International Mention in a PhD Degree

 

Requirements

The doctoral degree may include the mention ‘International Doctorate’ provided that the following circumstances are met:

a) That during the research period the doctoral student has carried out a minimum stay, not necessarily continuous, of three months outside Spain, in at least one prestigious higher education institution or research centre, studying or carrying out research work under the responsibility of a doctor belonging to the foreign institution. This circumstance will be accredited by means of a certificate signed by the person responsible for the stay at the host institution. The stay and the activities, which must be approved by the thesis supervisor and authorised by the corresponding academic and quality committee before being carried out, will be included in the DAD.

b) The stay referred to in the previous point may be the result of the sum of several stays, none of them shorter than thirty days. In any case, this stay must be different from the stay that a doctoral student may undertake in order to obtain a doctoral thesis under a joint supervision (or cotutelle).

c) All or part of the thesis must be written and presented in one of the usual languages for scientific communication, other than any of the official or co-official languages of Spain. In any case, at least the abstract (no less than 3,000 words in length) and the conclusions must comply with this requirement. This requirement is not compulsory for theses whose international stay has taken place in a country where Spanish is the official language.

d) The thesis must have a report from a minimum of two PhDs from a foreign higher education institution or research centre, experts in the field and different from those responsible for the stay(s).

e) At least one doctoral expert in the field belonging to a foreign educational institution or research centre, other than the person in charge of the stay mentioned in section a) and the evaluators mentioned in section d), should form part of the thesis tribunal.

f) When the thesis qualifies for the ‘International Mention’, the PhD student must present, during the defence of the thesis, at least the description of the results and the conclusions in one of the languages customary in scientific communication and different from any of the official languages in Spain. This rule will not apply when the stays, the reports and the members of the examining board have been carried out or come from a Spanish-speaking country.

Authorisation to carry out a stay

Before carrying out the stay/s, the doctoral student must obtain the approval of the thesis supervisor and the authorisation of the academic and quality committee of the doctoral programme. This authorisation will be requested through the DAD application and will be included in it.

Certificate

Doctoral students who aspire to the International Doctorate Mention must apply to the University's Postgraduate Studies Committee through the DAD application during the thesis admission process by checking this option and attaching the accreditation of the stay carried out in accordance with section a) of the Requirements.

The original certificate accrediting the stay must be submitted to the Doctoral School once the application for admission has been started in the DAD application. The following certificate models can be used to facilitate the submission of the certificate, which must be completed by the entity where the stay is carried out:

Certificate of stay at a foreign University or Research Centre

Certificado de acreditación de estancia para la obtención de la Mención Internacional

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For further information, please consult:

    Art. 57 and 79 of the Regulations for Doctoral Studies at the University of Malaga.