Please check your submission deadline in your Campus Global.

If you submit your thesis any working day before the end of September, you don't need to enroll the new academic year.

Exceptionally, those students who were enrolled on 2019/2020 academmic year and affected by the COVID reasons can benefit from enrolment advantatges for their last enrolment in case of submitting the thesis between October and December. Please contact us for further information.

The submission of the doctoral thesis can be done any working day during the academic year (August and Christmas holidays are excluded)

For guidance, a four-month period is needed from  your submission application until you get the UPF PhD School approval for your thesis defence.

Once you'll have the UPF PhD School approval confirmed, you have 6 month period to defend your thesis

A doctoral thesis may be submitted in one of the following two formats: 

1. A classical thesis book, consisting of chapters written in a cohesive way. Next to the original research described in the thesis, the rest of the contents cannot be made out of copying & pasting from other sources, and especially not from other PhD theses.
2. A set of articles (minimum 2)  preceded by an introductory chapter and followed by a discussion and conclusions chapter or chapters.  At least 1 article should be as a first author and already published in a peer-reviewed journal. Preprint articles (arXiv or bioRxiv) could be accepted in addition to at least 1 published article in a peer-reviewed journal. Preprints articles cannot substitute the mandatory published article.

2.1.  There cannot be two doctoral theses from two different doctoral students including the same set of articles.

2.2.  An article with two or more joint first authors can be used in more than one thesis as long as each PhD student has made a major research contribution on this article. This specific major contribution of each PhD student in the article must be described in the manuscript of the doctoral thesis.
2.3. A doctoral thesis must include one or more original research contributions. Review articles cannot be included as original research contributions, but can be included in the thesis as additional thesis material.

Please, check at your Activities Document, that the information you have entered about your Doctoral Thesis and your personal details are correct.

Any changes (title, supervisor or tutor) must be done before submisssion:

1. Please make an appointment with the PhD Programme in Biomedicine Secretariat by email: [email protected] to submit the Doctoral Thesis. 
2. Once you'll have your appointemnt scheduled, the PhD secretaria will give you access to a Personal Drive Folder to upload all your thesis submission documents. 
3. Bring to the PhD PRBB office 300.04, 3rd floor; 1 printed book-copy of the doctoral thesis for the UPF library. Together with the original hand signed  "Declaration by the author of the thesis" document (see point 6).

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All documents must be submitted at the same time and duly filled in and signed:

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Once the notification email with the Doctoral Thesis Defence Authorization and Approval of the Thesis Committee are received you can start organising your thesis defence following these steps. Please note that the date will not be fixed until you recive our confirmation. 

• The thesi defence is a public event so an audience can attend. There are no specific rules concerning the length of the thesis defence at UPF. In general, the event takes from 1 1/2 to 3 hours in total and the doctoral student defends his/her thesis during 45 minutes approximately.

• The chairperson of the committee leads the thesis defence proceedings. The proceedings must consist of the doctoral student's exposé of the research work carried out, the methodology used, the contents and conclusions, with special reference to its original contributions. The members of the committee may ask the doctoral student any questions they deem appropriate. Likewise, the doctors present at the public defence proceedings may ask questions at the time and in the manner stipulated by the chairperson of the panel. 

• The president is also responsible for asking all attendees in the room (virtual or face-to-face) to leave temporarily so that the court can make the deliberation. The attendance to the deliberation session is exclusive for the members of the committee.

• When the defence is completed, the members of the committee grade the thesis Fail, Pass, Good or Excellent. In case of obtaining an Excellent, they may also propose the thesis for a "cum laude mention" and for being a cadidate of the extraordinary award for its academic year. Both mentions shall be decided by secret ballot of the members of the committe and the student must obtain a unanimous positive vote to achieve each mention. For that reason at the end of the defense the committee cannot make public the maximum grade obtained.

• At the end of the defence we would need to receive all the required documents, previously received by mail. You can sign with your digital signature / IdCAT or print, sign and scan the documents (in this case, we ask you to send the original copies by post, too. UPF Phd Program. PRBB building. C/Doctor Aiguader, 88. 08003, Barcelona. Spain). We'll appreciate receiving by email the scanned copy of the documents signed after the defence (PhD in Biomedicine <[email protected]>). At latest the day after the thesis defence.

Official documents

The secretary of the committee should supervise and collect all the official documents of the Doctoral Thesis Defence, and hand them in to the PhD Programme Secretariat after the defence (PRBB, 3rd floor, office 300.04)

Possible doctoral thesis grades

• Fail
• Pass
• Good
• Excellent.

Only when a doctoral thesis is graded Excellent, the members of the committee may propose a "Cum Laude mention" by secret ballot.

After the defence, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Progamme is responsible for counting the votes and grading the doctoral thesis Excellent Cum Laude, if the secret ballot is unanimously in favor. The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme is also responsible for informing the doctoral student, the thesis supervisor and the members of the committee of the final grade within the week after the defence.

If your main tribunal members are travelling to attend the thesis defence please contact us by mail at the following address [email protected]

Please, note that we will not be able to reimburse your travel expenses if you manage transport or/and accommodation by yourself.

We can offer a limited budget on covering the travel expenses of the main members of the board and we do not charge diets. Please confirm the limits with the PhD secretariat and look for an alternative budged in case of extra expenses.

Alternatively, the university offers you the chance to attend the defence electronically. This makes management more affordable and environmentally friendly.

If you have to send your PhD certificate to a foreign institution, you might also apply for the “European Diploma Supplement (SET)”. This document is included in the cost of the title and it's issued in English. You should ask for it together with your official PhD degree certificate application

(See a SET exemple here)