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
Hours
24
Description
One conference must be attended per year. This activity will be financed by funds of the research group where the doctoral thesis is developed.
Results
This activity is of great interest because it requires students to organise the results obtained from their research, discuss them and draw conclusions. Moreover, they will also be required to develop their capacity to convey these to the rest of the scientific community either orally or as a poster. Therefore, learning results take place at all levels in the development of both transversal and specific competences.
Assessment systems
1. The evaluation of this activity shall be conducted by the director of the thesis based on the quality of both the scientific presentation and the format thereof, either written or oral. 2. On the other hand, this activity will be controlled by the Director and Tutor and shall be recorded annually with the rest of training activities undertaken by Doctoral Students.
Character
Hours
24
Description
Doctoral students shall participate actively in seminars, organised by different research groups with topics being of interest for the development of the doctoral student¿s research. In general, these are usually made at intervals of one month and last no more than two hours. These do not require special funding.
Results
The results translate into progress in the development of both specific and transversal skills. Students will learn to sort and discuss their results and to convey them. Additionally, they will learn to ask questions about unresolved issues and design approaches to try to solve them at seminars.
Assessment systems
1. The seminars will be evaluated both for their scientific content and for their presentation, and very importantly, for the level of participation of doctoral students, the result of the evaluation being recorded in the Activities Document of Doctoral Students. 2. Additionally, control of this activity will be recorded by the Director and Tutor of the Thesis in the Personal Activities Document of Doctoral Students.
Character
Optional
Hours
24
Description
The University itself offers throughout the year different types of courses contributing to the training of doctoral students in various aspects ranging from the use of new technologies (ICTs) and language courses to employment and possibilities offered by different instrumental techniques at the service of the entire university community in the common university services, etc. The Director and Tutor of the thesis will guide students in relation to which courses may be of interest each year to round up their training. The number of courses per year should not be high. It has been considered that the duration will be approximately three days per course except for languages which will depend on the level of the student: some of them may even not require this type of course.
Results
In this case, learning outcomes depend on the chosen course. However, all types of course have components of both transversal and specific development of skills.
Assessment systems
1. Each of the courses will have its own evaluation system, the result of which will be included in the Personal Activities Document of Doctoral Students. 2. Additionally, control of this activity will be recorded by the Director and Tutor of the thesis in the Personal Activities Document of Doctoral Students.
Character
Hours
450
Description
For a period of circa three months, doctoral students can participate in another renowned research group to address a specific aspect of their doctoral thesis. This activity is of great interest because it allows students to expand scientific horizons, initiate scientific relationships, address new challenges, allowing doctoral students to acquire the title of International Doctorate if their stay takes place in a foreign centre. Financing is achieved through scholarships of the Ministry (FPU and FPI) and of the Basque Government, and of the University itself. Similarly, the UFI itself also has among its goals helping to achieve this type of mobility.
Results
Results will translate into a better training of doctoral students for having learned new techniques with new approaches to their research subject. If the stay bears fruit, it could give rise to publishing joint papers of the work group of origin and of the hosting group. These stays will help develop both specific and transversal skills, which will translate into improved training for doctoral students.
Assessment systems
1. This type of activities undertaken by doctoral students must meet a plan that has been drafted, signed and agreed by the director of the thesis, and by the director of the laboratory where the stay will take place. This plan includes the achievement of scientific goals and performing specific tasks, so the evaluation of this activity is focused on the level of compliance with the proposed objectives and planned tasks that will be analysed and evaluated not only by the director the thesis but also by the entity financing the stay. 2. Additionally, control of this activity will be recorded by the Director and Tutor of Thesis in the Personal Activities Document of Doctoral Students.