PhD tutoring and thesis supervision

PhD thesis follow-up is mainly conducted by the PhD thesis advisor (Guide of Good Practice, chaper 5: "Supervision and follow-up of training activities").

Royal Decree 99/2011 (article 11) and the General PhD Guidelines at Ramon Llull University state that any person enrolled in a PhD program must be assigned a thesis advisor at the time of admission by the Academic Committee for the PhD Program (CAPD). Thus, the PhD programs attached to the Blanquerna-URL FPCEE will assign enrolled students a thesis advisor, who will be a PhD qualified member of staff with accredited research experience and permanent links to the program and will ensure the PhD student interacts with the CAPD. The CAPD is the body responsible for the organization, definition, updating, quality and coordination of the PhD Program, and also oversees the progress of research, training of students and authorizes PhD thesis presentation.

Then, within a maximum period of six months from enrollment, PhD students must have been assigned a PhD thesis director by the CAPD. The thesis director can be a Spanish or foreign PhD holder, with accredited research experience, regardless of the university, center, or institution where they work.

Obviously, the director may or may not be the same person as the previously assigned advisor. The direction of the PhD thesis, and initially of the research project, will fall to the advisor appointed in the first instance and, fundamentally, to the director. The direction of the thesis basically consists of supervising the research plan of the student, the research activities carried out, the quality of the scientific production in the PhD period and the preparation and completion of the PhD thesis. For these purposes, the thesis advisor or director must meet periodically with the PhD student, as set out in the good practice document. The thesis supervisor/director and the advisor will act as a liaison between the student and the Academic Committee of the PhD Program, and will send it an annual report on the development of the PhD student's training.