Deposit and Defence

Submitting and defending a PhD thesis involves several important steps. Candidates should anticipate that the entire process generally takes between 2 and 3 months, depending on how quickly the external evaluation reports are received and the outcomes of the different steps. The Department offers financial assistance to help cover expenses such as the editing of the doctoral thesis, travel costs for the evaluation committee, and other related costs. For more information, please contact the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Step 1: documentation submission

To submit this request, the research plan must have received two consecutive positive annual monitoring and evaluation reports. Exceptionally, and with due justification, the PhD Committee may authorize the submission with only one positive annual monitoring report.

Documentation to submit: Copy of the doctoral thesis (*) in electronic format together with all the forms under “Deposit and defense of the thesis” available at the forms section:

• Supervisors report and evaluation committee proposal (**).
• Declaration (doctoral student)
• Declaration (supervisors)
• Doctoral Activities Document (DAD)
• UB institutional repository file
• TDX thesis repository(more information HERE)
• TESEO sheet (UNESCO codes HERE)

(*) Doctoral thesis. The cover or first page must include the University of Barcelona’s corporate image, the name of the doctoral program, the title of the thesis, the full name of the doctoral candidate, and the full names of the thesis supervisors and the tutor.

(**) Supervisors report and evaluation committee proposal. The report, signed by the supervisors and the tutor, will include an analysis of the thesis using plagiarism detection software provided by the University of Barcelona, a proposal for the defense modality (in-person, hybrid, or online), a proposal of two external experts from outside the University of Barcelona who can assess the thesis, and a proposed examination board to evaluate the thesis, accompanied by the abbreviated CVs of the proposed external members. In the case of theses applying for the international mention, the two external experts must be from a higher education institution or research institute outside of Spain, different than the host of the research stay. Instructions for plagiarism detection are available here.

Submit to: Electronic Office (PR-000034). See the Handbook: Application to Deposit the Doctoral Thesis.

Step 2: Contact of External reporters

Once the documentation is verified, the two external reviewers proposed by the supervisors will be contacted by the PhD commission. The reviewers will be given approximately three weeks to complete and submit their assessments. It is strongly recommended that the supervisors contact the reviewers in advance to confirm their availability and willingness to meet the expected deadline. If the PhD Commission determines that the reviewers and committee members do not meet the required level or experience, they will ask the supervisors and the doctoral candidate to revise and amend the proposal accordingly.

Step 3: Academic Commission Report

Once the external reports are available, the Academic Commission will write a report regarding the authorization of the thesis submission. The external reports as well as the supervisors report will be taken into account. The Academic Commission may suggest no changes, minor or major changes. This report will be sent to the PhD commission for the next step. This step takes approximately two weeks.

Step 4: PhD Commission Authorization

The PhD Commission will evaluate the request for deposit and defense based on the PhD thesis, the reports written by supervisors, the external reviews and the report of the Academic Commission. The doctoral committee must issue a decision on the request within a maximum period of sixty working days, starting from the day after the doctoral candidate has submitted the application. The decision will be communicated to the doctoral candidate and also forwarded to the tutor, the thesis supervisors, and the academic committee.

• The doctoral committee may require the candidate to make improvements to the thesis. In such cases, the candidate will have a maximum of 15 working days to submit the revised version, within the overall decision period granted to the PhD committee, which may be extended to a maximum of 75 days from the date of the deposit request.
• If the decision is unfavorable, it will be justified and notified to the candidate, who will then continue with the annual monitoring process. The supervisors, tutor, and academic committee will also be informed. If the maximum period of enrollment has expired, the candidate will be permanently withdrawn from the program.
• If the decision is favorable, within five days of the authorization, the chair of the PhD committee will publish the thesis submission on the faculty website, indicating where the thesis is available and the end date of the deposit period. The decision will be notified to the doctoral candidate and communicated to the thesis supervisors, the tutor, and the academic committee of the program.

Step 5: Deposit

The approved copy of the thesis will be deposited at the faculty for a period of seven working days, starting from the day after the deposit is announced on the website. During this period, any holder of a doctoral degree may review the thesis and submit written comments to the PhD Committee regarding its content. If any objections are submitted during the deposit period, the PhD Committee must review them and decide whether to authorize the defense or not.

After the successful deposit period, the doctoral candidate must pay the thesis defense fee.

Step 6: Appointment of the Committee

Within a maximum of ten days after the fee has been paid, all committee members (both full and alternate) will be notified of their appointment. At least seven calendar days before the public defense, the secretary of the examination board must notify the date and details of the defense to the other board members, the doctoral candidate, the thesis supervisors, the thesis tutor, the doctoral program coordinator, the chair of the PhD committee, and the faculty’s student and academic affairs office. The defense of the doctoral thesis must take place within a maximum period of three months, starting from the day after the notification of the appointment to the chair of the examination board.

Step 7: Act of Defence

The doctoral thesis will be evaluated during the defence session. The session consists of the presentation and defence of the research work carried out by the doctoral candidate before the members of the examination panel. Doctors present at the public session may ask questions at the time and in the manner indicated by the chair of the panel.

Once the defence and discussion of the thesis are completed, the panel, in a closed session, will issue a single written report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis, expressed as fail, pass, good, or excellent. At the end of the session, the chair of the panel will publicly inform the doctoral candidate of the grade obtained.

If the thesis receives the overall grade of excellent, the panel may propose the award of the cum laude distinction, provided that the secret ballot is unanimously positive. The voting for the cum laude distinction takes place in a session separate from the thesis defence.  The result will be communicated to the PhD candidate at a later time.

Step 8: Archiving of the thesis

The digital version of the thesis will be included by the SED in the UB’s institutional repository and in the TDX thesis repository or its equivalent. The SED will send the approved thesis in electronic format, along with the complementary information, to the Ministry.