Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Monitoring doctoral students

When you register on a doctoral programme, you will be provided with a personalised doctoral activities document. You will use this document - known as DAD - to record all the activities you will carry out during your doctoral programme on the instructions of your tutor or supervisor and the Academic Committee. The characteristics of this document and how it is to be kept will be determined by the URV's Postgraduate and Doctoral Committee and the Programme's Academic Committee.

The DAD will be regularly reviewed by the tutor and/or supervisor of the thesis, who will be responsible for authorising and verifying the activities you record, and drawing up the corresponding reports (at least one every year) on your work and progress. Its implementation is mandatory to continue with doctoral studies, since it is the system used annually to assess the degree of doctoral training.

Meanwhile, the research plan is a document within the SAD platform (PhD Monitoring Activities) written by the doctoral student with the support of the tutor and / or director of the thesis, where research is planned along the doctoral period. This document should specify objectives, tools and methodology used, development planning of the thesis and additional resources for research. This document should be made during the first year of doctorate, but may be modified depending on the development of the thesis in order to incorporate substantial changes, developments, incidents and results.

Every year, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Programme will assess the Research Plan, the DAD and the supervisor's reports. The assessment must be positive if you are to be allowed to continue on the programme. If the assessment is negative, you can be assessed again after six months if you draw up a new research plan. Should you again be assessed negatively, you will no longer be allowed to continue on the programme.

The Postgraduate and Doctoral School will determine the mechanisms by which doctoral students will be assessed and monitored, and the deadline by which the thesis must be completed. It will also define the procedures to be followed in cases of conflict and all those issues pertaining to intellectual property rights.

For further information on the operation of the platform SAD, consult Tutorial SAD