UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA REGULATIONS FOR THE PREPARATION, SUBMISSION, AUTHORISATION, DEFENCE AND EVALUATION OF DOCTORAL THESES AND FOR THE NOMINATION OF MEMBERS ON DOCTORAL THESIS EXAMINATION BOARDS

UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA REGULATIONS FOR THE PREPARATION, SUBMISSION, AUTHORISATION, DEFENCE AND EVALUATION OF DOCTORAL THESES AND FOR THE NOMINATION OF MEMBERS ON DOCTORAL THESIS EXAMINATION BOARDS
Approved by the Doctoral Committee of the Governing Board on May 11, 2005

In its ruling for postgraduate university studies, the first transitional regulation of RD 56/2005, January 21 stipulates that in such matters regarding the doctoral thesis and the granting of doctoral titles, those students already engaged in doctoral programs prior to the issue of RD 55 shall be bound by the regulations implemented at the time they began their studies, but that all procedures involving the preparation, defence and evaluation of doctoral theses and their corresponding examination boards shall be dictated by Articles 11 and 13 of the Royal Decree, which shall become applicable to those students six months after the decree came into effect, on July 26, 2005.

For these reasons and by virtue of the powers invested in it in Article 96.3 of the official University Statutes, the Doctoral Committee of the University of Barcelona’s Governing Board approved the following REGULATIONS FOR THE PREPARATION, SUBMISSION, AUTHORISATION, DEFENCE AND EVALUATION OF DOCTORAL THESES AND FOR THE NOMINATION OF MEMBERS ON DOCTORAL THESIS EXAMINATION BOARDS in its session of May 11, 2005.

1. This framework regulates University of Barcelona procedures for the preparation, submission, authorisation, defence and evaluation of doctoral theses and for the nomination of members on thesis examination boards.

2. This framework shall be applied to those students at the University of Barcelona whose doctoral studies are regulated by the provisions of RD 778/1998, April 30, and to those UB students who have completed doctoral studies regulated by the provisions of RD 185/1985, January 23, who may defend their theses on the condition that they have adhered to the regulatory framework as approved by the Doctoral Committee on April 6, 2005.

Article 2: The Admission of the Research Proposal and the Appointment of the Doctoral Thesis Supervisor

1. In order for a research proposal to be admitted and for the doctoral candidate to be appointed a Thesis Supervisor, the candidate shall apply to the Departmental Council at the department where the thesis is to be conducted.

2. From the date on which the application is received, the Council shall have a period of no more than thirty days in which to accept or decline the application and, should the candidate be admitted, to appoint a Thesis Supervisor, who shall have Doctoral membership and officially recognised research experience.

3. When the Supervisor is not a member of the teaching staff at the University of Barcelona, the Council may also appoint as Thesis Tutor a specialist who has Doctoral membership and who is professionally associated with the department in which the thesis is to be conducted. When the Supervisor is a member of the University’s teaching staff but not of the department in which the thesis is to be conducted, the Council may choose to appoint a Thesis Tutor associated with the department.

4. When and where it considers necessary, the Council may appoint one or more Co-Supervisors, who shall have doctoral membership. The provisions made in this regulatory framework shall be applicable to all Co-Supervisors.

5. The Council’s decision shall be made known to the candidate. In order for the admitted candidate to proceed to registration, this decision shall also be made known to the Supervisor, to the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff at the faculty where the application has been made and, when applicable, to the Tutor.

6. In order for the research proposal to be accepted and in order to be appointed a Supervisor, the candidate wishing to conduct the thesis in a department other than the one to which s/he has been admitted shall apply for permission to the Doctoral Committee at the faculty to which this second department belongs (see the agreement of the Governing Board’s Doctoral Committee, 23/11/01).

7. Any modification to the doctoral research proposal and/or the appointment of the Thesis Supervisor or Thesis Tutor must comply with the procedures for approval and notification stipulated above.

1. The candidate whose research proposal has been admitted, who has successfully completed a pre-dissertation examination and who has yet to defend his or her thesis must register for a Thesis Tutorial. The registry fees, conditions and procedure for the Tutorial shall be determined by the University’s economic and academic regulations.

2. The candidate must register for the Tutorial every academic year starting from the year in which the two conditions described above come into effect and finishing when the candidate applies for permission to submit the thesis according to the procedure established in Article 4 below.

1. Once the completed thesis has received a favourable report from the Thesis Supervisor and, when applicable. from the Thesis Tutor, the doctoral candidate may apply to the Departmental Council for the permission to submit the thesis.

2. The candidate shall complete the application to submit the thesis in accordance with the faculty’s regulatory guidelines as these are available at the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff, and the completed application should be filed at the University of Barcelona’s General Registrar, accompanied by the following documents:
a) an original or certified copy of the Supervisor’s letter of authorisation, which shall be countersigned, when applicable, by the Tutor.
b) an original or certified copy of a letter from the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff to the effect that the candidate has successfully completed the pre-dissertation examination, that the research proposal has been admitted and registered and that there are no outstanding registration payments to be made for the Thesis Tutorial.
c) a paper copy of the thesis, which shall be bound, signed by the candidate and detailing on its cover or first page the following: the name of the department responsible for the doctoral program; the program and two-year period for which it has been approved; the title of the thesis; the candidate’s name and surname(s); the Thesis Supervisor’s name and surname(s) and, when applicable, the Thesis Tutor’s name and surname(s). The thesis must include a general introduction, a description of the candidate’s methodology and findings, final conclusions and a bibliography. However, the Doctoral Committees at each university faculty may also make further requirements regarding the format and content of the thesis. When the thesis is submitted as a compendium of published articles, the candidate’s application must comply with the Second Additional Regulation outlined below.
d) a digital copy of the thesis, preferably in Portable Document Format (pdf) or a simlar file format.
e) the complementary documents listed below in the Additional Regulations, when the thesis is submitted as a compendium of published articles or is written in a language other than the University’s two official languages, Catalan and Spanish, as well as those additional documents that may be required by the doctoral committees in different faculties.

3. Should the department consider the application incomplete or irregular, the candidate shall be notified that s/he has a period of no more than ten days in which to present any documents required, and that the failure to do so before the end of this period will be recorded in the application.

4. The department shall have a period of no more than thirty days in which to accept or refuse the application, beginning on the day after this has been filed at the University’s General Registrar. The candidate shall be notified of the department’s decision by the Departmental Secretary.

5. Should the the application be accepted, the Secretary shall also notify the Chair of the faculty Doctoral Committee. The Secretary shall provide the Chair with the authorised paper copy of the doctoral thesis and the documents produced in its evaluation, and with a proposal nominating ten researchers to stand on the Thesis Examination Board, outlining their academic experience in the manner prescribed by the doctoral committees at each faculty.

6. The Chair shall have a period of no more than five days in which to announce online the department’s acceptance of the submission, beginning at the moment in which the Committee has been notified of this.

7. The authorised paper copy of the thesis shall remain at the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff for a period of fifteen days beginning on the day after the announcement of its submission has been published online, in which time all members of staff having Doctoral membership and so choosing may read the copy and notify the Committee, in writing, of any observations they wish to make.

1. In the first instance, the faculty Doctoral Committee shall have a period of no more than fifteen days in which to officially grant or withold their authorisation for the candidate to defend the thesis, beginning on the day that the period in which the thesis has been deposited at the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff has ended, and taking into consideration all written contributions from its readers. Should the Committee require more information, it may ask those readers it so chooses for written reports on the thesis; in this case, and in order for the Committee to have sufficient time to receive the reports and reach a decision, the period shall be extended by a maximum period of thirty more days. If at the end of this period the Committee has not yet received such reports, it shall still be bound to grant or withold its authorisation for the candidate to defend the thesis.

2. Should the Committee withold its authorisation, it shall inform the candidate, the Thesis Supervisor and, when applicable, the Thesis Tutor, outlining the reasons for this decision. In order to re-submit the thesis, the candidate shall apply for the Departmental Council’s permission in compliance with the procedure set down in Article 4 above.

3. Should the Committee grant its authorisation, it shall immediately nominate the members of the Thesis Examination Board, notifying the candidate, the Supervisor, the department, the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff at the relevant faculty and, when applicable, the Tutor.

4. Should the Committee wish, it may require the department to modify, revise or extend its list of proposed examiners for the Examination Board (see above, Article 4.5), in which case the period in which the examiners are to be nominated may be extended by a further fifteen days. When it so chooses, the Committee may nominate researchers not included in the department’s proposal.

5. Beginning on the day after the agreement authorising the defense of the thesis has been received, the candidate shall have a period of no more than ten days to provide the department with five copies of the thesis and five copies of his or her curriculum vitae, as well as the original or certified copy of the receipt of payment for the rights to read the doctoral thesis.

6. Once these documents have been received, and in a period of no more than fifteen days, the department shall notify the Examination Board nominees and all prospective substitute examiners of their nomination, providing the members of the first of these two groups with copies of the candidate’s thesis and curriculum vitae.

7. Should an Examination Board nominee choose to decline the nomination, s/he shall notify the Doctoral Committee Chair at the faculty, who shall then nominate a substitute examiner. This shall be made known to the Examination Board Chair, to the prospective substitute examiner, to whom the department must immediately send a paper copy of the thesis, the doctoral candidate, the Thesis Supervisor, the department, the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff at the corresponding faculty and, when applicable, the Thesis Tutor.

8. Should a nominated member of the Examination Board be required to abstain from participation for such reasons as those outlined in Article 28 of the Catalan government’s Public Administration Law 30/1992, November 26, this nominee shall make his or her abstention known in writing to the Rector of the University, who shall determine such resolutions as are necessary in a period of no more than three days.

9. At any moment during the procedure by which authorisation for the defence of the doctoral thesis is granted and in such cases where there is legal provision, the candidate may exercise the right to express dissent with the choice of any member of the Examination Board. The candidate shall identify and outline the motive or motives for dissent in a reasoned letter directed to the Rector of the University, who shall provide a copy of the letter to the examiner in question. On the day after the examiner has received this copy, s/he shall in writing notify the Rector of whether the candidate has grounds for dissent. Subsequently, in a period of no more than three days and on the basis of those reports and documents that s/he sees fit to consider, the Rector shall formally resolve to grant or withold approval of the candidate’s move to dissent. During the period in which the candidate’s dissent is considered, the authorisation procedure for his or her thesis shall be suspended.

10. While the Rector’s individual resolutions granting or witholding approval in matters of abstention and dissent cannot be legally disputed, provision shall be made for those parties wishing to officially dispute the final resolution that concludes the entire process.

11. When a case of abstention or dissent has been approved, compliance shall be made with the provisions outlined above in Section 7 of this Article.

1. The Thesis Examination Board shall consist of five examiners and two substitute examiners, all of whom shall have Doctoral membership and recognised research experience.

2. The Examination Board shall not consist of more than two members of the department responsible for the thesis or more than three members of staff at the same university or institution. To this end, teachers who are retired, on sabbatical leave, or employed in special services are exempt from this ruling, as are Professores Emeriti. Professores Emeriti with university contracts are not exempt.

3. The Thesis Supervisor (and, when applicable, the Thesis Tutor) shall only stand on those boards examining theses which have been conducted in compliance with bilateral agreements between the University of Barcelona and universities outside Spain and which have involved co-tutorships previously set out by inter-university agreements.

4. Should the thesis be submitted in a language other than the University’s two official languages, Catalan and Spanish, provision shall be made to ensure that all the members of the Examination Board are able to perform as examiners both in the reading of the thesis and in the hearing of its defence, which may be conducted partially or completely in that other language.

1. The faculty Doctoral Committee shall appoint an Examination Board Chair and Secretary.

2. The Examination Board Chair shall have Doctoral membership and recognised research experience in the area addressed by the thesis. If it so chooses, the Doctoral Committee may make more detailed requirements of the Chair nominees.

3. The youngest of those examiners on the Board who are tenured members of the University of Barcelona’s teaching staff shall act as Secretary to the Board. Should no examiner on the Board be a tenured member of the University staff, then the youngest member on the Board shall also act as Secretary.

4. When the thesis being defended has been co-tutored by the University of Barcelona and a university outside Spain, the Thesis Examination Board shall comply with the bilateral agreement that the universities have established in each of these cases.

1. Once the Examination Chair has conferred with the examiners on such matters as are pertinent to the Board, s/he shall call for the doctoral candidate to publicly defend the thesis.

2. No less than fifteen days before the day on which the thesis is to be defended, the Secretary to the Examination Board shall make this call known in writing to the remaining members of the Board, the candidate, the President of the Doctoral Committee, the Thesis Supervisor, the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff and, when applicable, the Thesis Tutor. The faculty Doctoral Committee shall be responsible for publishing this call for the defence on the University website.

3. The Thesis Defence shall be conducted at any moment in a period of no more than three months beginning on the day after the Examination Chair has officially announced the call.

1. The Thesis Defence shall be open to the public and shall consist of a presentation made by the candidate of the research s/he has carried out, an account of the methodology that has been used, and an explanation of the contents and conclusions of the thesis making special mention on the candidate’s original contributions to the research presented therein.

2. The members of the Examination Board may pose the candidate any questions they consider pertinent to the evaluation of the defence and the candidate shall answer these to the best of his or her ability.

3. In the course of the defence, the Examination Board Chair shall make such provisions as are necessary for those members of the public with Doctoral membership to pose the candidate questions they consider pertinent to the evaluation of the defence, and the candidate shall answer these to the best of his or her ability.

4. Once the defence and discussion of the thesis have been concluded, each member of the Examination Board shall write a formal evaluation of the defence.

5. After the members of the Examination Board have deliberated and cast their votes in closed session, the candidate’s final grade shall be made known following the scale of grades outlined below:
a) no apte (not accepted)
b) aprovat (accepted)
c) notable (good)
d) excel·lent (excellent)
e) excel·lent cum laude (excellent with the designation cum laude), should the Board’s vote of excel·lent be shared by at least four of its members.

6. The Chair shall then publicly announce the candidate’s final grade. The Secretary shall make the certificate of the examination describing the candidate’s grade available for the examiners to sign and this certicate shall be subsequently filed at the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff, accompanied by the examiners’ written evaluations and either the form that registers the thesis in the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science’s Doctoral Theses Database (TESEO) or an official and duly signed equivalent of this. The Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff shall then notify the candidate of the grade that s/he has been awarded.

7. The grade awarded shall be made to appear in the candidate’s doctoral title, in accordance with the regulations.

1. In order for the decisions of the Thesis Examination Board to be officially binding, at least four of its members including the Chair and Secretary shall be present on the Board at all moments.

2. In those cases where the call for the Thesis Defence has been duly made but where, for reasons approved by the Examination Board Chair, the candidate is unable to defend the thesis on the appointed day, the Chair may schedule a new date for the defense, which shall be conducted within fifteen days of this decision to change. In such cases, all parties involved in the defence shall be notified of the new date at least 48 hours before the day and time of the re-scheduled Examination.

3. In those cases where a member of the Board is unable to attend the Thesis Defence for reasons that have been approved by the Chair, and where and when the composition of the Board complies with Article 6 above, the Chair may authorise the appointment of a substitute examiner.

4. In those cases where the Thesis Defence cannot be conducted within the time period stipulated or where the number of substitute examiners does not ensure the presence of four officially appointed examiners or substitutes, as this regulatory framework requires, the faculty Doctoral Committeee may nominate a new Thesis Examination Board, proceeding in such a way that complies with the articles outlined in the present document.

5. In those cases where the candidate fails to provide reasons that the Chair can approve for their absence at the Defence, this failure shall be observed in the Examining Board’s minutes and the candidate shall be awarded the grade of ’fail’.

Article 11: The University Doctoral Archive and the Publication of the Doctoral Thesis

1. Once the thesis has been approved and for the purposes of archiving, the faculty Doctoral Committee will receive the authorised copy of the thesis previously deposited at the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff.

2. The faculty Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff shall send Academic Management either the form that registers the thesis in the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science’s Doctoral Theses Database (TESEO) or an official and duly signed equivalent of this, so that this can be duly processed by the University Coordination Council and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

3. When the digital copy of the doctoral thesis has been authorised by the Doctor, it shall be filed in the Catalan public universities’ database project TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa) at the NDLTD international database (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations), or in an equivalent database.

1. Using the provision made in Article 79 of the University of Barcelona Statutes, a candidate may appeal such departmental and doctoral committee decisions as are definitive and shall refer this in writing to the Rector of the University of Barcelona. As stipulated by Article 114 of the Catalan government’s Public Administration Law 30/1992, this appeal shall be made at any time within a period of one month beginning on the day after the candidate has been notified of the decision.

2. Against the decision of the Doctoral Committee of the Governing Board and the ruling of the University Rector, which closes the University of Barcelona’s administrative procedure for the evaluation of doctoral theses, the candidate may use the provision regulating the jurisdiction of administrative litigation outlined in Article 8 of the Catalan government’s Public Administration Law 29/1998, July 13, to contest the result of the evaluation before Barcelona’s Administrative Litigation Court. In accordance with Article 46 of Law 29/1998, the candidate shall lodge this appeal within a period of two months beginning on the day after s/he has been notified of the University’s ruling. Alternatively, and within a period of one month beginning on the day after this notification, the candidate may choose to make a facultative appeal before the University. Candidates choosing this procedure may not begin litigation in court until their facultative appeal has been denied, in accordance with Articles 116 and 117 of the Catalan government’s Public Administration Law 30/1992, November 26, modified by Law 4/1999, January 13.

1. Unless otherwise stated, all calendar deadlines set out in this document calculate periods of time in working days.

2. Those days during Christmas and Easter designated by the University as holiday periods shall not be calculated in the calendar deadlines set out in this document.The month of August shall also be exempt from these calculations.

First Additional Regulation: The thesis in a language other than the University of Barcelona’s official languages

1. The department responsible may authorise the deposit of doctoral theses in any language customarily used in the fields of science, technology and art other than the University of Barcelona’s official languages, Catalan and Spanish.

2. When the doctoral candidate presents a thesis in a language other than the University’s official languages, s/he shall add to the papers specified in Article 3 above a summary of the contents of the thesis, written in either of the University’s official languges. The summary should be sufficiently detailed to provide the reader with a clear idea of the contents of the thesis.

3. The faculty Doctoral Committee may set its own conditions regarding the content and length of the summary. When it has not done so, the summary shall consist of an introduction and a series of conclusions and shall run in length to no less than one tenth of the thesis proper.

Second Additional Regulation: The thesis as a compendium of published articles

1. Doctoral candidates at the University of Barcelona may present theses which are compendiums of published articles when and where these comply with the following conditions:
a) the thesis shall contain a general introduction listing the articles published therein and defending the relevance of their subject matter to the thesis.
b) the thesis shall contain an overall summary of the candidate’s findings, observations and conclusions.
c) either between the introduction and overall summary, or in the form of an annex, the thesis shall contain a complete copy of each article that is presented there, clearly stating the names and affiliations of all its co-authors, and the name and edition of the publication in which the article originally appeared or the name of the publication in which it is to appear. When the candidate presents a work of co-authorship, s/he shall accompany this with the report described in Article 2 Section b above.
d) when one or more of the articles presented in the thesis has been published in a language other than the University of Barcelona’s official languages, the thesis shall be accompanied by a summary of the contents of this article or summaries of these articles, and all such summaries shall be written in one of the University’s official languages. When the entire body of the thesis is presented in this other language, the candidate shall follow the procedure outlined in the First Additional Regulation above.
e) the presentation of the thesis shall respect the conditions set by the faculty Doctoral Committee.

2. When a thesis is a compendium of published articles, in order for the candidate to officially complete the application for authorisation to present the thesis, s/he shall add to the papers specified in Article 4 above the following documents:
a) a letter written by the Thesis Supervisor describing the relative importance of the published articles that have been included in the thesis.
b) when there is co-authorship, a report written by the Thesis Supervisor detailing the extent of the candidate’s contribution in each co-authored article and notifying the Committee of whether or not any co-author has used any article for the purposes of a doctoral thesis.

Those university research institutes created within the framework of the present legislation may exercise the functions that this regulatory framework sets out for university departments at the University of Barcelona.

Until December 31, 2005, the regulations in Articles 4 and 13 above concerning the preparation, examination, defense and evaluation of doctoral theses shall also apply to candidates who began their doctoral program in accordance with regulations applicable before RD 185/1985.

1. The Doctoral Committee of the Governing Board at the University of Barcelona or the organ representing that Committee shall be the body responsible for implementing the present regulatory framework.

2. The agreements adopted by the faculty Doctoral Committees in the application or specification of these regulations shall be published online at the University of Barcelona Web page and shall be made available for perusal each semester to the Doctoral Committee of the University’s Governing Board.

These regulations shall take effect on July 26, 2005, and shall be applied as of this date to all doctoral candidates seeking permission to submit their theses at the University of Barcelona.