Doctoral thesis
Enrolment and thesis submission
Documents to be presented, for the reading of a Doctoral Thesis - General requirements
(It is necessary to consult also the "specific requirements” of the different Academic Committees. See below)
All documents must be signed with an original signature and delivered on paper or with certified electronic signature and sent by email in PDF files
(In this link you can download a PDF to keep track of the documents you have)
All the following official forms can be found on the website of the Doctoral School
- ADT - Authorization by the thesis supervisor for the submission of the defense proposal.
Signed by the supervisor or supervisors.
- ADU – Thesis quality report and authorization by the Academic Committee for its submission
Signed by the head of the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program (The PhD Coordinator). - IE- External referee report
"Referees" from two Phd experts, external to the UPC. - (If requesting the "International doctor mention" mention, the experts must belong to an institution of higher education or research center not Spanish).
- T- Proposal for the Appointment of the Examination Panel (proposed by the Supervisor and signed by the Coordinator of the PhD).
It is necessary to complete all the information requested in the T form. For the Faculty of the UPC, it suffices to indicate only name and position.
The Panel should be composed of 5 members +2 substitutes or by 3 members + 2 substitutes. (Substitutes members shall be written on the last two places of the T form).
Most of members of the Examination panel (or most of the members that finally act, if a substitute member is required) have to be external to the UPC and to the rest of the participating Organizations. (In the event that there is an external director, the UPC members + the members belonging to the institution of the external director cannot be a majority). Retired teachers of the UPC count, for this purpose, as internal members.
The external experts who have made the reports, can be part of the Examination panel. The directors can not.
Some members of the Panel (others than President or Secretary) may act by videoconference (Skype) if the Academic Commission of the program authorizes so. This modality must be indicated at the T Form. In this case, the thesis’s qualification will not be incorporated into the student’s file, until we have received the assessment certificate, with original signature, from the remote member (it is not enough emailing the document). Depending on the place of origin, it could take more than 20 days.
All members need to have the academic degree of PhD. In addition, the ones from UPC need to have "accredited research experience", in accordance with the rules of the Doctoral School.
(If you request the" international doctor mention", please see the requirements, below)
- Curriculum of each member of the tribunal not belonging to the UPC, in electronic format (pdf).
A maximum of 400 words, each CV. Send them by
. Instead of sending a file, you can choose to send us the URL where the CV is published. In either of the two formats, it is necessary to ensure that the CV expressly remarks the status of PhD of the member of the Examination panel.
- DAD - Doctoral Student Activity
Introduction of activities
As of the 2020-21 academic year, the DAD is no longer presented on paper and is generated on the ATENEA PhD platform, in one or two steps:
1) DRAC (UPC Research Descriptor)
First, the activities should be entered into the DRAC. As appropriate, they must be entered by the doctoral student or by their director (the joint ones). (The transferred activities can be checked at any time by making a "preview" in AteneaPhD).
More information at DRAC / PhD students:
https://drac.upc.edu/info/ca/preguntes-mes-habituals/PhD_students
It is necessary to mark the check box, as indicated in the DRAC application: "The doctoral student activity report (DAD) is for activities related to doctoral students' training and research. So, in each reference, you have a check box to include or not include a reference to DAD. " For any questions about the DRAC you can also write to suport.drac@upc.edu
2) Other activities
On the other hand, the activities that, due to their characteristics, cannot be entered into the DRAC, but also correspond to the formative stage of the doctoral student, can be listed in a single PDF and uploaded to the AteneaPhD section “other activities”. In this PDF there should be no activities already entered into the DRAC.
DAD generation and validations by the directors
When the doctoral student had entered all the activities, he/she must notify their director or tutor and ask him/her to access AteneaPHD and generate and validate the DAD.
As soon as the director generates the DAD in AteneaPhD, the activities of the DRAC become part of the DAD. Previously, you can do a "preview" to check that everything goes correctly.
If there is more than one director, the second will only have to validate (external directors cannot access this platform and should not validate).
Finally, the Doctorate office will ask the coordinator to also validate said DAD. In due course, we will provide this validated Activity Document, to the members of the thesis committee.
- TDX: Author statement for the incorporation of the thesis to theTDX
Signed by the doctoral student. Check only one of the given options
In this case, it is recommended to indicate the personal email. This document must be submitted with the rest of the documentation for the deposit, although the date of the reading is not yet known (leave this information blank). The publication of the thesis is mandatory, in all cases, after reading. For very justified reasons, the date of publication may be postponed
- Complete doctoral thesis in PDF
The thesis must be submitted in the online platform ATENEA PhD .File name format: "Doctoral thesis of SURNAMES, FIRST NAMES"
Once uploaded, the doctoral student must request their directors to "validate" it in the Atenea platform.
The names of the Departments promoting the Programs, which should also appear on the cover of the final thesis, are as follows:
Doctoral degree in Architectural Design - Department of Architectural Design
Doctoral degree in Architectural, Building Construction and Urbanism Technology - Department of Architectural Technology
Doctoral degree in Architectural, Civil and Urban Heritage and Refurbishment of Existing Buildings - Department of Architectural Representation
Doctoral degree in Architecture, Energy and Environment - Department of Architectural Technology
Doctoral degree in Theory and History of Architecture - Department of History and Theory of Architecture and Communication Techniques
Doctoral degree in Urban and Architectural Management and Valuation - Department of Architectural Technology
Doctoral degree in Urbanism - Department of Urbanism and Regional Planning
Please, consult the "Specific Requirements" section of this website, to learn if the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program requires a printed copy of the thesis for their own purposes.
According to the UPC's Academic regulations for doctoral degree courses, the doctoral thesis shall consist, of a minimum, of an introduction to the topic of study, the objectives to be achieved, a statement of the research as a fundamental part, the discussion of the results obtained, the conclusions and bibliography.
- Summaries of the doctoral thesis, in electronic format Word
In one single "Word" file, one language after another, without using any template (to facilitate their re-copy to the specific application of thesis) with the same text as the summaries in paper, indicated below (Each abstract maximun 3950 characters, included spaces). Please send it to us by
Important: Include in this file the title of the thesis written in lowercase letters (except proper names), regardless of how you wrote it in the PDF file - Two thesis summary form (Resum de Tesi Doctoral)
The abstracts must be one in Catalan or Spanish and other in English; also, in the language of the thesis, if it is different from the previous ones. In separate documents (Max 3950 characters each summary). The same texts as in the Word file, indicated above. Include the Unesco nomenclature - Photocopy of the DNI (Spanish) or passport in force (not a NIE).
NOTE: We will review that the doctoral students had presented, at the beginning of their studies, all the documents necessary for admission to a doctoral program, duly legalized, if necessary. If there is any missed document, it must be provided at this time.
Article-based doctoral thesi
Some PhD programs allow to submit "article-based doctoral thesis"
Interested students should start the procedure by submitting this Request to submit an article-based doctoral thesis
International doctor mention
In case of requesting the “International doctor mention”, at least one doctor belonging to an institution of higher education or research, not Spanish, has to be part of the Examination Panel.
The responsible for the international stay (the person who signs the stay certificate) can not be a member of the Examination Panel.
And in addition to the documents listed above, the following ones are needed:
- MI - Doctorate mention - Application for the International Doctorate mention
- AA- Approval and authorization for the International doctor mention mention
- Certificate in support of the stay of research or studies
With original signature of the person responsible for the stay and with the institution’s letterhead or stamp. The certificate or certificates should justify a minimum of three months of stay, which could be interrupted.
In this case, one part of the thesis, at a minimum the summary and conclusions, must be drawn up and exposed in one of the usual languages for scientific communication, in your field of knowledge. The languages must be different from those that are official in Spain. This rule shall not apply if the research stay, reports and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country.
Specific requirements of the different academic committees.
Some Doctoral Programs have established specific requirements on how to proceed. Regardless of this, all the documents listed above should be delivered to the Doctorate Office, before the registration of the thesis. You should be aware of the particularities of each program.
Doctoral degree in Architectural Design
Doctoral degree in Architectural, Building Construction and Urbanism Technology
Doctoral degree in Architectural, Civil and Urban Heritage and Refurbishment of Existing Buildings
Doctoral degree in Architecture, Energy and Environment
Doctoral degree in Theory and History of Architecture
Doctoral degree in Urban and Architectural Management and Valuation
To take into account:
In the event that there has been a change in the Supervisor of the thesis or the incorporation of a co-Supervisor, you will not be able to deposit the thesis, up to one year after the change or new assignment. The duration of the doctoral studies in RD 99/2011, is a maximum of three years, if it is full-time and the minimum is two, counted from the first enrollment until the day of the deposit.
To proceed to the reading of a Doctoral Thesis, the circuit is the following, in the order indicated:
1. The doctoral student will deliver all the documents indicated below to the Doctorate Office("Documents to submit for the reading of the Thesis"), after having obtained the required authorizations. That is, when all the Academic Committee procedures and paperwork had been finalized. Some programs require that the doctoral student begin the paperwork two or three months before be able to enroll the thesis (next step). You should review the “Special requirements” listed below
2. We will do the enrolment of the thesis, after having reviewed the documents and having entered them into the academic computer system. We will notify the doctoral student when the enrolment had been done. (Please consult the Academic Calendar, below.)
3. The doctoral student pays the enrolment fee.
You can do it through your "e-Secretaria", by credit card, or by printing the enrolment form and presenting it in one of the bank offices that are specified on it.
4. We send the thesis to the Doctoral School
5. The Doctoral School starts the procedure to approve both the reading and the Examination panel.
6. The Doctoral School admits the Doctoral Thesis for defense and appoints the examination panel.
7. We make the official announcement of the reading day and send it by email to the Examination panel, the directors, the student, the coordinator of the program and the Doctoral School. In addition, we publish the reading notice on our website. Also, the Doctoral School publish the announcement in its website
8. We make the reservation of the reading room and/or the public link to the videoconfeence and deliver the official forms to the members of the Examination panel.
9. After the reading, we deliver the minutes signed by Examination panel and other official documents to the Doctoral School. (If a member of the panel acts by videoconference, we need to wait until the original assessment certificate from that member – not by email- arrives at our Secretary).
10. The Doctoral School introduces the assessment of the thesis, in the academic computer system.
11. The doctoral student may apply for the Degree certificate, from the day on which the assessment of the thesis shows in his/her e-Secretary. Procedure:
https://etsab.upc.edu/en/studies/doctoral-programmes/title-application-degree-certification
Note: Travel and accommodation. The budget for the members of the Examination Panel residing outside of Barcelona is up to a total of 500 euros for the thesis without the "International doctor" mention and up to 1000 euros for the thesis with this mention. Although our Doctorate Office does not manage travel, only for guidance, we inform that from the moment the Doctoral School starts the procedure to approve both the reading and the Examination panel (point 6), it will be necessary to wait for a minimum of 45 days, before the thesis defense. Only about 30 days if there is not need to make any travel arrangements. This account will stop if the Doctoral School finds any incidence with the thesis or the proposed examination panel. The reading date proposed will not be firm until the Doctoral School had formally approved the thesis reading. You can read a thesis within three months following its admission by the Doctoral School (point 7).