In order to be admitted to Communication PhD Programme offered by UPF, candidates must provide accreditation that they have obtained an accredited undergraduate degree (Bachelor degree or recognised equivalent degree from an accredited Higher Education Institution).
Moreover, they have to proof that they have obtained or are in position to obtain an accredited graduate/master's degree(equivalent to a Spanish Master Universitario/Oficial, Master's of Research.... ) which enables them to access a Phd programme in their home country.
To access a PhD programme at UPF you must have an official university degree and a master's degree, and have passed at least 300 ECTS credits.
You can also access the doctorate with:
- an official Spanish university degree or equivalent, as long as at least 300 ECTS credits have been passed and a level 3 of the MECES is accredited;
- a degree from the European Higher Education Area (non-Spanish) that accredits a level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework, as long as this degree entitles to access a PhD in the issuing country;
- a foreign title (non-EHEA) of a training level equivalent to a Spanish university master's degree and that entitles to access a PhD programme in the issuing country;
- a doctoral degree.
Mandatory documents to be submitted
- A photocopy of the undergraduate degree/diploma or Certification/proof of degree completion (Bachelor degree or recognised equivalent degree from an accredited Higher Education Institution).
- Photocopy of the final official academic degree record, with a weighted grade from 1 to 10. Important: the overall average grade of the academic record obtained according to the numerical scale of 0 to 4 of Annex I of Royal Decree 1497/1987 will be equivalent to another overall average grade, based on the numerical scale of 0 to 10 of Royal Decree 1125/2003, according to the conversion table published at https://sede.csic.gob.es/tabla_conversion. In the case of university studies carried out in foreign centres, you can process the statement of average grade equivalences. If you do not provide this statement with the equivalent grade, by default the minimum score will be considered.
- At least two letters of recommendation, preferably from PhD lecturers at prestigious Universities. Preferably from PhD lecturers at prestigious universities. These letters must be confidential and must be sent directly by the signatories to the Admissions Office.
In order to optimise the treatment and security of the recommendation letters, the candidate will have to request those via the online application system, where he/she will need to indicate the e-mail adress of the person/the persons he/she wishes to be recommended by. That person will receive an e-mail indicating that the candidate wishes a recommenation letter from him/her. The letter will be uploaded by the referee in the online application system. Non-institutional addresses such as *yahoo, *gmail, *hotmail, etc... will not be accepted.
If you have finished your Master's degree when you formalise your application, you will need to send us the following documents:
- A photocopy of the graduate/master's degree/diploma or Certification/proof of degree completion.
- A photocopy of the official final graduate/master's transcript.
However, if you have not yet completed your graduate/master's studies when formalising application, you will need to provide us with the following documents:
- A signed declaration of obtaining your graduate/master's degree before the commencement of the PhD programme.
- A photocopy of the provisional graduate/master's transcript.
If the diploma or the academic transcript are not written in Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Portuguese or Italian, you will also have to include the respective sworn translations into Catalan or Spanish.
ASSESSMENT OF THE SELECTION CRITERIA, approved by the Doctoral Programme Academic Commission on September 15th, 2020
| 1. Academic transcript |
40% |
| 2. Research Pre-project |
50% |
| a. Pre-project compliance with the Department's Research Groups |
20% |
| b. Quality of the Pre-project (objectives, state of play and methods) |
20% |
| c. Excellence of the research Pre-project |
5% |
| d. Being awarded with a Scholarship to develop the research project report |
5% |
| 3. Recommendation letters |
10% |
Optional supporting documents
The following optional supporting documents are not compulsory but may be evaluated by the department for admission purposes (please submit a photocopy of these documents/accreditations):
- Research background
- Proof of English language knowledge:
- Certificate accrediting knowledge of the English language
- An essay by the candidate written in English explaining motivations for applying to the research project in any of the research lines, with a maximum length of 2 pages.
