Regulations for the doctorand

Versión española del RD 99/2011

RD 99/2011

WHO IS WHO IN ROYAL DECREE (RD) 99/2011

Doctorate School

The Doctorate School of the University of Burgos is the academic and administrative organizational unit of the Doctoral Programs that lead to the award of the qualification of Doctor, in which other research training activities can also be included such as Qualifications specific to the University and other research-oriented training courses.

Management Committee

The Management Committee is the collegiate governance organ of the Doctorate School. It will be formed by the following natural members:

1. The Director and the Secretary of the Doctorate School.
2. The coordinators of the Doctorate Programs available at the Doctorate School. In the case of inter-university Doctorate Programs, the local coordinators of the University of Burgos.
3. A member of the administration and services personnel responsible for the Third Cycle studies, who will have speaking rights, but no voting rights, on the committee.

Doctorate programs

Academic Commission

The Academic Commission will be formed by the Coordinator of the Program and at least a further two doctors with accredited research experience, forming part of the doctoral program and providing their services to the University of Burgos. It can, likewise, integrate investigators from public research bodies and other R&D+i entities, which maintain agreements with the University of Burgos.

The composition of the Academic Committee and the procedure to appoint new members will be approved by the academic bodies responsible for the Doctorate Program, in accordance with the provisions established in the verification report.

Coordinator

The Coordinator of the Doctorate Program will be a relevant researcher, a professor with a permanent link to the University of Burgos, with at least two six-year research terms and two directed theses, named by the Rector for a period of 3 years, as proposed by the members of the Academic Commission and with the approval of the academic  bodies responsible for the Doctorate.

Tutor

Assigned by the Academic Committee, the Tutor will conduct tasks of orientation and will follow up the activities of the doctorand and will supervise interaction between the doctorand and the Academic Committee. In that respect, the tutor will issue an annual report on the Research Plan and the Activity Report of the doctorand, before their  submission to the Academic Committee for their evaluation.

Director

The Director will hold maximum responsibility for the coherence and suitability of the training activities and the impact and novelty of their thematic field of doctoral research. Likewise, the Director will guide the planning of other activities related with the research training of the Doctorand. In that respect, the Director will issue an annual report on the Research Plan and the Activity Report of the doctorand, before those are submitted to the Academic Committee for their evaluation.

MONITORING THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DOCTORAND

Commitment to Supervision

The academic relation between the doctorand and the University, and their rights and duties will be specified in the Commitment to Supervision, including any possible rights to intellectual property arising from investigation, as well as acceptance of the conflict-resolution procedure.

Document of doctorand activities

The Report on Doctorand Activities will open with the Commitment to Supervision signed between the doctorand and the University. The doctorand will have access to the Activity Report to note down and to update all the activities undertaken in the context of the Program. Its records will be signed off and certified, after completion, by the tutor and the Director of the thesis.

Research Plan

Within a maximum period of six months after admission to the Doctorate Program, the doctorand will prepare a Research Plan that will set out the doctoral thesis project, including at least the methodology to use and the objectives to be reached, as well as the resources and temporal planning to achieve it, and the language in which the thesis  will be written.

The Research Plan must be approved by the Doctoral Thesis Director and, if not the same person, by the tutor of the doctorand, and must also be approved by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program, which will incorporate it in the Activity Report of the Doctorand. 

Each year, the Academic Committee of the Doctorate Program will evaluate the Activity Report of the doctorand, the Research Plan, and the state of development of the doctoral thesis, on the basis of the reports that the tutor and the Thesis Director will issue for that purpose. Those reports will be unified in a single report, whenever the tutor and the Director are the same person.

A positive evaluation from the Academic Commission will be an indispensable requirement to remain on the program. In the case of a negative evaluation, which will be duly reasoned, the doctorand will once again be evaluated within a period of six months, for which purpose a new Research Plan will be prepared. In the case of a second evaluation, the doctorand will no longer be eligible to follow the program.

Versión española del RD 576/2023

RD 576/2023

Regulations for Doctoral Candidates. Royal Decree 576/2023

WHO IS WHO IN ROYAL DECREE 576/2023

Article 1. Amendment of Royal Decree 99/2011 of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies

 One. Paragraphs 1,2, and 3 of Article 2 are amended as follows:

1. Doctoral studies, pursuant to Article 9 of Organic Law 2/2023 of 22 March on the University System, constitute the third cycle of official university education in Spain, the purpose of which is the acquisition of competencies and skills related to high-quality research and its development.
2. A doctoral programme shall be understood as a set of activities leading to the award of the degree of Doctor. Such a programme shall aim to develop the various formative aspects of the doctoral candidate and shall establish the procedures and lines of research for the development of doctoral theses.
3. A doctoral candidate shall be considered to be any individual who, having met the requirements established in Royal Decree 576/2023, has been admitted to a doctoral programme and is duly enrolled therein.
4. For the purposes of Royal Decree 576/2023, accredited research experience shall mean possession of, at minimum, one recognised period of research activity as evaluated by the Comisión Nacional Evaluadora de la Actividad Investigadora (CNEAI) pursuant to Royal Decree 1086/1989 of 28 August on university staff remuneration, or, where such accreditation is not applicable, equivalent research merits as defined in the regulations of the corresponding university.

Eight. Paragraphs 5, 6, and 7 of Article 9 are amended (among others) to read as follows:

1. Universities may establish Doctoral Schools in accordance with the provisions of Article 41.2 of Organic Law 2/2023 of 22 March, pursuant to their Statutes and Royal Decree 576/2023, for the purpose of organising, within their sphere of management, teaching and activities specific to doctoral studies [...].
5. Doctoral Schools may structure their activities around one or more specialised or interdisciplinary fields. Furthermore, in accordance with the provisions of the university’s statutes and the regulations of the corresponding autonomous community, they may include official University Master’s programmes with a predominantly scientific content, as well as other open training activities in research. Doctoral Schools shall provide guidance to students joining doctoral programmes on all matters necessary for their full integration into such programmes, using both their website and the organisation of specific seminars for this purpose.
6. Doctoral Schools shall have a Management Committee responsible for organisational and administrative functions. Its composition shall be determined by the statutes of the university or by the agreements under which the Doctoral School has been established with other universities, or in collaboration between one or more universities and other organisations, centres, institutions, or entities engaged in R&D&I activities, whether public or private, national or foreign. A balanced representation of women and men shall be ensured within the Committee. In all cases, doctoral students shall have representation on the Committee. The Director of the Doctoral School shall be appointed by the Rector or, when the School has been established by several universities, by consensus among the respective Rectors. The Director must be a researcher of recognised prestige belonging to one of the promoting universities or institutions, and shall meet the minimum academic requirements established by statute. [...]
7. Doctoral Schools shall adopt internal regulations which shall determine, among other aspects, the rights and duties of doctoral candidates, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1791/2010 of 30 December, approving the Statute of University Students, as well as with the rest of the applicable legislation. Such regulations shall also define the rights and duties of tutors and thesis supervisors, and the composition and functions of the academic committees of their programmes.

Ten. Paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of Article 11 are amended (among others) to read as follows:

1. Doctoral candidates, who shall be considered researchers in training, shall enrol annually at the corresponding university for the purpose of academic supervision of the doctorate. In the case of joint programmes, the governing agreement shall determine the procedure for such enrolment.
3. Once admitted to the doctoral programme, each doctoral candidate shall be assigned, by the corresponding Academic Committee, a Thesis Supervisor. This appointment may be made to any Spanish or foreign Doctor possessing accredited research experience. In addition, each candidate shall be assigned a Tutor, a Doctor with accredited research experience who is linked to the programme and responsible for ensuring effective interaction between the doctoral candidate and the Academic Committee. The Tutor may or may not be the same person as the Thesis Supervisor.
4. The Academic Committee, having heard the doctoral candidate, may modify the appointment of either the Tutor or the Thesis Supervisor at any time during the course of the doctoral programme, provided that there are justified reasons for doing so.

Eleven. Article 12 is amended to read as follows:

Article 12. Supervision of the Thesis

1. The Thesis Supervisor shall be the person responsible for ensuring the coherence and appropriateness of the training activities, for assessing the impact and originality of the doctoral thesis topic within its field, and for providing guidance on planning and, where appropriate, on aligning the research with other projects and activities in which the doctoral candidate is involved. The thesis may be co-supervised by other Doctors who meet the same requirements regarding accredited research experience as those specified in Article 11.3, when academic or interdisciplinary reasons justify it, or when the programme is undertaken in national or international collaboration. The Academic Committee may authorise the co-supervision of a thesis by Doctors who do not meet the requirements set out in Article 2.9.
   In no case shall the number of Supervisors exceed three.
   Prior authorisation from the Academic Committee shall be required for the co-supervision of the thesis. Such authorisation may subsequently be revoked if, in the opinion of the Academic Committee, the co-supervision is not beneficial to the development of the thesis.
2. Universities, through the Doctoral School or the corresponding unit responsible for the doctoral programme, may establish additional requirements for serving as a Thesis Supervisor.
3. In all cases, Thesis Supervisors shall be responsible for accompanying and advising the doctoral candidate throughout the entire development of the thesis, in all the tasks included in the research plan and in the personal training plan referred to in Article 11.6 (see document management system).
4. [...]

Doctoral Regulations of the University of Burgos (264.88 KB)