Regulation of co-supervised thesis - Regulations about International doctorate qualification - Regulations about writing doctoral theses for the Compendium of Publications - General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University - Complaint procedure and suggestions

Regulation of co-supervised thesis

Regulations applicable to doctoral theses co-supervised by Observatori de l’Ebre or La Salle URL and another European university will be in accordance with the General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University and can be consulted at Normes generals OrganitzacióDoctorat URL .

Regulations about International doctorate qualification

Regulations applicable to doctoral theses with International doctorate certification will be in accordance with the General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University and can be consulted at  Normes generals Organització Doctorat URL.

Regulations about writing doctoral theses for the Compendium of Publications

Regulations applicable to doctoral theses written as a collection of published articles or Compendium of Publications will be in accordance with the General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University, Normativa Organització Doctorat URL.

Furthermore, doctoral students enrolled in the doctoral program in Information technology and Management application, Architecture and Geophysics who want to submit the doctoral thesis as a collection of published articles must fulfill the following requirements:

• at least 1 international congress  peer-review
• at least 2 articles published in high impact factor journals

The Academic Committee should authorize a doctoral student to defend the thesis. It is mandatory to obtain this authorization report of the Academic Commission and give it to the Doctoral Committee in order to be approved.

General Rules of PhD Organization at Ramon Llull University

General rules of PhD organization at RL can be found at  http://www.url.es/comunitat-universitaria/legislacio-i-normatives .

General regulations of the doctoral studies can be found at  http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/02/10/pdfs/BOE-A-2011-2541.pdf .

Complaint procedure and suggestions

Any student of the doctoral program, who wants to make suggestions or comments, can do it by email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or directly through the form provided on the “Suggeriments” in the e‐campus.

Any PhD student, who wants to complain about an issue, must talk to his or her thesis director. It is imperative that troubling issues be addressed at an early stage before they lead to a deterioration of the thesis work. If the student considers that the complaint has been insufficiently addressed, he or she must talk with the tutor and at last with the program Coordinator, Dr. Xavier Vilasis Cardona with e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If they are not able to construct an acceptable solution to the conflict, recourse will be directly to the Academic Committee.

Situations which cannot be resolved through these procedures can proceed to the stage of formal appeal to  the director of the Observatori de l’Ebre. Finally, the student may also contact the independent figure of the Ombudsman for Student of the University Ramon Llull, whose functions are described in Article 20 bis of the Statute of the University Ramon Llull núm.291 published in the Official Gazette of December 3,2004. Statutes, with the Regulation of Student Ombudsman, are public and are available at http://www.url.edu/es/cont/academica/normativas.php.

At last, the PhD student can appeal to the university rector.

Objectives - Competencies - Personal abilities and skills - Program organization - Research linies - Additional training - Infraestructures - Languages

The aim of the studies of doctorate is to offer an advanced formation in research technics to the student, who will have to elaborate and defend a thesis that incorporates original results of research.

Our doctoral program sums up different research groups from l’Observatori de l’Ebre and La Salle-URL. Different groups of research take part developing lines of research in the field of Physics, speciality Geophysics and also in Technologies of the Information and Communication and its Management.The fusion of these groups allows us to reinforce the multidisciplinary aspects of our doctoral program. The aim of this fusion is to ensure that the doctoral candidate will acquire basic research skills, professional capacities and the ability to innovate and be creative. These competencies will turn the doctoral Student into a professional both in the scientific and business worlds. We offer advanced training research techniques which will be useful for the candidate to develop original research results along the doctoral studies.

The duration of the doctoral studies is 3 years for a full-time candidate and 5 years for a part-time candidate, from the admission of the doctoral studies since the thesis defense.

Objectives

The doctoral program aims to develop the skills and competencies necessary to train high level researchers able to carry out solid research in the different fields involved in this program.

1. Scientific quality through publications. We encourage paper publications in indexed journals as a measure of contrast.
2. Transversal and multidisciplinary. Exploit the possibilities of interdisciplinary knowledge included in the program.
3. Internationalization. Thanks to the international contacts of the different research groups, we encourage PhD students to stay in foreign centers for some time.

Competencies

In accordance with Royal Decree 99/2011, 28 January and Royal Decree 1027/2011, 28 July, the competencies are:

1. Systematic understanding of a field of research and mastery of the skills and research methods related to said field.
2. Ability to conceive, design and create, implement and undertake a substantial creation or research process.
3. Ability to contribute to the broadening of the frontiers of knowledge through original research.
4. Ability to carry out critical analysis and evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
5. Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific communities and with society in general about their research area in the ways and language typically used in the relevant international scientific community.
6. Ability to foster, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic or cultural advances within a knowledge-based society.

Personal abilities and skills

1. Ability to deal with contexts in which there is little specific information.
2. Ability to identify the key questions which need addressing in order to solve a complex problem.
3. Ability to design, create, develop and undertake new and innovative projects in the relevant area of expertise.
4. Be able to work both in a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
5. Be able to integrate knowledge, deal with complexity and formulate opinions with limited information
6. Criticism and intellectual defense of solutions.

Program organization

Doctoral program in Information technology and management application, architecture and geophysics is organized as follows:

Every doctoral student must talk with the thesis supervisor to solve the different problems arising during the doctoral studies such as the execution of the research project and its presentation to the research group.

On the other hand, the doctoral student will do additional training which will be included into the doctoral training log, called document of activities of the doctoral student (DAD). Courses, technical reports, congresses, seminars and all the activities related with the doctoral studies must be written on it in order to keep and control continuous learning and research activity.

Results should be published in journals with high journal impact factor and should be presented in different international congresses where the thesis work can be exposed as well as discussed.

Training activities must be validated by the thesis supervisor and the tutor. The tutor will give this information to the Academic Committee in order to supervise and admit the document of activities of the PhD studentand validate the DAD information.

Doctoral studies must be completed within a maximum of three years, full-time, from the candidate’s admission to the program to the presentation of the doctoral thesis but, the duration will depend on the PhD student profile and the convenience of studying the doctoral training courses.

Research linies

The activity of the Geophysical Group includes the monitoring and analysis of the variability of the Earth's ionosphere and geomagnetic field as well as the study of the water cycle and climate change impacts on Mediterranean water systems. They are noteworthy:

- The investigation of the variability of the ionosphere and the Earth's magnetic field caused by solar and geomagnetic activity.

- Global and Regional modeling of the main magnetic field and of its secular variation, including archaeomagnetic applications.

- The development of models for geomagnetic and ionospheric variations of solar origin and applications related to the effects of space weather.

- The hydrological simulation distributed on a physical basis.

Additional training

Additional training courses may be classified into three different types:

1. Research methodology courses equivalent to 5 ECTS credits.

2. Master courses included in the PhD program related to the research areas needed to develop the doctoral thesis. These courses correspond to 5 ECTS credits each one.

3. Seminars to introduce the PhD student to the research work corresponding to 10 ECTS credits.

Infrastructures

On behalf of the students, the Centre offers the following facilities:
- A Researchers' Residence where students can stay during the development of their thesis.
- A Library specialized in geophysics with access to books and specialtized journals.
- A Laboratory equipped with instrumentation for geophysical works.
- Offices located in the new building for researchers where doctoral students will be able to work together with the center's researchers.

Languages

Students may write and defend the thesis in Catalan, Spanish or English. Additional training courses will be held in English. If sufficient justification is provided, the Academic Committee for the doctoral program may authorize a doctoral student to write and defend the thesis in another language.

Requirements - Admission - Registration - Fees and funding

Requirements

In accordance with Royal Decree 99/2011, 28 January, the general requirements for admission to the doctoral program are:

a) To hold an official Spanish undergraduate degree or equivalent, and a university master’s degree.

b) To hold an official Spanish university degree or from another European Higher Education Area country which qualifies the student for admission to a master’s degree, in accordance with article 16 of Royal Decree 1393/2007, 29 October, and to have obtained a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in the total official university studies, of which at least 60 should be at master’s degree level.

c) To hold an official Spanish undergraduate degree with a minimum of 300 ECTS credits, in accordance with the regulations of community law. Said graduates will have to study the complementary study courses as mentioned in article 7.2 of this regulation, except when the study program of the corresponding degree qualification includes research training credits, equivalent in level to the research credits from master’s degree studies.

d) To hold a qualification obtained in accordance with foreign education systems, which does not need to be accredited, agreed by this university to be the equivalent level of an official Spanish master’s degree, and which would qualify the holder for admission to a PhD program in the country where it was obtained. This does not mean, however, that any academic qualifications held by the candidate will be accredited or officially recognized in this country other than for admission to the doctoral program.

e) To hold another Spanish PhD obtained in accordance with previous university ordinances.

Admission

In order to enroll on the doctoral program, the candidate has to be interviewed by the coordinator of the program. Admission will depend on this interview and

a)     on the candidate’s CV

b)    a request form ( free format)

c)     a letter of recommendation (if applicable)

Those characteristics which provide reasonable evidence of the candidate’s potential as a researcher will be considered an asset:

• Academic record and qualifications
• Experience in research methodology
• Sills in some of the areas of knowledge  within the areas of research of the research groups
• Motivation about the thesis development and working plan
• Other merits

The Doctoral Program Academic Committee (CAPD) is ultimately responsible for deciding whether a candidate is eligible for admission, in accordance with the described selection criteria.

Students wishing to enroll in the Doctoral Program on a part-time basis must meet the same admission requirements as other students.

Registration

After the interview with the Coordinator of the program, a proposal containing the tutor name and, if possible, the director’s thesis name as well as the additional training courses that the candidate must attend, should be written and moved to the Doctoral Program Academic Committee.

The program Coordinator will write a report of acceptance, non-acceptance or provisional acceptance (in case of additional training) to make the PhD student acquire the requirements to enroll the doctoral program.  This report should be validated by the Academic Committee.

Once the candidate has been accepted, he or she should formalize the enrollment to the doctoral studies. Once the application has been verified it will be processed. Finally, the candidate will then need to pay the corresponding fees to formalize the enrolment.

It is the responsibility of the overseas student to ensure that he/she holds all the necessary documentation required for the period of residence in Spain while studying for a PhD at La Salle or the Observatori de l’Ebre.

Fees and funding

For information about enrollment fees, grants and discounts, speak directly with the Coordinator of the doctoral program - geophysics speciality (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).