Doctoral School regulations on doctoral programme assessment
Agreement of the Permanent Council of the Doctoral School on 24 May 2021
Article 12 of the Implementing Rules for Doctorate Teaching at the UPV/EHU (Agreement of 12 December 2019, of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [UPV/EHU] Board of Governors) states that the academic commissions of the doctoral programmes shall assess their students on an annual basis, and that a positive assessment is an essential requirement to be able to continue on the doctoral programme. In the case of a negative assessment, the doctoral student must be assessed again in an extraordinary session, and if a negative result is repeated, the doctoral student will be definitively dropped from the doctoral programme. This regulation allows for negative assessments to be appealed before the Doctoral School, but it does not envisage any complaints to be brought before the academic commission that makes the initial assessment. That is why this regulation from the Doctoral School is in addition to the UPV/EHU regulations and this option is included in the assessment procedure.
Enrolment on a doctoral programme entitles the student to two annual assessment sessions: the ordinary and the extraordinary session. The specific periods of assessment will be duly announced by the UPV/EHU to its doctoral students, as well as to the thesis directors, tutors and members of the academic commissions. These periods will be outlined as follows:
| Acction | Period |
|---|---|
| The students upload their “Research Plan” and the activities they have carried out on an annual basis | At any moment of the academic year until the start of the assessment is announced |
| A positive or negative report is issued (approval in GAUR) by the directors and tutors | At any moment of the academic year until the date of the end of this period is announced |
| Assessment by the Doctoral Programme Academic Commissions | 2 weeks after the start of the assessment |
| Appeal against the academic commissions’ assessment by the doctoral students | 1 week after the previous action |
| Decision on the appeals by the academic commissions | 1 week after the previous action |
Additional information
The doctoral students can upload their “Research Plan” and the activities carried out on an annual basis to GAUR at any point in the year, as long as they do so before the period of assessment corresponding to each session begins.
Likewise, the tutors and directors can approve the “Research Plan” and the activities carried out on an annual basis at any point throughout the year until the date of the end of this period is announced by the UPV/EHU.
The directors and tutors’ report entails approving (or not), in GAUR, the “Research Plan” and the “Activities Document” that is generated through the activities given by the students..
Once they have seen the report issued by the directors and tutors, the academic commissions must assess their students. The record of each student that receives a positive assessment can be immediately generated in GAUR. Negative assessments, on the other hand, are considered provisional and the record for each student must not be generated until any appeals that may arise within the set deadlines have been decided.
The Doctoral School will be responsible for notifying the doctoral students who are assessed negatively of the option to appeal against this result before the academic commissions and of the corresponding deadline. After this deadline, the record can be generated for those students who have not submitted any appeal.
The academic commissions will have one week in which to settle any appeals or complaints they receive, before they will be required to generate the records for these students. It is important to remember that, should the extraordinary session result in a positive assessment, apart from recording the new outcome in GAUR, the justifying comments must also be modified.
Once again, the Doctoral School will be responsible for notifying those doctoral students whose appeals have not been accepted of the option to lodge an appeal before the Doctoral School itself within a period of 15 days as from the date of the notification. In the case that this second appeal is also dismissed, the doctoral student may lodge an appeal for a review of the decision before the Vice-chancellor within a period of one month.
The Doctoral School will dismiss any appeal that has not previously been brought before the academic commissions.
The doctoral student will be definitively dropped from the doctoral programme if the two negative assessments remain after exhausting all the appeal channels at the UPV/EHU.