Spanish Royal Decree 889/2022, from 18th october establishes the requirements and the procedure for the equivalence of foreign higher education degrees to the academic level of Doctor. This same regulation states that it will be the Universities themselves who will establish the procedure for this process and solve these requests.
The procedure to be followed at the Universitat Politècnica de Valéncia is as follows:
General considerations
The foreign degree that has already been declared equivalent may not be submitted to a new equivalency procedure at another university. However, when the equivalence is denied, the interested party may start a new request at a different Spanish university.
The equivalence to the academic level of Doctor does not imply, in any case, the official validation (homologación), declaration of equivalence or recognition of any other foreign degree the applicant may hold, nor the recognition in Spain at any level other than PhD.
Application
The process of “request for the declaration of equivalence for foreign PhD ” will entail the payment of a fee of 166.89€.
It is recommended that, prior to submitting the application, you contact the Doctoral School of this university by email (escueladoctorado@upv.es), presenting the case, and asking for instructions for the payment of the aforementioned application fee.
Once the fees have been paid, the applicant must submit the application, together with the complete documentation, through the UPV’s Registrar’s office, either in person or through its electronic platform, to start the Equivalency determination process.
Documents to attach:
- Application Form (using this template).
- Thesis Activities and Production Report (using this template), containing all the references and publications that have been generated as a result of the research carried out.
- Copy of the Passport or Identification Document of the applicant.
- Copy of the Doctoral degree whose declaration of equivalence is requested.
- Copy of the degrees that provide access to the Doctoral degree to be recognized.
- Copy of the academic records (transcripts) of the degrees presented (both doctorate and the previous ones), which must include the official duration of the study plan (in academic years), as well as the specific courses and the credit workload for each of them.
- Contributions derived from the thesis (Publication in scientific journals, books or conferences, patents, participation in exhibitions, curating, …).
- Copy of the thesis dissertation, with an indication of the members of the defence committee who evaluated the thesis and the final grade obtained.
- Proof of payment of the application fee (contact the UPV Doctoral School for more details).
IMPORTANT:
- Documentation (degrees, transcripts, thesis document) will be accepted in Spanish, Valencian or English. For the rest of the languages, consult the UPV Doctoral school about the need to provide an official translation.
- The doctorate and master’s degrees obtained in countries outside the EHEA must be legalized. More information about legalization.
- The applicant must present the original documentation provided to the Doctoral School to be verified.
Reports
Once the application is received, the Doctoral School will inform about the equivalence in terms of access degrees, duration of the PhD studies and its academic level. If favorable, the proposal will be sent to a committee of experts requesting a report in which academic aspects, such as the training activities carried out during the thesis and the contributions derived from it, will be taken into account.
In view of these reports, the Steering Committee of the Doctoral School will resolve to recommend the acceptance or denial of the corresponding application to the Rector of the University.
Certification and notifications
The equivalency, if granted, will be accredited by the corresponding certificate, which will state the foreign degree held by the applicant and the University of origin. According to the regulations, the UPV will notify the Ministry of Education of the concession of the equivalence, in order to complete the registration in the special section of the National Record of Official University Graduates.
The maximum period for the notification of the resolution of this procedure will be six months from the date the complete application was submitted.