Access and admission

The University of La Laguna has a specific website for the current Doctoral Programmes. It will contain the admission profiles, administrative issues related to registration, the objectives and skills linked to the Degree, as well as sufficient information on the scholarships and grants that students can access in order to carry out their studies.

With regard to the dissemination channels aimed at potential students and in relation to enrolment, the Universities of La Laguna will publish on its website, as well as in other electronic and analogue media, the enrolment calendars, in addition to this Report. Optionally, coinciding with the enrolment period, informative material will be published annually with relevant data on research teams, lines of research, training activities, assessment regulations, etc., as well as all the electronic addresses and telephone numbers of interest; especially those of the researchers. The ULL Doctorate website will specifically contain information on admission and enrolment deadlines, common to all Doctorate programmes. These deadlines are updated each year based on the academic and enrolment calendars, which are approved annually by the Governing Council and may have certain variations from one year to the next.

Other dissemination activities include information sessions aimed at undergraduate and master's students with the aim of actively recruiting students.

Finally, direct communication with candidates is also planned prior to their enrolment. This is done through the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme. It is also worth highlighting in this regard that the specific website of the Institute of Political and Social Sciences of the ULL, which has been in preparation for over a year and is currently ready to be implemented immediately, contains abundant information about the research groups, their projects and activities, which will be very useful for candidates for access to the Doctorate.

The international collaborations of the programme have allowed two Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Training Networks (ETNs) to be evaluated. The first integrates the Universities of Amsterdam, Wageningen (NL), Aalborg (DK), Tromso (NO, Coordinating U) and La Laguna, on the topic of marine governance in the context of the European strategy for marine governance. Blue Growth .

This European initiative presents specific governance challenges - for example, in the governance of marine tourism - for which the training of doctoral students in this ETN is designed. The second ETN is organised around the challenges presented by research on small-scale fishing in Europe, which receives special attention in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, which have recently been approved by the European authorities. One of the tasks undertaken in the TBTI project mentioned above has been to detect the research deficiencies on this subject, and this ETN would solve some of them from an interdisciplinary perspective. This ETN is organised by the University of Aberdeen and has the participation of the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Scottish Association for Marine Science, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, the Technological Centre of the Sea (Galicia), the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece). The possibilities of doctoral student exchanges between the Universities and Research Centres linked as promoters of these ETNs, as well as with the remaining institutions that appear as level 2 partners, are especially interesting for potential doctoral students of the programme.

Contact and welcome of new PhD students.

The welcome of potential PhD students begins before enrolment. The PhD website, in addition to formal matters, will offer detailed information on the lines of research and the research projects connected to each of them, information that will be updated every year. Candidates with any questions regarding the lines of research that interest them may contact the programme coordinator to exchange impressions on any aspect they consider relevant. In turn, the coordinator may, where appropriate, redirect potential candidates to specific researchers who can provide them with additional information on these lines or on the research projects in which they can be integrated. At the beginning of each academic year, a welcome day will be held for new PhD students, in which both the students and members of the academic committee, specific researchers and some of the PhD students already enrolled in the programme in previous years will participate. The aim is to provide relevant information on the dynamics of the PhD programme, as well as to resolve any questions that new researchers may have.

In general, for access and admission to doctoral studies, the provisions of articles 6 and 7 of RD 99/2011 of January 28, which regulates official doctoral studies, as well as the regulations of the Official Doctoral Studies of the ULL.

Access:

1. It will be necessary to be in possession of official Spanish Bachelor's degrees (or equivalent) and a Master's degree.

2. Likewise, those who are in any of the following situations may access:

a) Be in possession of an official Spanish university degree, or one from another country that is part of the European Higher Education Area, which qualifies for access to a Master's degree in accordance with the provisions of article 16 of Royal Decree 1393/2007, of October 29, and have passed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in the set of official university studies, of which at least 60 must be at Master's level.

b) Be in possession of an official Spanish degree of Graduate, the duration of which, in accordance with Community law, is at least 300 ECTS credits. These graduates must take the compulsory training supplements referred to in these regulations, unless the study plan of the corresponding research, equivalent in training value to the research credits from Master's studies.

c) Be in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems, without the need for its homologation, after verification by the university that it accredits a level of training equivalent to that of the official Spanish Master's degree and that it qualifies the applicant for access to doctoral studies in the country that issued the degree.

This admission will not imply, in any case, the homologation of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than access to Doctoral studies.

d) Be in possession of another Spanish Doctorate degree obtained in accordance with previous university regulations.

e) Doctoral students who have started their doctoral programme in accordance with other previous regulations may access the doctoral studies regulated by RD 99/2011, after being admitted to the doctoral programme as established in the second additional provision, point two, of RD 99/2011.

Students who meet the requirements detailed above will be admitted to the research period in accordance with the specific access requirements and evaluation criteria that will be applied by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program as indicated below:

• Specific access requirement: possession of B1 level of English (or equivalent)

During the admission process, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program will evaluate each of the applications submitted according to the following scoring criteria:

• Students who have completed a master's degree included in the list of optimal or comparable admission profiles by the academic committee: 4 points.
• Academic record of the entrance qualification and master's degree (up to 8 points), with up to four points for the grades in the degree and another four points for the grades in the postgraduate degree. The averages will be applied on a scale of 4, considering: Pass (1 point), Remarkable (2 points), Outstanding (3 points), First Class Honours (4 points).
• Research merits (up to 3 points). To objectify this criterion, the following scores will be applied:
• Publications and works, regardless of their physical format, whose acceptance for publication is reliably accredited and which are related to the lines of research of the Doctoral Program:
  • For each book: up to 0.5 points.
  • For each article or review: up to 0.25 points.
  • For each conference presentation: up to 0.15 points.

Accredited participation or collaboration in research projects related to the lines of research of the Doctoral Program:

• For each research project in which you have participated or collaborated: 0.5 points
• Other merits related to research, up to 1.5 points.
• Professional merits related to the lines of research of the Doctoral Program: up to 2 points, at a rate of 0.5 points per year of accredited experience.
• Mastery of foreign languages (starting from the B1 English requirement for admission), up to one point in total
• English B2, 0.5 points, C1 0.75 points, C2, 1 point. Other scientifically relevant languages up to one point.
• Students with special educational needs: up to two points.

Applications from those who meet the above-mentioned access requirements must be submitted within the time limits and in accordance with the procedures established by the University of La Laguna, with a detailed and documented curriculum that allows the aforementioned sections to be evaluated.

Part-time students

The programme includes the possibility of admitting part-time students, as set out in Royal Decree 99/2011 and the ULL doctoral regulations. These cases must be justified based on the nature of the work to be carried out and the conditions of the doctoral student, but in any case they will be subject to the same access requirements and the evaluation will follow the same criteria. The Academic Committee of the doctoral programme is the body responsible for authorising the enrolment of the applicant on a full-time or part-time basis. It is also possible for the student to change his or her dedication from full-time to part-time depending on unforeseen circumstances.

Any change in the doctoral candidate's modality, in terms of his or her dedication, must be duly justified by means of a request addressed to the aforementioned Commission, which will resolve the matter and notify the corresponding University Service.

Students who wish to undertake part-time studies in this Doctoral Programme must apply to the Academic Committee of the Programme when submitting their application for admission to the Programme or, once admitted, when they meet any of the circumstances listed below and which make it possible for them to be recognised as part-time students.

The criteria and procedures for admission of part-time students in this Doctoral Program will be adjusted to the provisions of the Progress and Permanence Rules of the University of La Laguna) and in article 7 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies from the University of La Laguna. According to article 7.3 cited above, applicants must justify the impossibility of carrying out these studies on a full-time basis for reasons of work activity, special educational needs, family care needs, high-performance or high-level athletes, as well as any other needs contemplated in the ULL's permanence regulations or, where appropriate, in the regulations that develop them.
The change of dedication of students is regulated in article 7.4 of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna: Doctoral students may request a change of dedication regime for justified reasons. The academic committee of the official doctoral program will issue a report in this regard authorizing or denying such a change. An appeal against this resolution may be filed before the Rector within one month of its notification.

Students with special educational needs

Applicants to the Doctoral programme with special educational needs arising from their disability must first contact the Doctoral Programme Coordinator to inform him/her.

In these cases, equal opportunities and the full integration of university students with disabilities into university academic life must be guaranteed, as well as the promotion and awareness-raising of all members of the university community.

Students with special educational needs derived from disabilities will have an academic advisor appointed by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program during the admission process. This advisor may be their tutor or specialists indicated by the University of La Laguna. The Academic Committee of the Program will analyze individually the cases of students with special educational needs derived from disabilities in order to adapt the training program to guarantee the acquisition of the skills specific to the doctoral level. The Academic Committee will receive a report from the advisor and will send the corresponding proposal to the Student Support Service, in application of the Program for Attention to Students with Specific Educational Support Needs (PAED) to identify the necessary support and advisory services that will evaluate the need for possible curricular adaptations or itineraries.

Students with special educational needs will receive a specific score in the admission procedure, in accordance with the provisions of this report: up to a maximum of 2 points. The purpose of this allocation is to promote equality in the admission conditions of students with difficulties, to compensate for the difficulties that these students have had throughout their academic life in order to obtain results comparable to those of students who do not have similar difficulties.

As detailed in the previous section, students with special educational needs can apply for part-time enrollment.

Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, regulating official doctoral studies, as well as the Regulations on Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna, establish that admission to doctoral programmes may include the requirement for specific training supplements, in accordance with the admission profiles established for the corresponding doctoral programme. For the purposes of public prices and the granting of scholarships and study grants, these specific training supplements will be considered as doctoral level training.

Doctoral students admitted to the programme within the recommended access profile will not be required to complete additional training. Doctoral students with the additional access profile will have to develop the following: training complements.