Thesis supervision

The Academic Committee of the doctoral programme will be responsible for planning activities to promote the completion of doctoral theses. These activities will focus on presenting the lines of research; the capacity and experience of the research teams; the variety of approaches, perspectives and interdisciplinarity of the research in each line; and, finally, the dissemination of the results of the doctoral theses read in recent years. In addition, the impact of the doctorate degree on employment will be shown.

The teaching planning regulations of the ULPGC and the ULL recognise the supervision of theses as part of the teaching duties of the teaching staff. The criteria for the recognition of the work of tutoring in these same regulations are currently being reviewed.

The one from the ULPGC can be consulted here.

The one from ULL in here.

Furthermore, given the interdisciplinary nature of the doctoral proposal and the extensive experience in co-direction of interdisciplinary doctoral theses in previous programs, the Academic Committee will only have to ensure that the proposals for co-direction of a doctoral thesis respond to academic criteria linked to the interdisciplinarity of research, to the need to tutor the work of new thesis directors or to that derived from co-direction of students from a foreign university.

The thesis supervision at DOCTESO is governed by the Code of Good Practice of the Doctoral School of the ULPGC and by its equivalent at the ULL (resolution of January 17, 2013 of the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the ULL). These documents establish the rights and obligations of doctoral students, tutors and directors. Below we present in a summary those that concern, in particular, the relationship between the doctoral student and his/her director, present in the case of the ULPGC, the university responsible for the degree:

1. Doctoral candidates have the right to be assessed according to public, objective, transparent and pre-established criteria; to be listed as author or co-author in all works, articles or communications in which they have participated during their doctoral training and especially in those related to their doctoral thesis; to use the name of the entities for which they provide services in carrying out their scientific activity; to be recognised as a research professional; and to have the ULPGC promote in its programmes opportunities for the development of research careers in the public and private spheres.

2. The doctoral candidate is obliged to carry out his or her doctoral studies and to carry out the research that is the subject of the thesis project within the framework established by the applicable regulations, under the supervision of the director and the tutor. Among these, and in a very special way, he or she must inform the tutor of the progress in his or her training process and the achievement of the objectives of his or her personalized activity document; he or she must follow the instructions given by his or her thesis director regarding the research work; he or she must carry out the doctoral thesis in the regime of dedication that is appropriate in each case; he or she must publish the results of his or her research; and he or she must submit to the evaluation of the activity carried out within the period established by regulations.

3. Thesis supervisors are obliged to establish a constructive and positive relationship with their doctoral students in order to create the necessary conditions for an effective transfer of knowledge and for the proper development of their careers as researchers; to regularly review the personalized activity document of their doctoral students; to periodically report on and endorse their research plan, as well as to ensure that the results of their research are fruitful and disseminated through publications with indications of quality.

The agreement between the doctoral student and his/her supervisor for the correct development of the training and research activity is signed in the Supervision Document Commitment.