Monitoring of the PhD student

A doctoral thesis is a complex work that has as its final product a scientific document, but which also involves different activities that lead to obtaining a research sufficiency by the doctoral student. There are two different roles (which may or may not coincide in the same person) related to the supervision of the activities and the thesis work as such: tutor and director. Chapter I of Title II of Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna (April 30, 2019) describes these roles in detail in its articles 9 and 10. The regulations are available at institutional website of the university.

Tutor

The tutor is the person responsible for ensuring that the training and research activity are adapted to the principles of the doctoral programme. This person is a doctor and professor of the doctoral programme, authorised to supervise doctoral theses according to the regulations of this programme, and is responsible, among other duties, for:

• Check that the doctoral student adequately carries out the program activities, preparing an annual report on the matter,
• Endorse the research plan together with the director.

The tutor is assigned by the Academic Committee once the student is admitted to the doctoral program and his/her enrollment is verified.

Director

The thesis director is the person ultimately responsible for conducting all of the PhD student's research tasks. Any Spanish or foreign doctor who is part of one of the research lines of this doctoral programme and who meets the requirements established in the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies may be a thesis director for a student.

The Academic Committee assigns a supervisor to the student within a period of no more than one month from his/her enrollment in the program, and may coincide with the person who acts as tutor.

The student may also have a co-director, if it is considered that there are sufficient academic reasons (interdisciplinarity, national or international collaborations, etc.). The Academic Committee may authorize the addition of a co-director, as well as subsequently revoke this authorization if no benefit is observed for the development of the thesis). As a general rule, this co-director must meet the same requirements as the director, but a new researcher or one with less research experience may also be authorized, provided that he or she has a civil service or contractual relationship with the university or collaborating organization.

In order to assign the director and tutor, the Academic Committee will take into account the student's previous training, his or her preferences regarding the lines of research and the endorsement, where appropriate, of a professor willing to carry out the role of director.

(The content of this page is an informal summary of the complete regulations, which can be consulted in the PhD Student Monitoring section of the Degree Verification document).