Training Activities Programme
Training Plan
Activities of the Doctoral School
Character
Optional
Hours
40
Description
These are intensive residential seminars lasting a week. They are conducted in English in an inter-disciplinary and multicultural environment. Forty researchers from each university, in their second year of doctoral training, receive extensive training designed for their future vocational integration in a socio-labour environment not exclusively linked to research at universities and/or public and semi-public centres. All the activities are dynamised by personnel specializing in the organization of doctorials and the facilitation of teamwork. The scheduled activities include visits to companies, research centres and cultural entities selected from both sides of the border, the testimonies of executive doctors and entrepreneurs and teamwork for the joint preparation of an innovative project which will be submitted at the end of the encounter. Participation in the doctorials is optional and does not entail any enrolment fee. All the maintenance, accommodation and transport costs will be financed by the organizing universities, with the help of the funding obtained from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Aquitaine-Euskadi cooperation fund of the Basque government.
Results
The doctoral students acquire practical training in communication, innovation, teamwork, leadership and entrepreneurship. Based on the testimonies and experiences of different professionals working in companies and associations in the field of culture and language, as well as visits to companies and associations, the students come into direct contact with professional experience. These seminars have an inter-disciplinary approach, grouping the students together in units which combine different universities of origin and areas of knowledge. The experience should provide a wealth of knowledge about how to articulate a future professional project both in and outside the University.
Assessment systems
The whole procedure for the doctorials is overseen by a pedagogical cabinet, with professional advisers who will provide continuous feedback on the group activity and monitor the work done every day by the doctoral students. Once the latter have enrolled for the doctorials, attendance and active participation in the sessions is compulsory.
Program activities
Character
Optional
Hours
16
Description
The doctoral student must prepare a paper for at least one prestigious congress in his or her area and defend its communication. The activity therefore consists of the following phases: - Selecting the most suitable conference for the presentation. - Preparation of the written paper and the oral presentation or a poster format. - In situ presentation by the doctoral student and subsequent discussion with the attendees at the corresponding congress session. - Selección del congreso más adecuado para la ponencia. - Preparación de la ponencia escrita y de la presentación oral o en formato póster de la misma. - Presentación in situ por parte del doctorando o doctoranda y discusión posterior con los asistentes a la sesión del congreso de que se trate.
Results
Acquiring the ability to select the most appropriate forum for the research work underway. Acquiring the ability to communicate the development and results of the research in a scientific forum. Acquire the ability to establish contacts with other researchers from institutions different from that of the doctoral student. Acquiring the ability to synthesize the relevant information of the different presentations and plenary lectures.
Assessment systems
The tutor/thesis director will be responsible for control of the activity. In the event of the student's presentation of the work at the congress, the seminar activity will be used for training. The attendance certificate will be required.
Character
Optional
Hours
4
Description
The attendance of the students will be encouraged on courses, conferences and additional workshops on topics of interest related to the fields of work of their doctoral theses, specific technical and scientific knowledge, instrumental techniques, the handling of equipment, the acquisition of transversal skills, etc. The activities may take place at the university itself, at other centres or companies and, of course, abroad. These activities will be subject to the funding available at any given moment. The student's director and/or tutor will be responsible for ensuring he or she effectively realizes and benefits from the activity.
Results
The learning results will depend on the specific activities followed by the students. They will generally consist of acquiring specific skills for conducting their work, transversal skills, related, for example, to communication, as well as interaction with experts on topics of interest, and also the ability to take part in scientific and technical discussions within a group.
Assessment systems
The tutor/thesis director will be responsible for control of the activity. In the event of a negative evaluation, this will be borne in mind for future occasions.
Character
Optional
Hours
4
Description
The seminars will be organized by the people responsible for the different lines of research of the Doctoral Program, possibly involving speakers of the program itself and other prestigious guest researchers. Using audiovisual media, the speaker will develop an advanced research topic, focussing on what the most appropriate tools are for the particular topic and why they have been selected. At the end of the exposition the speaker will discuss with the attendees all the questions they ask. One important feature of this activity is that the doctoral student will be a speaker on some of the occasions, explaining his or her work to other doctoral students and final-year master's or graduate's degree students who are doing their dissertation in the laboratories, as well as professors from the program or the departments involved.
Results
Acquiring capacity for critical analysis in the face of the materials submitted by fellow researchers. Acquiring the ability to communicate with other senior researchers by conducting questions or by requesting more information on specific aspects of the research work. Explaining the research work conducted in public. Using new approaches to solve any problems in the research work.
Assessment systems
The tutor/thesis director will be responsible for control of the activity. At the end of the activity the tutor/director will be handed a report allowing an assessment of the acquisition of the skills associated with this activity. In the event of a negative evaluation, this will be borne in mind for future occasions.
Character
Optional
Hours
500
Description
Depending on the line of work of each doctoral student, the thesis director/tutor will look for national and foreign reference centres (preferably the latter) where students can perform a stay lasting longer than three months (preferably six or more months). As for the reception of foreign students, the professors of the program will agree on the conditions of the stay with the tutor/director of the foreign student.
Results
Acquiring the ability to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments. Acquiring the ability to communicate in other languages within a research group. Acquiring the social skills to work in collaboration with researchers with cultural backgrounds and researchers very different from the doctoral student. Acquiring skills for establishing mid/long term useful research contacts.
Assessment systems
The tutor/thesis director will be responsible for control of the activity. He or she will conduct regular monitoring of the activities carried out and, if the economic situation permits it, he or she will visit the destination centre, especially for stays lasting longer than 6 months. At the end of the activity the person responsible for the host centre will hand the tutor/director a report allowing an assessment of the acquisition of the skills associated with this activity.