Cotutela

The UB can establish agreements with universities outside Spain for the international joint supervision of doctoral theses. Joint supervision is intended to facilitate scientific collaboration between UB research teams and groups at foreign institutions.

Under a joint supervision agreement, doctoral students carry out their work under the direction of a supervisor from each of the universities that have signed the joint supervision agreement and will be awarded a doctoral degree certificate by both universities, as provided for in the agreement and in the applicable regulations.

DEADLINE FOR REQUESTING JOINT SUPERVISION

If you are interested in joint supervision, you have to meet the access requirements, be admitted to a doctoral programme at the University of Barcelona, formalize your enrolment and have received approval for your research plan.  

Once you have reached an agreement with the two thesis supervisors, you will need to submit a request for joint supervision to the academic committee of your doctoral programme.

Students who have started their doctorate until the 2024-2025 academic year:

Requests must be submitted before completing the second year (full-time students) or the fourth year (part-time students) of doctoral studies.

Students who have started their doctorate since the 2024-2025 academic year:

Maximum deadline for submitting the application: before the end of the first course

 PROCEDURE FOR REQUESTING JOINT SUPERVISION

1. Must be submitted submitted to the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff via the General Registry or to the Electronic Office of UB ( generic instance ):

  • The request for the authorization of joint supervision of the doctoral thesis must be completed and signed by the student and the associated academic staff
  • The draft agreement between the two participating universities. It is important to bear in mind that there may be differences in the respective regulations, so any agreement will have to comply with both sets of regulations.

Models de sol·licitud i conveni en català

Modelos de solicitud y convenio en español

Application form and agreement in English

2. Requests for joint supervision must be authorized by the Academic Committee of the doctoral programme. If authorization is given, the committee will approve the proposed supervision agreement and notify the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff at the Faculty.

3.If the request is authorized, the Secretary’s Office for Students and Teaching Staff will forward the approved draft agreement to the Legal Services and Agreements office, which will arrange for the agreement to be signed by both universities and sent to all interested parties.

4.More detailed information can be found in Section VIII of the Regulations on Doctoral Studies at the University of Barcelona.

REQUIRED CONTENT OF THE JOINT SUPERVISION AGREEMENT

The specific joint supervision agreement must comply with current regulations on thesis preparation and defence at the UB and at the other participating university. The agreement must be written in at least one of the official languages of the University of Barcelona, and must include the following:

  1. Joint supervisors and tutors.
  2. The periods of research that the doctoral student must complete at each of the universities and the activities they will be expected to carry out.
  3. Whether the student will work on the thesis part-time or full-time.
  4. Host institution for the thesis defence.
  5. The commitment of both institutions to award the doctoral degree certificate on the basis of a single thesis defence.
  6. Language used to write the thesis.
  7. Language of the thesis defence.
  8. The deadline for the thesis defence, in accordance with the academic progress regulations for doctoral studies, and taking into account any extensions.

 

PREPARATION OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS

Every year, including the year spent away from the UB, doctoral students must submit a report on the progress of their thesis to the academic committee, in accordance with the provisions made in Article 34 of the Regulations on doctoral studies at the University of Barcelona.

Doctoral students must prepare their doctoral thesis under the direction of a supervisor from each of the universities that have signed the joint supervision agreement.

The period of preparation of the doctoral thesis must not exceed the maximum set by the university at which the work will be presented and must be divided between the two universities under the terms established in the agreement. Under no circumstances may the total stay at the University of Barcelona have a duration of less than six months. This period may, however, be subdivided into a series of shorter stays.

During the preparation of the doctoral thesis, doctoral students must be enrolled at the University of Barcelona and pay the full cost of academic insurance, if applicable, as well as the fees for specific academic services, learning support and any non-academic services that the student has requested. Fees for the supervision, tutoring and continuous assessment of the doctoral thesis will be paid in the academic year during which the stay at the University of Barcelona is completed.

 

DOCTORAL THESIS DEFENCE AND REQUEST FOR THE ISSUE OF THE DOCTORAL DEGREE

A single thesis defence must be carried out at one of the universities. The fee payable for the thesis defence will be determined by the hosting university.

To carry out the defence at the University of Barcelona, the student must request authorization for the submission and defence of the thesis and request the issue of the doctoral degree certificate as stated in the regulations on doctoral studies at the University of Barcelona.

To carry out the defence at a university outside Spain, the student must carry out the administrative procedures set out in the legislation of that country. To request the issue of the doctoral degree certificate, the student must satisfy the following requirements:

  • Payment of enrolment fees corresponding to the academic years as established in Article 62.4.
  • Digital submission of the following documents:
    • A copy of the doctoral thesis.
    • An abstract with a maximum length of 600 words, written in the same language as the thesis.
    • An extract in English with a maximum length of 350 words. If the thesis is written in English, the abstract may be provided in another language (Catalan, Spanish, etc.).
  • Thesis defence certificate, which must indicate – at least – the date of the defence, the members of the examination panel and their affiliations, and the grade awarded. If the certificate was issued in a language other than Spanish, Catalan or English, it must be submitted together with a certified translation into Spanish or Catalan.
  •  Form 8 –TESEO form for incorporation into the TESEO doctoral thesis database of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (see UNESCO codes)
  • Form 6 and Form 7 – Submission form and signed authorization of publication in the UB repository and the TDX thesis repository, completed clearly by hand or typed. Since 11 February 2012, open-access copies of all doctoral theses must be stored in an institutional repository, as stipulated by Article 14 of Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, on doctoral studies. As such, all doctoral theses read at the University of Barcelona are uploaded to the Digital Repository of the UB and to the TDX cooperative repository for doctoral theses.

Forms

The doctoral degree certificate issued by the University of Barcelona bear the following statement: “Thesis completed under joint supervision with the University of…”