The Doctoral School of the University of Valladolid has a series of activities and processes aimed at guaranteeing the quality, control, review and continuous improvement of doctoral studies. These activities and processes are carried out and supervised by three bodies: the academic committees of the doctoral programmes, the Doctoral Thesis Committee and the Doctoral School itself (EsDUVa). In this process of quality control and supervision, the EsDUVa is responsible for the following functions:
- To organise training activities to promote transversal research skills.
- To collaborate with the Doctoral Thesis Committee for the continuous improvement of the quality of doctoral theses defended at the University of Valladolid.
- To promote quality in the third-cycle (PhD) programmes available, participating in the verification, monitoring, and accreditation thereof.
- To approve applications for the incorporation and departure of researchers in the doctoral programmes.
- To define and document the processes and procedures aimed at guaranteeing the quality of third-cycle studies.
In the process of quality control and supervision, the academic committees of the doctoral programmes are assigned the following functions:
- To establish the requirements and criteria for the selection and admission of students to each doctoral programme.
- To issue reports on applications for the incorporation and departure of researchers as members of each doctoral programme.
- To be responsible for the training and research activities of the doctoral programme.
- To evaluate the research plan, the doctoral students' activities document, and the reports of the thesis tutors and supervisors.
- Prior to depositing doctoral theses, to obtain reports issued by PhD experts belonging to two different institutions and to propose the list of PhD members who may take part in the examination board that will assess the thesis. The external reports are incorporated into the thesis and are available to the examination board. External thesis reviewers and members of the examination board are required to have accredited experience (one period of research activity recognized in the last seven years or two in previous periods).
- To write follow-up reports of their doctoral programme containing the outcomes, completion of established goals, strengths and weaknesses, and the actions for improvement. The Studies and Assessment Office supports doctoral programmes in this monitoring process by collecting and tabulating quantitative information (tables of activity, performance and perception indicators).
- To collect qualitative information about suggestions, complaints and strengths.
- To offer information about each doctoral programme on its website.
The Doctoral Thesis Committee is a quality control system of the Doctoral School, whose members are appointed by the Governing Council, and which is responsible, among other duties, for supervising the quality of doctoral theses after they are submitted for defence approval. For this purpose, the Doctoral Thesis Committee has a number of mechanisms available:
- Ordinary theses must be endorsed with a contribution or an article with scientific impact as recognised by the CNEAI for its field of knowledge and accepted for publication during the PhD. For theses submitted as a compendium of publications, a minimum of three scientific articles accepted or published in an impact publication outlet –as recognised by the CNEAI– must be provided.
- This committee can request changes in the composition of thesis examination boards if the members do not accredit research experience in the area.
- It may request an extension of the external reports to the same experts appointed by the academic committee of the doctoral programme.
- It may request new reports from additional external experts (to whom it guarantees anonymity).
- Once reports have been received, the Doctoral Thesis Committee can accept the thesis without changes, suggest changes for a new version within the same deposition process, or reject the thesis.
- The Doctoral Thesis Committee also supervises co-supervision agreements.
The Guarantee Committee is the EsDUVa body responsible for studying and resolving complaints from doctoral and master's degree students regarding their assessment.
The Guarantee Committee is the EsDUVa body responsible for studying and resolving complaints from doctoral and master's degree students concerning their assessment.
The Guarantee Committee has the following functions:
a) To study and resolve complaints from students who request their grades in EsDUVa master's degree courses be reviewed, as established in the academic rules.
b) To study and resolve complaints from doctoral students concerning evaluations about their performance issued by the academic committee of the doctoral programme.