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
Compulsory
Hours
4
Description
The students of the program perform their research work under the supervision of their directors. It is the latter's duty to provide the necessary training to prepare and present the partial results of their research to an audience made up of other students and directors at the monitoring conferences. The conferences will be organized by the thesis directors, who will announce them sufficiently in advance. The conferences will be held at least twice per semester and their results, compiled in a final report (prepared by the speakers) will be distributed among the students and the professors of the doctoral program. In addition, every effort will be made to promote (by means of invitations to the thesis directors) the presence at the conferences of researchers external to the program, from both Spanish and international universities and centres, whose contribution to their aim is regarded as very valuable. Minimum attendance of one conference a year is established for part-time students, while full-time students must attend at least one conference per semester.
Results
The following learning results are established for the monitoring conferences: - Acquiring the ability to organize and present the results of the research work and the training activities to other colleagues. - Acquiring the ability to make the objective progress achieved over the last evaluated period visible. - Acquiring the ability to communicate and implicate the planning of the research work for the following evaluation period. - Acquiring the ability to assimilate the techniques and ways of thinking of other colleagues who are in similar situations.
Assessment systems
The thesis directors are responsible for ensuring control of the following aspects: - Compulsory attendance. - Oral presentation before doctoral students, program professors and, if appropriate, external experts. - Final report on the conference, to be drawn up by the speakers.
Character
Compulsory
Hours
100
Description
The activity consists of the following phases: - In the first phase the students receive specific training on the research process (means and mechanisms of access to information for the preparation of the state of art in a research topic and how to organize the results of the research for their publication in scientific journals, emphasizing how to include the research findings in an article). Based on this training, which will be given by doctors of the program, each student will perform the following phases: - Compilation of the research results which are intended to be sent for publication. - Reflection on the coherence between the hypothesis formulated and the results achieved. - Selection of an impact magazine whose scope fits the work performed. - Preparation of the article in English and adapting to the demands of the magazine. - Sending of the article and monitoring of the state of evaluation. - Analysis of the response of the editor and reviewers. Conclusions and future actions. Throughout their stay on the doctoral program, the students will prepare at least one publication for an internationally-renowned journal. This activity will preferably be performed from the second year of enrolment on the program onwards.
Results
The following learning results are established for the activity involving diffusion in prestigious journals: - Acquiring the ability to make a critical analysis of the correlationship between the hypothesis formulated and the results obtained. - Acquiring the ability to classify magazines by their impact and their thematic objective. - Acquiring the ability to write a quality article in English, intended for external peer review. - Acquiring the ability to assimilate the criticisms and suggestions of the reviewers, using this feedback to redirect the research work, if appropriate.
Assessment systems
Attendance at the first phase of training will be compulsory and will be offered by the doctoral program each year, lasting 9 hours. For the other phases, the thesis directors will be responsible for ensuring control of the following deliverables: - Manuscript sent to the selected magazine. - Revision received and, if appropriate, corrections to the original manuscript.
Character
Compulsory
Hours
40
Description
The activity is made up of the following phases: - In the first phase the students receive specific training on how to prepare a scientific paper at a congress. Based on this training, which will be given by doctors of the program, the students, supervised by their directors, will prepare a paper for at least one prestigious congress in their area and defend its communication. Therefore, the second part consists of the following phases: - Selecting the most suitable congress for the presentation. - Preparation of the written paper and the oral presentation or a poster format. - In situ presentation by the doctoral student. - Writing of a brief report on the most interesting work which, in the doctoral student's opinion, is presented at the conference.
Results
The following learning results are established for the presentation activity at a scientific meeting: - 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
Attendance at the first phase of training will be compulsory and will be offered by the doctoral program each year, lasting 3 hours. For the other phases, the thesis directors will be responsible for ensuring control of the following deliverables: - Certificate of attendance at the congress. - Synthesis report with a critical appraisal of other interesting contributions, in the doctoral student's opinion.
Character
Optional
Hours
500
Description
This activity envisages the following actions: - Invitation, by each of the lines of research of the doctoral program, to external experts to participate in the thematic seminars and/or conferences for monitoring the doctoral theses. - Publication by the Academic Committee of the Program of the possibilities offered by groups of universities and external centres for conducting research stays for doctoral students. - Updates, on the web pages of the Master's and Doctoral School of the UPV/EHU (Mde), of the information relating to aids for the conducting of stays and doctorates in co-tutorship with reference universities and centres. In any case, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program will be responsible for approving each mobility action proposal. The proposal should include at least, as minimum information, the following points: - Doctoral student who will perform the stay/external expert who will be received on the doctoral program. - Objectives of the action. - Destination university or centre/UPV/EHU group which receives the external expert. - Time planning. - Contact person responsible for the destination centre/UPV/EHU professor responsible for the external expert's stay.
Results
The following learning results are established for the activity: - 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 thesis directors will be responsible for ensuring control of the following deliverables: - Certificate of the completion of the doctoral student's stay. - Joint publications or presentations which have arisen from the stay. - For doctoral stays longer than 3 months at foreign universities and centres, a proposal for the realization of an international thesis. In addition, a conference for the monitoring and evaluation of the evolution of the doctoral theses is proposed in order to monitor the students' training activities.
Character
Compulsory
Hours
15
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. In recent years they have been organized with internationally renowned professors and researchers, including the following: Professor Luis Almeida, from the University of Porto, Portugal, Dr Rafael González, Head of the department for advanced control of the Petronor Refinery, Professor Eduardo Fernández Camacho, from the University of Seville, and Professor Alfons Crespo from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
Results
The following learning results are established for the thematic seminars: - 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. - Acquiring the ability to communicate, in writing, the conclusions drawn on both the material submitted and the research tools.
Assessment systems
The seminar organizers will ensure control of the following aspects: - Compulsory attendance. - Drawing up of a concluding report by the doctoral student.