Your doctoral journey is approaching to the end. Before starting the administrative procedure for you final defense, make sure that your thesis fulfills the formal requirements described in the Book of Style of the URV and, if it is an article-based thesis, the conditions fixed in the Policy for Article-based Thesis Submission of our programme.
See the calendar here.
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Step 1. Request of reports
1.1 The student initiates the request for external review through the corresponding task in the Moodle virtual classroom (https://campusvirtual.urv.cat/) of the doctoral program, and attaches two documents:
- Thesis (formatted in the usual way and in final form from a technical/experimental point of view)
- Doc0: “Proposal of expert persons and authorization of the director/s”. The template can be downloaded from Moodle. Up to 4 EP can be proposed.
1.2. The Academic Commission (CA), after approving the submitted thesis and the EPs, will contact the EPs to obtain the reports. The EPs will have a maximum of one month to send the reports. EP reports will be valid for 6 months; past this time, the student will need to restart the process again to obtain new reports.
1.3. The CA will evaluate the reports received and send them to student and director/tutor indicating whether modifications should be made (or not) to the thesis, according to the received reports.
1.4. a) In case modifications are requested, the student must prepare the response to the reports and, if applicable, incorporate the improvements into the doctoral thesis using Doc8: “Student response to EP reports”. The time allocated to this step will depend on the nature of the modifications but, on average, it will be two weeks. After that, the student can start the deposit process (“Step 2”).
b) If no modifications are requested the student can start the deposit process (“Step 2”). Doc8 should also be submitted, indicating that no changes have been done.
Step 2. Deposit.
2.1 This step is essentially identical to the current deposit process. The student makes the deposit via OpenSat (as before), uploading the following documentation:
- Doc1 (thesis defense report)
- Doc2 (pdf of the thesis)
- Doc3 (DAD of all academic years)
- Doc4 (list of publications derived from the thesis)
- Doc5 (proof of international stay, in case of requesting the International Mention)
- Doc8 (response to reports and CA). NEW
- Reports of the EPs. NEW
2.2 The supervisor sends the following documents by email to Núria:
Doc7: Composition of the members of the doctoral thesis committee
Doc9: Composition of the expert evaluators for the International Mention (for those students applying for an international distinction and only if the two reviewers who did the external reports are not foreigners)
2.3 The CA reviews all the documentation and approves (or rejects) the deposit.
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IMPORTANT NOTES
- EPs should be external to URV. This means the absence of any relationship with the university. In practice this means that he/she should not have an @urv.cat email account. This can be checked using the email addresses directory (https://oim.urv.cat/CercadorEmails3/index.jsp).
- A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 EPs can be proposed in Doc0.
- EPs can be part of the tribunal, which should continue to have a majority of non-URV members. The economic conditions for tribunal members (hotel, travel, one foreign, etc.) also remain the same.
- EP reports of foreign institution researchers can be used to apply for the International Mention (https://www.doctor.urv.cat/en/phd-students/writing-thesis/mencio/). These reports should arrive before the beginning of STEP 2 and are thus part of the deposit (new requirement).
- The requirements of the reports for the International Mention continue to be the same, i.e. the person who signs the letter of the stay cannot be part of the tribunal and cannot be one of the EPs.
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Additional information:
Doctoral theses at the URV must be submitted with a cover that features the following elements in a clear and visible manner:
- The name and the logo of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (you will find the logos here).
- The words “Doctoral Thesis” (in the appropriate language)
- The title of the thesis, the name and surnames of the doctoral student and the year of completion.
[Here you can download the templates for the cover (it is not compulsory)]
- It has to include also a certificate from the supervisors stating that they have directed your thesis. You will find an example here.
**Please note that the version of the thesis that you submit online MUST also include this page with the signatures.**
More links:
- Style guide for the thesis
- Institutional colours
- Logos and coats of arms of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili
IMPORTANT: For those theses with confidential content, a specific protocol must be applied for the deposit and subsequent defence.
PROTOCOL GOVERNING THE PROCEDURE FOR CONFIDENTIAL DOCTORAL THESES.
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What happens next? The Doctoral Committee will approve your submission and will send its agreement to the Doctoral School.
- The Doctoral School (tesis@urv.cat) will send you the receipt for the payment and the TDX contract in pdf.
- After the payment, your thesis will be submitted to the Committee of the Doctoral School for its definite approval.
- Once it is approved you will have a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 60 natural days to defend.
- You have to inform the department (i.e. Núria) of the date of the defence. The department will contact the members of the tribunal and arrange their travel.
- You will have to send the members of the tribunal (and external reviewers if you apply for the International Mention) a copy of the thesis: either hardcopies by postal mail or pdf copies by email.
- After the defense, you will have to provide the following documents to the Sescelades Campus Secretariat for Academic Management (ground floor of the N4 building) to apply for the Doctoral degre:
⇒ Calendar for the submission of the thesis (2025/2026)
