Public presentation

REGULATIONS FOR THESIS READING

 

REGULATIONS FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MÁLAGA. (APPROVED BY THE GOVERNING COUNCIL ON 9 OCTOBER 2012)

TITLE 6. THESIS READING

Article 27. Deposit of the doctoral thesis and period of public exhibition

1.Once the composition of the examining board has been approved and the reports and all the documentation associated with the thesis have been received, the thesis will be considered officially deposited.

2. The thesis will be deposited for a period of 15 calendar days from the day following receipt of the documentation by the Postgraduate Commission. During this time, any doctor may examine the thesis on deposit and submit in writing to the Postgraduate Commission any considerations that he/she deems appropriate.

3. Both the Doctoral Programme and the Doctoral School to which the programme is attached shall publicise on their websites the theses in deposit at any given time, indicating their title, author, supervisor and the Doctoral Programme in which they were written.

4.When the existence of the principle of confidentiality and protection of patients' rights, confidentiality agreements with companies, or the possibility of generating patents or property registers, governed by the existence of the confidentiality that protects the medical act, confidentiality agreements with companies that require it and the existence of patents or property registers in process, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme, with the prior approval of the University's Postgraduate Committee, will set up procedures to respect the conditions of publication of results contemplated in the aforementioned confidentiality agreements with companies, or derived from the possibility of generating patents or property registers.

5.In the event that observations are received on a thesis during the public exhibition period, they will be communicated to the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme, the thesis supervisor and the PhD student so that, in view of their content, they may express their opinion in writing to the Postgraduate Committee on the need to continue or halt the process, with a period of 7 days from the end of the deposit period. In either case, the PhD student may send a report to the Postgraduate Commission in which he/she responds to the observations made on the thesis.

Article 28. The defence of the tesis

 1. After the submission of the doctoral thesis to the members of the examining board, the defence of the thesis shall be held, convened by its President, within a maximum period of three months from the end of the public exhibition process. This period may be extended by the Postgraduate Commission in duly accredited exceptional circumstances.

2. The President of the examining board shall decide the date, place and time of the thesis defence after consulting with the other members and substitutes.

3. The Secretary of the examining board must notify this agreement, together with the date of the thesis defence, to the Postgraduate Committee of the University of Malaga, by means of a written document submitted to the general registry of the University at least fifteen calendar days prior to the date of the defence. Likewise, the date, place and time of the defence must be notified to the Doctoral Programme Coordinator, the Director of the Centre responsible for the Programme, the Doctoral School to which the Programme is attached, the PhD student, the thesis supervisor and, where applicable, the tutor.

4.Both the Doctoral School to which the Doctoral Programme is attached and the Centre responsible for it must give adequate publicity to the thesis defence event, announcing the date, place and time of the event at least seven days in advance.

5. The thesis defence ceremony will take place in a public session, during the academic calendar period approved by the Postgraduate Commission.

6.The examining board shall be constituted prior to the defence of the doctoral thesis with the presence of its three full members or, where appropriate, those who replace them.

7. If any of the members of the examining board fail to appear on the day set for the thesis defence, the substitutes will be included. If this is not possible, the chair of the panel shall suspend the reading and set a new date, after consulting the other members of the panel, the PhD student and the Doctoral Programme Coordinator, notifying the Postgraduate Committee.

8. In exceptional circumstances or in cases of force majeure, and when technical resources permit, if any of the members of the examining board are unable to attend and none of the substitutes can join the examining board, the presence of one of the full members may be arranged by means of a virtual conference. The defence of any thesis in which one of the members participates virtually must be expressly recorded in the minutes and duly justified.

9. The defence of the doctoral thesis will consist of an oral presentation by the PhD student, supported by the technical means deemed necessary for the defence of the work carried out. During the defence, he/she must describe the methodology, contents and conclusions, making special mention of the original contributions of the work.

10. When the thesis qualifies for the title of Doctor with International Mention, the PhD student must carry out part of the oral presentation (at least the description of the results and conclusions) in one of the usual languages for scientific communication in his/her field of knowledge, other than any of the official languages in Spain. This rule will not apply when the stays, reports and members of the panel come from a Spanish-speaking country, or this is unanimously agreed by the members of the panel.

11. At the end of the oral presentation, the chair will make an oral summary of the most relevant aspects expressed in the external reports received by the thesis, and of the PhD student's report detailing his/her response to these reports. The PhD student may respond to the aspects highlighted by the chairperson regarding the external reports and possible observations.

12. The members of the examining board will then express their assessment of the thesis and may formulate any questions, observations, suggestions and objections they deem appropriate, to which the PhD candidate must respond.

13. The PhD students present at the public ceremony may ask questions at the time and in the manner indicated by the President of the examining board.

Article 29. Assessment of tesis

1. Once the defence and discussion of the doctoral thesis has been completed, each member of the examining board shall draw up a reasoned assessment report that includes the evaluations of both the written work and the oral presentation and defence carried out by the doctoral student, in a standardised document that shall be included in the dossier.

2. The examining board will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis according to the following scale: Fail, Pass, Pass, Merit and Outstanding, following a vote in a secret session. In the grading, in addition to the reports and opinions of the members of the examining board, consideration will be given to external reports, any observations received during the public presentation process, the reports of the PhD student's response to each of them, as well as the information provided in the PhD student's Activities Document, the latter for the purposes of qualitative assessment only.

3.The overall mark awarded by the examining board will be recorded in the minutes to be signed by all its members, informing the PhD student, at the same session, of the mark obtained.

4. The examining board may award the mention of "cum laude" if the overall grade is outstanding and a unanimous positive secret ballot is cast in this respect. To this end, each member of the panel will place his or her vote, at the end of the thesis defence, in an envelope that will be sealed and signed on the flap by all of them. The secretary of the panel, or the member of the panel belonging to the University of Malaga, will be responsible for delivering the envelope, together with the entire thesis dossier, to the Postgraduate Committee. The envelope will be opened and the votes will be counted when the thesis defence file is handed over to the Administrative Unit responsible for the PhD. If all 3 votes are in favour, the mention "cum laude" will be included in the file.

5. In any case, the appropriate qualification shall be stated on the front of the corresponding doctoral degree.

6.The final grade obtained will be communicated by the secretary of the examining board to the director, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme and the members of the examining board within a maximum period of 5 days from the completion of the scrutiny.

7. The secretary of the examining board will be responsible for the documentation corresponding to the defence of the doctoral thesis, and must deliver it to the Postgraduate Committee within a maximum period of 5 working days from the date of the defence, either by hand or through the member of the examining board belonging to the University of Malaga.

8. In the event that the thesis qualifies for the title of International Doctor, the secretary shall be responsible for certifying that the requirements (b) and (d) of article 22 of these regulations have been met.

9. When the doctoral thesis has been awarded the grade of Pass, Merit or Outstanding, the University of Malaga shall be responsible for filing it in open electronic format in an institutional repository and shall send, for the appropriate purposes, a copy of the thesis to the Ministry of Education in electronic format, as well as any complementary information that may be necessary.

10. In exceptional circumstances, determined by the Academic Committee of the corresponding Doctoral Programme and with the prior approval of the Postgraduate Committee, the University of Malaga will establish procedures to respect the existence of confidentiality agreements with companies, or the possibility of generating patents or property registers, which ensure that these aspects are not made public in the institutional repository.