FAQs

The choice of topic will depend on the adviser and/or the research project assigned to the PhD student upon admission to the PhD programme.

A PhD is the highest university qualification leading to the title of doctor. It is official and valid throughout Spain and is recognised across the European Higher Education Area.  Official doctoral studies are regulated by the Royal Decree 99/2011 dated the 28th of January, 2011. When obtaining a doctoral degree, one must demonstrate the ability to carry out original research autonomously, with an internationally recognised level of quality. This must culminate in the writing and defence of the doctoral thesis before a panel of doctors who are experts in the discipline in which the research is performed, and who will...

In view of previous training, the academic commission of the programme to which you have applied for admission may decide that you must take a compulsory number of additional credits. These credits are called training complements. When you receive the letter of admission by email, you will be able to see the training complements that, if applicable, you will have to take/complete in the first months of the first year of the doctorate. Please consult the specific requirements on the website of the programme in which you have enrolled. Please note that the assignment of these training complements is individualised...

At each stage, the interested applicant will receive information by email on the progress of his or her admission.

Once you have received the letter confirming ADMISSION from the Academic Committee of the corresponding Doctoral Programme, you must present the documentation at the corresponding CEINDO School Secretary's Office, depending on where you have applied to study, following the instructions on the website.

You can do so by accessing the admissions application where you have submitted the documentation. If you are admitted, you will receive the admission letter by email (automatic) to the email address you included in the admission platform.

The admission application along with the required documentation uploaded on the platform will be evaluated by the doctoral programme's Academic Commission, which will apply the specific requirements and established merit assessment criteria and will approve admission or not to the given programme.

Admission to doctoral programmes may include the requirement for specific additional training.

You can do so by reloading the correct document. If you have any queries, please contact the CEINDO Secretary's Office.

Before proceeding with the pre-enrolment application, you must have ready scanned copies of both general and specific documents required by the programmes. For all student applicants: A current and legible photocopy of the DNI (in the case of Spanish citizens) or passport or NIE (in the case of foreign citizens). Documentation justifying the application for part-time study status. Academic certification of the studies completed. Curriculum Vitae. If you have an official foreign language certificate, please attach it to your application. In the case of a foreign degree: In the case of a recognised foreign degree (within the EHEA): a certified...

The application for admission is made online. To apply for admission to a doctoral programme, it is recommended that you follow the steps below: Check that you meet the general entry requirements and the specific admission requirements. Find out about the details of the doctoral programme you wish to take in the "ADMISSION" section of the CEINDO website. Access the platform by clicking on APPLY FOR ADMISSION and follow the steps indicated, bearing in mind that it is essential that you upload the required electronic documents in PDF format properly completed. Once admitted, you will be informed of the next...

We recommend that you apply for admission to a doctorate before applying for a scholarship, as the institutions that award them usually require a document proving admission to a doctorate to continue with the process (consult the conditions of the awarding body).

Yes.  CEINDO offers financial aid for tuition fees and international movility in collaboration with Santander.  You can consult the scholarships offered in the CEINDO website: https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/

As well as the bursaries and research contracts available at each CEINDO member university and those offered by the Ministry of Education. Consult the scholarships and calls for applications of each university in its website:

• https://www.uspceu.com/investigacion/presentacion
• https://www.uchceu.es/conocenos/investigacion
• https://www.uaoceu.es/investigaci%C3%B3n

No. All CEINDO doctoral programmes require in-person attendance throughout the training period. However, please consult the specific website of the doctoral programme to find out information on this subject or contact the coordinator responsible for the programme, as the degree of on-site attendance is established by each programme.

You may indicate your wish to take your doctoral studies part time when applying for admission or once you have started your studies by means of a reasoned request to the Academic Commission from your doctoral programme, with the approval of your mentor or supervisor.

For full-time doctoral degrees regulated by R.D. 99/2011, the duration is 3 years (plus 1 extension of one year and another 1 year in exceptional cases), and 5 years (plus 1 extension of two years and another 1 year in exceptional cases) if they are part time.

For the purposes of calculating the time of the programme, leaves of absence due to illness, pregnancy or any other cause provided for in the regulations in force shall not be considered.

If you are in possession of the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) (R.D. 778/1998) or research proficiency (R.D. 185/1985), you can access the PhD programme.  If you are not in possession of the DEA or the certificate of research proficiency, you must either take a university master's degree or access it via the bachelor's degree route if you have this qualification.  You must apply for admission to the programme you are interested in and submit all the corresponding documentation as if you were a new student.

Yes.  University graduates who have passed a successful evaluation of at least two years of training in a programme leading to an official qualification in one of the specialities in Health Sciences can access a doctoral programme. Therefore, those who have passed the first two years of MIR, EIR, FIR, BIR, QIR, PIR and RFIR are eligible.

If you have the homologation credentials or a declaration of equivalence to a degree and academic level of a graduate, architect, engineer, doctorate or doctoral degree (the duration of which, in accordance with community law rules, is at least 300 ECTS) granted by the Ministry of Universities, the procedures to be followed to apply for admission to the doctoral programme will be the same as those for students who have obtained their degree in Spain. Students who do not have validation or a declaration of equivalence in Spain must provide the following documentation: A certified or collated photocopy of the...

No. In order to access a doctoral programme, you need to accredit 300 credits. If this number of credits is not obtained, you will have to adapt to the degree or complement the missing credits with another university master's degree of 60 ECTS.

No. In order to be admitted to the doctoral programme, students must hold a Spanish university degree or a university degree from another EHEA member country that qualifies them for access to a master's degree.  In addition, they had to have passed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in official university studies, of which at least 60 ECTS credits must be at master's degree level.

No.  When you complete a double degree, you obtain two bachelor's degrees of the same academic level. According to the admission rules, you must have at least 60 ECTS credits at a master's degree level.

Yes.  Official Spanish graduate degrees of at least 300 ECTS credits are accepted.

Yes. However, the admission decision, if favourable, will be conditional upon completion of the master's degree before the start of the academic year for which admission has been requested and the presentation of the supporting documentation at the student secretary's office of the enrolment centre within the established deadline.

Depending on what the Ministry of Education establishes regarding the Correspondence between Official University Degrees ('pre-Bologna') and MECES levels. Please consult the following link https://www.educacionyfp.gob.es/servicios-al-ciudadano/catalogo/general/20/202058/ficha/202058.html#ciencias-sociales

The ones established by current legislation and, in addition, those specific to the programme you wish to undertake.

The general and specific requirements for each programme can be consulted at: www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es in the general section on access and admission or on the website of each programme.

This information can be found on the website: https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/en/

No. The application for admission is made for a specific academic year. If a student is admitted but does not enrol for that academic year, he/she must reapply for admission if he/she wishes to enrol later.

Yes. Enrolment allows you to be accredited as a student at the CEU Universities, which is necessary to access the services of CEINDO, such as the library. You can download your card with the mobile application of each university:

​Download it at App Store	CEU USP (Apple)	CEU UCH (Apple)	CEU UAO (Apple)
Downloaden ot at Google Play	CEU USP (Google)	CEU UCH (Google)	CEU UAO (Google)

Consult the instructions of each university to get your physical card:

https://www.uspceu.com/en/

https://www.uchceu.com/en

https://www.uaoceu.es/en

If you do not apply for temporary withdrawal through the established channels and do not formalise your registration within the established deadlines, this will be considered as a definitive withdrawal from the doctoral programme. During the academic year, students may request temporary withdrawal from the programme for one year, extendable for a further year, for justified reasons. This request must be addressed and justified to the Academic Committee responsible for the programme, which will decide on the matter. Unless there are unforeseen circumstances, such withdrawals must be requested within the period established by CEINDO. Lastly, the researcher in training may...

Yes, but you must inform the Academic Commission of the programme in which you are enrolled of your withdrawal. You will also need to reapply for admission to the programme you wish to change to, so that the Academic Commission can accept you and a new Activities Document and Research Plan can be established.  A new Documentary Commitment must also be signed. These changes will be applicable before the renewal of enrolment for the following academic year.

Registration is annual (per academic year), as in any other degree, and the researcher in training must renew it annually, if he/she continues to be a doctoral student.

In the first year, and only the first year, once the student is admitted to the doctoral programme and submitted the corresponding documentation, registration is done by the CEINDO Secretary's Office. For the rest of the academic years, it must be the doctoral student who renews his/her registration.

Enrolment is done through the CEU intranet, under academic supervision, within the period established in the call for applications.

Upon enrolment at the CEU International Doctoral School (CEINDO), the PhD student will receive an institutional account and access codes to the INTRACEU where he/she will have access to different issues: Outlook email account and Microsoft services Access to SIGMA, the academic management application where you can consult your file and submit your activity document and research plan. Incident and request management Communications must be made via the official CEINDO email address. No communications will be sent to personal emails.If doctoral students manage several email accounts, then using email client applications to manage them are recommended. https://clean.email/best-free-email-client

This is a note to be included on the front of the Doctoral Degree in the event that the doctoral thesis is co-directed or co-supervised by two or more Doctors from a Spanish and a foreign university, in accordance with the provisions of the Royal Decree 99/2011, dated the 28th of January, and is not part of a joint programme.

This is an honourable mention that may be included on the front of the Doctoral Degree if the following requirements are met: A minimum three-month stay outside Spain at a prestigious higher education institution or research centre. The stay and the activities must be endorsed by the Director and authorised by the Academic Committee and will be included in the student's activities document. Part of the thesis, at least the abstract and conclusions, must have been written and presented in one of the usual languages for scientific communication in its field of knowledge, other than any of the official languages...

The name and logo of the corresponding university (UCH, UAO or USP) must appear on the cover. The copy of the thesis must be bound and properly identified. The thesis must be submitted in digital pdf format by email or a link with download permissions to the address [email protected]. CEINDO provides a document with the compulsory cover page model and guidelines to help in the preparation of the thesis (link to rules - 3 documents in Word, one per university). Each doctoral programme or supervisor can provide specific guidelines or style guidelines depending on the subject of the thesis.

Yes, provided that in the publications that make up the thesis the PhD student has participated as the main author and have been published in journals of the discipline included in quality indexes of contrasted quality or of similar scientific level in books.

The programme's Academic Committee will assess whether you meet the established requirements. Consult the thesis regulations by compendium of publications.

Yes. The thesis may be developed and defended in the standard languages for scientific communication in its field of knowledge, subject to the approval of the programme's Academic Committee.

Once the thesis has been completed, with the approval of the supervisor(s) and mentor, you must follow the indications available on the web site https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/en/doctoral-thesis/#itinerary in accordance with the relevant deadlines (by the 30th of November of the relevant academic year).

After 3 years from enrolment for full-time students who have not applied for an extension, or 5 years for those who are studying doctoral studies part time and have not applied for an extension.  The student may also begin the thesis deposit procedure once the extension period has elapsed, bearing in mind that it must be completed before the end of the corresponding academic year (before the 30th of November of the academic year in question).

If the PhD student foresees that he/she will not be able to present the thesis before the end of the maximum time limit according to his/her dedication, he/she may apply to the Academic Committee of his/her programme for an extension before the end of the time limit of the programme according to his/her dedication regime (the deadline is the 30th of November).  The extension request must be approved by the Academic Committee in accordance with the supporting documents provided by the PhD student. Check the deadlines and applications in the section PROCEDURES

The change from one type of dedication to another can only be made annually, per academic year, and always prior to the renewal of the academic supervision of the corresponding academic year (enrolment period). Check the deadlines in the PROCEDURES section. Changes in timetables will be applied in accordance with the following regulations (PC01. INFORMATION, ACCESS, ADMISSION AND ENROLMENT): Changes from full time (FT) to part time (PT): The change from full time to part time will be allowed only during the first two academic years, depending on the following cases: When the full-time researcher in training requests the change...

If the PhD student is enrolled full time, three years from the 30th of November of the academic year in which he/she has been admitted and enrolled, until the thesis is deposited to the Academic Commission of the Programme; in the case of part-time students, five years counted in the same manner.

https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/admision-matricula/duracion/

Changes of thesis supervisors will only be approved (under justified cause) by the Academic Committee if the PhD student has not exceeded 50% of the total duration of his/her doctoral studies. (include link to GENERAL REQUEST)

The supervision of doctoral students is established by means of a Documentary Commitment, which will be signed as soon as possible after admission (maximum period of 3 months after the first enrolment) by the Director of CEINDO, on behalf of the university or universities, by the doctoral student, by his/her mentor and by his/her supervisor according to the standardised model.  It will then be sent to the Secretary of the corresponding doctoral programme. This is a document setting out the supervisory functions of the doctoral student, as well as aspects relating to intellectual or industrial property rights, and a procedure...

Yes. You can have up to a maximum of three if it is authorised by the Academic Committee of the programme.

From the first enrolment in the programme, the Academic Commission must assign a thesis adviser and/or co-adviser within a maximum period of three months. At that time, the "Documentary Commitment" must be signed.

To access the application, you must identify yourself with your (institutional) school student email account and your password, following the path: https://intranet.ceu.es/ > SIGMA USP/SIGMA UCH/SIGMA UAO (applications menu at the top left of the screen).

Once in your file, go to the tab "Activity Document" and/or "Research Plan".

Via online, from the SIGMA application accessed through Intra CEU
https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/en/academic-management/

The Annual Pre-doctoral Conferences were conceived as a Compulsory Training Activity within the Doctoral Programmes at CEU - International Doctoral School (CEINDO).  Its objective is to monitor the activity of the Researcher in Training, evaluating the presentation of the advances and results included in their Research Plan.  This evaluation is performed in a public session in front of a panel constituted for this purpose, which assesses the soundness of the research approach (objectives, hypotheses, methodology), the verbal presentation of the research and the temporary organisation and progress of the project. The panel's evaluation, together with the Activities Document and the...

When the PhD student applies for the thesis deposit, the CEINDO Secretary registers the thesis in the PhD student's file in SIGMA after checking that everything is in order (compliance with the time schedule, adviser/co-adviser is correct, research plan and document of activities complete and validated, publication derived from the thesis delivered...).

Before the end of the first year, the PhD student will draw up a Research Plan that will include, at a minimum, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved in their thesis project, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them. This plan may be improved and detailed throughout their stay in the programme and must be endorsed by the supervisor and the mentor. The programme's Academic Committee will evaluate the Research Plan and the Activities Document together annually (approx. June-July) with the report to be issued by the supervisor and the mentor for...

The adviser may authorise or recommend that doctoral students undertake activities proposed by other academic institutions, which may be included in the activities document once they have been recognised or validated by the corresponding academic officer as part of the programme's official training plan.

In the academic calendar of the doctoral programme published on the CEINDO website https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es/en/

The Doctoral Student Activities Document (DSAD), compiles and records the completion of each of the Training Activities in which the student has participated in each academic year (training activities must be registered in SIGMA, the platform for the management of student records).  Both the thesis supervisor and the mentor will review the activities performed by the researcher-in-training on an annual basis. This document is evaluated by the Academic Commission responsible for the doctoral programme. It is one of the documents to be submitted when the thesis is deposited.

Once admitted to the Doctoral Programme, the corresponding Academic Committee will assign each PhD student a mentor, who is a doctor with accredited research experience, linked to the university. The mentor will be responsible for the initial counselling and supervision of the PhD student, in addition to the following functions: Ensure the interaction of the PhD student with the academic committee. Assist doctoral students in their training process by providing them with information, guidance and learning resources. Within a maximum period of 3 months from enrolment, the Academic Committee responsible for the Programme will assign each PhD student a Doctoral...

Yes. Once they have sent the necessary documentation to register themselves in the Human Resources system, the CEINDO Secretariat assigns them the student's file in SIGMA; at that point they will be able to access the keys that have been sent to them by email.

The most common reasons usually are: The supervisor is not registered as such in the student's file. The same may apply to the mentor because he/she is not registered as such in the student's file. The student has not recorded the information. The activity is registered in an academic year without active enrolment. The student does not have active enrolment when the mentor or supervisor access the student's file. The student has not registered for the corresponding academic year. The adviser or co-adviser has not been assigned to the student's file (in this case, the adviser/co-adviser would not have access...

The doctoral programme's Academic Commission sends the overall grades to the CEINDO Secretary's Office, which is included in SIGMA and is in accordance with the calendar established for each academic year.  The Academic Committee signs the final, official transcript digitally for its registration in the student's file. The grade can be consulted by the PhD student in SIGMA.

The overall annual grade is the final evaluation of the course, which includes the evaluation of the activity document, the director's report, and the research plan.

1. Validate the research plan

2. Validate the training activities that the trainee researcher has included.

3. Upload the adviser's report and select positive/negative evaluation as appropriate.

The researcher in training will have to include the training activities conducted during the doctoral studies in accordance with the academic calendar and the programme's verification report in SIGMA. You may register the specific activities that you consider appropriate to propose for your research training within each type of activity of the programme or those that have been indicated by your thesis supervisor. The activities proposed by the doctoral student must be validated by their thesis supervisor(s)/co-supervisor(s), who will periodically review the activity documents of the doctoral students in their charge. The following fields are to be filled in for...

• Enter date of acceptance, if applicable, to the IP in the tab "Research Plan".
• Supervise the training activities carried out by the doctoral student and validate them in the "Activities document" tab.
• Upload the completed and signed supervisor's report and select the corresponding evaluation (positive/negative) in the tab " supervisor's report ".

• Upload the research plan within the deadline established by the programme, before the pre-doctoral days, in the "Research Plan" tab.
• Record activities in the "Activity document" tab as activities are conducted.

On the CEU International Doctoral School website www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es

https://www.escueladoctorado.ceu.es//en/academic-management/#tutorials