Doctoral thesis

Initial information

Phedra Application

If you are interested in depositing your doctoral thesis, you will use the PheDra application. Through PheDra, all involved person (doctoral student, administrative manager, thesis supervisor, coordinator, Doctoral School...) must complete a series of forms and authorisations in order for the deposit process can progress to the next stage. The application automatically notifies each person involved when his/her intervention is required, and in this way all the stages are completed until the final deposit of the doctoral thesis.

It's recommended to start the PheDra registration 4 or 5 months in advance of the deadline to deposit fixed in the PhD student's academic record. Once the doctoral thesis has been deposited, the UPC Doctoral School makes it available to any international doctor who wishes to consult it (for a period of 10 working days), but all internal and external validations must be carried out first, to guarantee the quality of work.

Access to PheDra manuals (website of the UPC Doctoral School).

Considerations for elaborating and defending a doctoral thesis

Doctoral thesis' cover page:

It's compulsory to include on the cover page:

Thesis' title (only capital letters are allowed in proper names and sentences' beginnings)
Author's name
Thesis supervisors' names
Doctoral Program's name
Name of the Doctoral Program's promoting Department

External reviewers

For the assessment of the deposit application, the Doctoral Program Academic Committee must request a minimum of two reports from external experts that guarantee the quality of the thesis, who must have the academic degree of Doctors.

If the International Mention is requested, the experts must belong to a non spanish higher education institution or research centre. The person who has supervised the international stay cannot be proposed as a thesis' external reviewer.

The external reviewers may be part of the final evaluation examination committee. UPC retired professors cannot be proposed as an external reviewer.

Examination Committee

The examination committee must be made up of 5 regulars + 2 substitutes or 3 regulars + 2 substitutes. The thesis supervisors cannot be part of the examination committee.

The majority of the members in the examination committee (or most of the members who finally act, if any substitutes have to intervene) must be external to the UPC and to the doctoral program. The external reviewers may be part of the final examination committee.

All members must have the academic degree of Doctor. The UPC's members (internal for examination committee purposes; includes retired UPC staff) must also have "accredited research experience", in accordance with the current academic regulations of the Doctorate.

The members of the examination committee may act by videoconference, only if the program's Academic Committee authorizes it (except for the Secretary, who must act mandatory in person). In case of proposing a UPC member for the examination committee, it's recommended that he/she occupy the role of Secretary of the examination committee.

If the International Mention is requested, at least one expert doctor belonging to a non spanish higher education or research institution must be part of the thesis examination committee. The person responsible for the stay (the person who signs the supporting certificate) cannot be part of the examination committee.

International Mention

To be awarded the International Doctorate Mention, one part of the thesis, at least the summary and conclusions, must be written and presented in one of the usual languages different from the official languages in Spain. This rule won't apply if the stay, reports and experts come from a spanish speaking country.

It will be necessary to provide the certificate justifying the research or studies' stay. With the signature of the person in charge of the stay and with a institution's header or stamp. The certificate or certificates must justify a minimum of three months of stay, which may be in different periods, during the stage of doctoral studies. In the cas of Cotutelle, the international stay had to be carried out in a different institution with which the Cotutelle agreement has been signed.

Travels and accommodations of the examination committee

The maximum budget for travel of all regular members of the examination committee who reside outside Barcelona is 500 €, for theses without International Mention and 1.000 € for theses with mention. As these procedures must follow a very prescribed procedure and cannot be initiated until the UPC Doctoral School has authorized the defence, it's advisable to fix a defence date with sufficient margin. The regulations allow to defend a thesis up to three months after its authorization by the UPC Doctoral School.

Theses with confidential aspects

In exceptional circumstances, which may include the participation of companies in the preparation of the thesis, the existence of confidentiality agreements with companies or the possibility of generating patents related to the content of the doctoral thesis, a specific procedure may be requested on PheDra to ensure that these aspects won't be published in the defence act and in the archive of the doctoral thesis in institutional repositories.

Article-based doctoral thesis

Some doctoral programmes have specific regulations, on the basis of which thei Academic Committees may authorise the elaborating of theses in the "article-based" mode. You can requested this mode in a PheDra's specific procedure.

Change in the doctoral thesis' supervision

If there has been a change in the supervisor or the incorporation of a co-supervisor, the doctoral thesis may not be deposited until one year after the change or new assignment of the supervisor.

Specific requirements of some doctoral programmes

It's recommended to start the PheDra registration 4 or 5 months in advance of the deadline to deposit fixed in the PhD student's academic record

Below, you can consult the particularities of each doctoral program:

Doctoral degree in Architecture, Energy and Environment

Doctoral degree in Architectura Design

Doctoral degree in Architectural, Building Construction and Urbanism Technology

Circuit from the deposit request until obtaining the Doctoral degree

The doctoral student will apply for the deposit of his/her doctoral thesis through the PheDra application sufficiently in advance of the deadline to studies ending (4 or 5 months in advance would be desirable).
The doctoral thesis will pass (within the PheDra application) all the mandatory internal and external reviews to be deposited: thesis supervisors, anti-plagiarism program, external reviewers and the program's Academic Committee. In this phase, improvements/modifications may be recommended or demanded before its effective deposit.
The thesis supervisors will propose the composition of an examination committee, which must be validated by the program's Academic Committee.
Doctoral Secretary's office will enrol the thesis deposit and the doctoral student will pay the amount via e-Secretaria
The UPC Doctoral School will approve the examination committee and will start the publication of the official deposit (during 10 working days). During the deposit period, any international doctor may request the thesis' review and may even submit allegations/observations in case of finding contradictions, errors or plagiarism.
The UPC Doctoral School will authorize the defence and the Research vice-rector will officially appoint the examination committee.
The examination committee will obtain access to all documents related to the defence: doctoral thesis + DAD + anonymous reports from external reviewers.
Doctoral Secretary's office will request the exact date and time for the public defence that has been agreed with the examination committee.
The Program's promoting Department will arrange travel and accommodation for the examination committee, if applicable.
Doctoral Secretary's office will reserve a space and manage the meet link for the videoconference, if applicable. The examination committee will be officially called.
Doctoral Secretary's office will publish the defence notice on the ETSAB website. It's also published on the UPC Doctoral School website.
The defence day, the Secretary of the examination committee will evaluate the defence in PheDra, fulfilling and signing an official record, on behalf of the entire regular examination committee.
The UPC Doctoral School will manage the "Cum Laude" vote of the examination committee (if applicable) and, later, the final qualification of the thesis will be registered to the doctoral student's academic file.
The doctoral student may apply for his/her doctorat degree.