll in the second half of July of the academic year that is coming to an end.
2.3 Doing a doctorate on a part-time basis
The part-time enrollment regime is included, both in the national regulations, article 3 of the Royal Decree 99/2011as in points 3 and 5 of the institutional rules of permanence.
The application can be made at the time of applying for admission (pre-enrollment) or later, once enrollment has been formalized (through the student’s INTRANET, Virtual Secretary’s Office section, second column, applications, application for part-time enrollment).
Once the request has been approved by the Academic Committee of the program, the partial dedication will be maintained in future enrollments, unless otherwise requested.
2.4 Fees and prices for doctoral studies at UPV
The tuition fees for university degrees in the Valencian Community are established each year by the responsible body of the Generalitat Valenciana (autonomous government).
You have the details of the academic fees (public prices) for this academic year in this address.
The general tuition fees per academic year (from September 1 to July 31 of the following year) are those corresponding to the following items:
- Enrollment in academic tutoring doctorate regulated by Royal Decree 99/2011. All courses that the student remains enrolled.
- Opening of academic record for beginning studies in a center. Only the first year enrolled.
- Issuance, maintenance or updating of identity cards.
In case of assignment of training complements, the fee will depend on the number of leveling credits required and the area of knowledge in which the doctoral program is framed.
3. Predoctoral Grants
3.1 Grants for doctoral studies
At present, and unlike what happens in Bachelor’s and Master’s studies, there are no national public scholarships to finance enrollment in doctoral studies.
There are so-called predoctoral contracts. These are employment contracts for the completion of the doctoral thesis and training within a research group of the Universitat Politècnica de València. These contracts are awarded in annual competitive calls, which are managed in each case by the institutions.
You can consult information related to pre-doctoral grants for the development of the doctorate in this link.
3.2 Management of predoctoral grant recipients
You can find information about the procedures carried out by the Doctoral School related to the beneficiaries of predoctoral grants in this address.
4. Development of the thesis
4.1 Duration of doctoral studies
4.2 The research plan and deadline for submitting it
The comprehensive research plan consists of the research plan itself that the researcher must carry out during the research process (research plan). It also includes a training plan indicating the foreseen planning of the transversal and specific activities to be carried out during the doctorate (for example: cross-curricular courses, congresses , publications, or stays abroad).
Your comprehensive research plan must be approved during the first year of enrollment.
More information:
4.3 Annual evaluation
The doctoral regulations stipulate that all theses must undergo an annual evaluation of the progress of the research plan.
During the month of June, and independently of the enrollment date, the doctoral student will make an annual self-evaluation report of his/her research plan and experiences in the doctoral program.
This report will be reviewed by the thesis director and/or tutor, who will issue, during the first two weeks of July, an evaluation that must be taken into account by the CAPD. The director or tutor may ask the student to improve the report, for which the student will have 5 additional days to the deadlines indicated.
The CAPD will evaluate the student’s Activity Record: research plan and specific training activities, together with the reports issued by the tutor or director. A positive evaluation will be a prerequisite for continuing in the program.
In case of negative evaluation, which will be duly motivated, the doctoral student must be re-evaluated within six months (second half of December), for which purpose a new research report will be prepared, reviewed by the thesis supervisor and/or tutor (January). In the event of a new negative evaluation (February), the doctoral student will be disassociated from the program.
You can find more details about the process at this link.
4.4 Training activities to be completed
According to the applicable regulations, doctoral training shall include, in addition to the completion of the doctoral thesis, the performance by the doctoral student of specific and cross-curricular training activities. Each of them will have a valuation in equivalent hours, in such a way that for the presentation of the doctoral thesis, in general, it will be an indispensable requirement have passed at least 600 hours of which at least 10 percent (60h) will correspond to cross-curricular training activities.
4.4.1 Specific activities
The specific training activities are those associated with the development of the doctoral thesis, such as presentations at conferences, published articles, participation in projects, stays in other laboratories …
Each program has defined the criteria for the evaluation of these activities in its verification report.
To consult the evaluation table for specific activities of your program, please access the program’s website at this link and enters the section “Development of the Doctorate / Specific and cross-curricular training activities”.
4.4.2 Senia Access Guide
4.4.3 Cross-curricular activities offered by the Doctoral School
The UPV Doctoral School offers a series of courses of cross-curricular content for doctoral students. These courses will be taught in on-line format and will not involve additional fees to those of enrollment. Registration for the courses will be done through the “Thesis Management” application between September and December. The courses will be given in the second semester.
Students who are taking complementary training credits within any of the programs may participate in the cross-curricular training activities.
You can obtain more information about the cross-curricular training offer at this link.
4.4.4 Recognition of cross-curricular training obtained outside the Doctoral School
In general, it is possible to request the recognition of cross-curricular training obtained outside the UPV, as long as it is comparable to the training offered by the doctoral school.
You can get more information at this link.
4.5 Permanence regulations
Doctoral students at the Universitat Politècnica de València must comply with the conditions of permanence approved by the Governing Council on 7 March 2024.
You can consult the full text of these regulations at this link.
4.6 Changes in tutoring / thesis direction
4.7 Change of thesis title
The initial title of the thesis is given when recording the thesis research plan.
Once the research plan has been accepted by the academic committee of the corresponding program, there will be two ways to propose changes to this title:
A.- When making the annual report on the progress of the thesis (in June).
B.- By uploading the first draft of the thesis (V1) before the proposal of external evaluators.
In both cases, the approval of the thesis director will be requested, and the committee will have the option of accepting or rejecting the proposal;
4.8 Requesting a definitive withdrawal from doctoral studies
The doctoral studies permanence policy provides that a doctoral student may request his or her definitive withdrawal from the program, which means that he or she will definitively leave the program.
Students who have voluntarily requested their definitive disengagement, may apply for admission to the same program (after two academic years) or another, in the same way and under the same conditions as any other new student.
In case of being admitted, it will be for the development of a new thesis, and in no case to give continuity to the abandoned thesis. The activities carried out previously will not be automatically registered in the new transcript.
More Info: https://www.upv.es/entidades/edoctorado/en/permanent-withdrawal-thesis-abandonment/
5. Relations with the environment: International and Industrial
5.1 Research stays outside UPV
The regulations foresee that doctoral students may carry out research stays in research centers outside the UPV. The suitability of the destination center must be assessed by the thesis supervisor.
Such stays must be authorized by the thesis supervisor and by the Academic Committee of the doctoral program, prior to the stay.
More detailed information can be found on this link.
5.2 Financial aid for research stays
En this link you will find information related to financial aid for the mobility of doctoral students.
5.3 Recognition of a research stay
Once the research stay has been completed, the student may request its recognition as a specific activity of his/her thesis.
You can find more information on this subject at this link.
5.4 International Doctorate Mention
The PhD degree from the UPV may include an International Mention.
You can obtain more information about the requirements at this link.
5.5 Industrial Doctorate Mention
The PhD degree from the UPV may include an Industrial Doctorate Mention.
You can obtain more information about the requirements at this link.
5.6 Co-supervised theses for the Doctoral Degree
The doctoral degree from the UPV may include a reference to its development in a Co-Tutoring regime.
You can check the requirements in this link.
5.7 External students interested in doing a stay at the UPV
Doctoral students from research centers outside the UPV have the opportunity to enjoy research stays at UPV.
Consult in this link more details on the matter.
6. Evaluation and Defense of the thesis
6.1 The anti-plagiarism review process step-by-step
Once the first draft of the thesis (V1) has been completed, an external evaluation process of the quality of the work must be carried out, the first step of which is an anti-plagiarism review process.
In order to initiate this process, it is required tTo have the minimum number of hours required by the doctoral program registered in the student’s academic transcript (activity record).
Step 1: The process starts when the student uploads the first draft of the thesis -V1- from Thesis management (Menu Evaluation phase // Version 1 thesis). You can take advantage of this step to also request a change in the title of the thesis.
The thesis direction approves the draft of the thesis (V1) → If the directors are UPV, only the OK of one of them is required. If the directors are all external, the OK of all of them or the OK of the UPV tutor is required.
Step 2: With the approval of the thesis direction, the draft (V1) is automatically passed to the plagiarism detection platform (Turnitin). The platform returns a report indicating the % of plagiarism detected and the details of the plagiarism detected (usually takes about 1-3 hours).
Step 3: The doctoral student must justify the results obtained in the previous step (doctoral review report), through thesis management (Menu Evaluation phase // Plagiarism review report):
In this step, there is the option to request resubmit a new draft V1. If requested, and authorized by your directors and CAPD, you will have the option to upload a new V1 file of the thesis to restart the process.
WARNING: if you check this option you are requesting permission to submit a new draft of the thesis. This action necessarily requires the authorization of the Academic Committee of the program and therefore interrupts the possibility of requesting review by external evaluators until the CAPD resolves (Step 5.2).
Step 4: Once the doctoral student has completed the justification report, the thesis directors may approve or reject it (the student must repeat the justification of results (back to step 3).
Step 5: With the approval of the directors:
5.1: If the student has NOT checked the option to resubmit a new V1 draft, CAPD can:
- Approve it by approving the proposal of external evaluators (you should not do anything additional).
- Reject the justification report, (student must repeat the justification → go back to step 3).
- Block the submission of the thesis if they have indications of a serious case of plagiarism.
Only two options will appear:
5.2: If the student HAS checked the option to resubmit a new draft V1, the CAPD must pronounce itself, and may not pass to the approval of the proposal of external evaluators. In this case the CAPD may:
- Accept the request to resubmit V1 ( → go back to step 1 ).
- Reject the justification report, (the student must repeat the justification → go back to step 3 and can uncheck the option to resubmit V1 if he/she had done so by mistake or if in the end it is decided not to authorize the change of V1).
- Block the submission of the thesis if they have indications of a serious case of plagiarism.
In this case, three options will appear:
6.2 External evaluation of the thesis draft
Once the previous step of anti-plagiarism control is completed, the process of external evaluation of the thesis draft begins.
The draft of the thesis will be sent to a group of researchers external to UPV and experts in the subject of the thesis.
The initial proposal of professors who will review the thesis may come from the thesis director, although it will always be the responsibility of the Academic Committee to approve the final proposal, which may or may not coincide with the initial one.
You can consult the details of the process in this link.
6.3 The thesis deposit
The registration of the thesis version for its defense is called thesis deposit.
The deposit will be made once the external evaluation process has been completed and after the authorization of the thesis direction and the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program.
In this link you will find detailed information on this management.
6.4 Proposal of defence committee members
The thesis supervisor, together with the PhD student, may prepare an initial proposal of members of the examining board to evaluate the thesis defense. As in the case of external evaluators, the initial proposal must be approved by the CAPD, which in turn will make the formal proposal to the Doctoral School of the UPV, for its study and appointment. The proposal may be made in parallel to the proposal of external evaluators.
In this link you will find more detailed information on this action.
6.5 Deadlines for public presentation and call for the defense
Article 13.3 of Royal Decree 99/2011 stipulates that the university must guarantee the publicity of the completed doctoral thesis, so that during the evaluation process, and prior to the defense, other doctors may submit comments on its content.
This requirement is guaranteed by a public exposure period of 10 calendar days during which other doctors may review the complete text of the doctoral thesis at the School’s facilities (prior accreditation), as well as, if they deem it appropriate, submit allegations through the general records of the University.
The period of public exposure begins on the day following the validation of the thesis deposit by the Doctoral School.
Once the public exposition period is over, the President of the defence committee may call for the defense of the thesis. This call must be made at least 10 days prior to the defense.
More detailed information can be found at this link.
6.6 Management of travel and lodging of the defence committee
The Doctoral School, once the thesis defense has been formally announced by the President of the Thesis Committee, will contact the members of the committee to arrange travel and accommodation.
In this WEBSITE you will find information on spending limits and amounts for each of the expense items.
7. Doctorate degree management
7.1 Doctorate degree management
From the day after the validation of the defense certificate by the Doctoral School, the new doctor will receive an e-mail with instructions to start the process of requesting his or her degree.
For graduates of the current study plan, all management is done through the personal INTRANET page of the interested party.
The amount of the fee to be applied for the issuance of the diploma can be consulted starting from this link.
The denomination of the degrees issued by the U.P.V. will be “Doctor by the Universitat Politècnica de València”, including the following parameters, among others:
- Qualification for access to doctoral studies.
- Academic Structure Responsible for the Doctoral Program (Department, School, Institute).
- Doctoral program completed.
- Qualification of the doctoral thesis (awarded by the examining board).
- Date of the defense of the doctoral thesis.
- Date of payment of doctoral degree application fees.
Article 11 of Royal Decree 1002/2010 of August 5, 2010, which regulates the issuance of official university degrees. You can consult the full text by clicking here.
From the day after the application for the PhD degree, the interested party may obtain an offical certificate that serves as proof of the PhD degree until the offical degree is issued. It is called the “supplementary certification” of his or her doctoral degree that can be obtained through his or her personal INTRANET page.
After 2 to 6 months from the date of application, the final degree (diploma) will be issued. The graduate will receive a notification informing him/her of its disposition.
In this link you can find information regarding the withdrawal of the final title (diploma).
7.2 Extraordinary Doctorate Prizes
Every year (between January and February) the call for the awarding of extraordinary doctoral thesis prizes is published.
Doctors who defended their doctoral thesis and were proposed for this distinction by the examining board are eligible to apply.
In this page you will be able to obtain information on the last call for entries, as well as the list of winners of previous calls.
7.3 Application for equivalence of a foreign doctorate degree
In this link you will find information on the regulation of the procedure and application forms for the declaration of equivalence of foreign degrees to the academic degree of doctor at the Universitat Politècnica de València.
8 . The Thesis Management application
The application “Thesis Management” (GT) allows doctoral students, thesis directors and tutors, program coordinators and members of the Academic Committees and administrative support, DE staff and external agents (external evaluators and defence committee members) to carry out all processes on-line.
Access to the application for students, directors, and other participants, members of UPV, is through the UPV Intranet.
Access for external evaluators and defence committee members will be through an invitation containing a link with direct access.