Chapter VI. ‘International Doctorate’ distinction

Article 25. ‘International Doctorate’ distinction.

The phrase ‘Doctorado Internacional’ [International Doctorate] may be included on the back of the PhD degree provided all of the following conditions are met:

1. During the student’s time in the doctoral programme, he/she has completed a sojourn of at least three months’ duration outside Spain in an institution of higher education or research centre, studying or conducting research work directly related to his/her thesis. For the purposes of this distinction, attendance at conferences, symposia, seminars, etc. shall not be considered as part of a sojourn. The sojourn may have been completed in one or more periods, with a minimum duration of one month each. The sojourn and the activities must be backed by the thesis supervisor and authorised by the doctoral programme’s Academic Commission and must be included in the student’s customised document of activities.
2. Part of the PhD thesis (at minimum, the abstract and conclusions) has been written and submitted in one of the common languages for scientific communication in the relevant field of knowledge, other than either of the official or co-official languages of Spain. This rule shall not apply when the sojourns, reports and experts are in/from a Spanish-speaking country.
3. Reports on the PhD thesis have been issued by a minimum of two experts with PhDs who are regular members of two different foreign institutions of higher education or research institutes. Said reports must include a brief CV of the experts in question.
4. The examination committee meets the requirements set out in Articles 15 or 16 for theses with an ‘International Doctorate’ distinction.

Article 26. Administrative processing.

In addition to the documents listed in Article 13 of these regulations, students wishing to obtain an ‘International Doctorate’ distinction must also enclose the following documents when submitting the PhD thesis to the department to which they are attached:

1. Standardised form requesting that the ‘International Doctorate’ distinction be awarded.
2. The favourable reports listed in Article 25.3.
3. Certification of the sojourn issued by the foreign organisation and signed by the person responsible for same. If the student has completed several sojourns, a certificate must be issued for each one indicating the period of time during which it was engaged in.

All of the above documents shall be sent by the department to which the student is attached to the Postgraduate Studies Service to be processed by the UPV/EHU’s Postgraduate Commission.

Following defence of the PhD thesis, the secretary of the examination committee shall enter the languages of the viva voce examination and the percentage thereof on the Graduation Certificate.