During their research training period, PhD students will have one or more thesis supervisors and a tutor. The latter may or may not be the same person as the thesis supervisor.
Upon admission to the doctoral programme, each doctoral student must have a tutor who is a lecturer from the doctoral programme. The main task of the tutor is to ensure that the training and research undertaken by the doctoral student comply with the principles of the PhD programme and the Doctoral School itself.
After having listened to all parties, the academic committee of the PhD programme may modify the appointment of the tutor assigned to a PhD student at any time during the doctoral studies, provided that there are justified reasons. Modifications must be disclosed in the following form which must be sent to the administrative secretariat of the Doctoral School (negociado.escuela.doctorado@uva.es). This change will entail the signing of a new thesis supervision commitment document.
In accordance with article 23.2 of Law 40/2015, of October 1, governing the legal regime of the public sector, persons who have a marital relationship (or a similar de facto situation) or a blood relationship within the fourth degree or an affinity within the second degree with the PhD student must abstain from the position of thesis supervisor or tutor.
The thesis supervisor is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing the research tasks carried out by the PhD student and for ensuring the consistency and appropriateness of the training activities, their impact and novelty in the field of the doctoral thesis. The thesis supervisor is in charge of planning the research and of supervising the methodological development of the research as well as providing the PhD student with the material resources available to successfully achieve the objectives set out. They are also responsible for the impact and novelty of the thesis topic in their field.
The thesis supervisor will be appointed preferably upon admission of the PhD student to the doctoral programme, and will be assigned by its corresponding academic committee. If the assignment of the thesis supervisor is made after the student’s admission, the academic committee of the doctoral programme will send the following form to the administrative secretariat of the Doctoral School (negociado.escuela.doctorado@uva.es).
The thesis supervisor may be any Spanish or foreign doctor with accredited research experience. The thesis may be co-supervised by several doctors, either for academic reasons, the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, or in cases of national or international collaboration. However, the number of supervisors for a thesis cannot exceed three.
Having listened to all parties, the academic committee may appoint a new thesis supervisor for a PhD student at any time during the PhD studies, provided that there are justified reasons. Modifications must be reported by using the following form, which must be sent to the administrative secretariat of the Doctoral School (negociado.escuela.doctorado@uva.es). This change will entail signing a new thesis supervision commitment document.
In accordance with article 23.2 of Law 40/2015 of October 1 governing the legal regime of the public sector, persons who have a marital relationship (or similar de facto situation) or blood relationship within the fourth degree or affinity within the second degree with the PhD student must refrain from serving as a thesis supervisor or tutor.
The rules governing official doctoral studies (Royal Decree 99/2011, as amended by Royal Decree 576/2023) include a number of recommendations and, specifically with regard to thesis supervision, recommend a code of good practice guide for the supervision and monitoring of doctoral theses.
The EsDUVa has drawn up its own guide, which can be consulted at the following link
Code of good practice for doctoral student tutoring and thesis supervision