The viva panel

ARTICLE 25. CONSTITUTION OF THE PANEL.

1. Once the defence of the doctoral thesis has been authorized, the Academic Board of the Doctoral Program, having heard the director or directors of the thesis and, where appropriate, the tutor, will formulate a proposal for an evaluation panel, indicating the full members and substitutes, which will be submitted to the Postgraduate Commission of the University, accompanied by the justification of the corresponding merits.

2. The Postgraduate Commission, after agreeing the authorization of the defence and evaluation of the thesis, will designate, as proposed by the Academic Board of the Doctoral Program, the regular and alternate members of the panel and, among them, a President and a Secretary.

3. The composition of the panel that has to evaluate the thesis must be made according to the following requirements:

1. It will be made up of three regular members and three alternate members, all of them doctors, Spanish or foreign, linked to universities or higher education or research organizations, and with recent accredited reFsearch experience.
2. There can only be one titular member belonging to the University of Malaga, who, if he is not the President, will preferably act as Secretary.
3. The President of the panel must belong to the university teaching bodies, being the member with the highest academic rank. At least one of the alternate members must belong to the teaching bodies of the University of Malaga.

4. Professors who have a tenure post may form part of the doctoral thesis panel even if they are in any of the modalities of the situation of leave of absence or retired.

5. The six members that make up the proposal of the panel must have research experience in the subject of the doctoral thesis to be evaluated (accredited through participation in research projects and/or relevant publications), or have previously directed a doctoral thesis in the field.

6. In no case may the directors or the tutor of the thesis be part of the panel that evaluates the thesis, except as provided in the corresponding co-tutelage agreement, nor those who have been co-authors of the publications that endorse the thesis.

7. In case of resignation for just cause of a regular member of the panel, the President will proceed to replace him with the corresponding alternate.

8. When the thesis defended opts for the title of Doctor with International Mention, at least one of the regular members of the panel and one of the substitutes must belong to a foreign university or higher education or research organization.

9. Once the panel has been appointed, the Postgraduate Commission will communicate the appointment to each of its members, who must express in writing their express acceptance to form part of the panel. The acceptance by the substitute members belonging to the University of Malaga implies the acceptance of being available, if necessary, to be able to participate in the panel that will judge the thesis on the day appointed for the defence.

ARTICLE 26. REPORTS ON THE THESIS.

1. Together with the panel proposal, the Academic Board of the Doctorate Programme, having heard the director or directors of the thesis and, where appropriate, the tutor, will formulate a proposal for three external evaluating doctors from the University of Malaga (preferably belonging to the to higher education institutions or non-Spanish research institutes) and with recent accredited research experience, which will be submitted to the Postgraduate Commission of the University, accompanied by the justification of the merits of each member relative to the last five years. These external evaluators may not coincide with the members proposed to act as regular or alternate members of the thesis committee, nor be co-authors of any of the contributions that support the thesis.

2. The Postgraduate Commission, after agreeing on the authorization of the defence and evaluation of the thesis, will designate two of the proposed evaluators to prepare a detailed report on the thesis within a period of one month. Said experts must state in writing their express acceptance to make the reports, in the terms described in the request.

3. The President of the Postgraduate Commission, through the Administrative Unit responsible for the Doctorate of the University of Malaga, will be in charge of requesting said reports, as well as their receipt within the stipulated period. The doctoral thesis file will include the reports referred to in this article, including those issued in accordance with the provisions of articles 19.9 and 29 bis of these Regulations.

4. In the event that the thesis opts for the title of Doctor with International Mention, the three external evaluators proposed by the Academic Board to carry out the previous reports must belong to higher education institutions or institutes of non-Spanish research, and not coincide with the researcher responsible for the stay carried out by the doctoral student.

5. The reports issued on the thesis will include a detailed review of the same that will include comments and possible suggestions for improvement, as well as a rating, similar to that used in peer review processes for scientific articles: Accept, Accept with minor changes , Accept with major changes and Reject.

6. The grade awarded will depend on the type of comments made by the evaluator and the time the expert considers the doctoral student needs to carry out the suggested changes: less than 1 month for minor changes, less than 3 months for major changes. In the event that the evaluator considers that the doctoral student needs more than 3 months to incorporate the suggested changes, the evaluation must be negative (Reject).

7. The members of the thesis panel, both the regulars and the alternates, will also be invited to make this type of report if they so wish, when the appointment is communicated to them. They will have, like the external reviewers, a period of one month from the receipt of the thesis.

8. Once the reports have been received, both the external ones and those of those members of the panel who have decided to do so, the Postgraduate Commission will send them to the doctoral student, his/her tutor and the thesis director, with a copy to the Academic Board of the Doctoral Program correspondent. These reports will accompany the documentation associated with the defence of the thesis throughout the process.

9. In the event that any of the reports is negative (Reject), the tutor and the thesis director(s) must decide unanimously whether or not to continue with the thesis defence process. If they decline to continue, the process will be considered complete and it will be necessary to start over.

10. If they decide to continue with the thesis defence process, they may submit a new version of the thesis to the Postgraduate Committee, incorporating those modifications they deem appropriate as a result of the reports received, as well as a report with the approval from your manager about how you have dealt with the changes suggested by the reviewers in your reports.

In the following link the system for the thesis reading request procedure can be accessed.