Instituto de Estudios de Posgrado

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Admission and complementary training

Access requirements and admission criteria

The Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program (CAPD, in Spanish) is the body in charge of determining access procedures and admission criteria. In any case, these criteria are in line with current national legislation and with the regulations governing doctoral studies at the University of Córdoba.

Via the following link you can find the modalities of access to the doctorate studies, as well as the processes, documentation and deadlines for admission

The Academic Committee of the Social and Legal Sciences Doctoral Programme may proceed with the conditional admission of a candidate, without him/her being able to enrol for the academic tutelage (tutela académica) of their doctoral studies. The reasons that can give rise to a conditional admission are:

• The completion of complementary training is pending. When, in consideration of the candidate's aptitudes and qualifications it is deemed appropriate for him to complete, prior to joining the Doctoral Programme, the legally determined supplementary training.
• The presentation of documentation accrediting compliance with administrative requirements. When the applicant meets the admission requirements but has not yet formalized certain documentation or completed other administrative requirements (the legalization of foreign documents, the translation of documents, etc.).

If the requirements are not met before the end of the second enrolment period for academic tutelage of doctoral studies, admission will be cancelled for all purposes.

Entry profile and complementary training

People with ethical concerns who address social problems through broad and global training, specializing in legal, educational and psychological phenomena, seeking interdependence and to connect different sciences through an integrative vision.

People interested in and committed to developing competences for research (in data analysis, oral and written communication, teamwork), with the capacity for reflection and the integration of knowledge (the desire to delve into problems and not remain on the surface), intellectual rigor (in the analysis of documentation, the exposition of problems, and decision-making to choose methods that allow them to respond to their hypotheses); with a capacity for effort, motivation and persistence to overcome the adversities of research.

In summary, the profile of the student interested in the DP will be that of a person with a high capacity for criticism, including self-criticism, allowing them to advance in the development of knowledge and applications with a clear social component.

RECOMMENDED LANGUAGE LEVEL FOR ACCESS TO THE DOCTORAL PROGRAMME

THE STUDENT'S ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY IN ENGLISH WITH THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY, USING TECHNICAL LANGUAGE TYPICAL OF THEIR FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE, WILL BE AN ASSET. In general, it would be advisable for the student to have a B2 level accredited in a second language, which is most often English, but could be another one. This competence will make it easier for the student to access more documentation and participate in scientific stays and congresses through which to disseminate his or her results.

Thus, to promote the internationalization of the DP and students' mobility, an effort will be made for some training activities to be offered in another language. Along the same lines, in order to obtain an International Doctoral Thesis, in addition to the requirement to go abroad for a period of more than three months, the student must write and present their Doctoral Thesis in another language (accepting Doctoral Theses written completely in another language, with a brief summary in Spanish)

Taking into account the lack of economic resources in recent years to invite international researchers as professors in the PhD Program, we propose the following activity to promote knowledge of languages: coinciding with international thesis defences, OPTIONAL RESEARCH SEMINARS will be organized IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE with the Foreign Researcher participating as a member of the committee. In this way we aim to optimize human resources in order to encourage the learning of English as an internationally recognized language

There are a series of research-oriented Master's degrees that provide direct access to this Doctoral Programme, these being the following:

• Master's in Foreign Trade and the Internationalization of Companies
• Master's in the Culture of Peace. Conflicts, Education and Human Rights.
• Master's in Environmental Education
• Master's in Educational Specialization: Games, Toys, Second Languages
• Master's in Inclusive Education
• Master's in Legal Consulting for Companies
• Master's in Psychology Applied to Education and Social Welfare
• Master’s in General Health Psychology (at least the following additional requirements must be met: Final Master's Thesis of a research-oriented nature, and have passed the subjects: "Scientific and Professional Foundations of Health Psychology" and "Research Designs in Psychology and Health".)

Students who have completed research-oriented Master's degrees other than those that give access to this Doctoral Programme will have to present the complete documentation on their training when requesting admission so that the Academic Committee and the CAPD can decide whether or not it will be necessary for the student to complete Complementary Training prior to admission to the doctorate or during the first year of it.

Once the application for admission to the Doctoral Programme has been received, and after analysis of the mandatory regulatory requirements, the applicant's prior training, curricular background, motivation, and Doctoral Thesis Proposal, the Academic Committee may establish a complementary training proposal based fundamentally on the courses offered in the context of the official Master's programmes of the University of Córdoba for those candidates who need it. This proposal will be attached to the decision regarding admission to the Programme that the candidates receive.

These training supplements will be considered doctorate-level training for the purposes of public prices and the granting of scholarships and study funding, and their completion will not count with reference to the time limit on doctoral theses indicated in the current Regulations.

The University of Cordoba allows students to request the recognition of credits for having carried out research-related activities. For this purpose, there is an approved scale (see scale) and an application form for recognition (see form).

Permanence

Permanence Rules

Background

This doctoral programme arose with a clear interdepartmental approach in the sphere of the Social and Legal Sciences, founded for the purpose of training new PhDs, prioritizing interdisciplinarity and spanning different areas of Law, Education and Psychology. Thus, the idea underlying this programme is the need to approach research - whether on norms, society or individual or collective behaviour – based on a comprehensive (MACRO) vision informed by the social and legal sciences, with a view to conducting research enriched by an inclusive perspective, whether it is with a legal, economic, educational or psychological focus (MESO vision of each research line), giving rise to thesis projects supervised by a "tutor" from each research team (MICRO vision).

Information on the Doctoral Programme may be obtained through this website, which features information on its name, objectives, capabilities to be acquired, degrees/qualifications for access, research lines and teams , coordinating bodies, number of places offered, admission and selection criteria, complementary training, training activities, thesis requirements, evaluation procedures, specific agreements and quality assurance procedures and indicators. .

Information of interest on doctoral studies is included in the University of Córdoba's Guide to Good Doctoral Practices

In addition, the UCO's general website contains information on the services for university students that can help doctoral students incorporate and adjust to the university and the city.
In addition, the University of Córdoba's Doctoral School, or, when applicable, those responsible for the Programme, hold an annual welcome and orientation session for all doctoral students once the enrollment period for academic tutelage ends. In it, the basic rules of the Doctorate are explained and doctoral students are oriented regarding the procedures to follow, the people responsible for each of them, the most important deadlines, use of both the doctoral website and the intranet, etc., with the aim of facilitating their incorporation into the Doctorate Programme and providing them with knowledge of the rules and procedures governing it.

Orientation and information actions are also offered to students, such as:

• UCO Post-graduate Fairs
• Workshops for the presentation of university Master's degrees at UCO centers
• Participation in networks to disseminate the doctoral offerings in the international arena: Fundación Carolina, the Ibero-American Postgraduate University Association (AUIP)
• Specific programs for information on doctoral studies in Ecuador, Italy, Greece, Israel and the Dominican Republic
• Information actions carried out by the UCO's International Relations Office
• Orientation of the teaching staff participating in UCO Master's programmes

Enrolment

Information about access and enrolment

Assignment of thesis tutor and advisor

To contact the representatives of the research lines/teams and find a possible Doctoral Thesis Tutor and Advisor, a requirement to apply for admission to this Doctoral Programme, in the Líneas y RRHH section you can find the faculty who currently comprise the central nucleus of the Doctoral Programme, and their e-mail addresses.

The rules and regulations governing tutors and advisors, and their roles, can be found at the following link: Regulations

Scholarships

Information on the announcements (calls) of scholarships and grants can be found at the following links:

• The UCO's own PhD Calls/Resolutions
• Calls, Scholarships, Grants and Awards outside the UCO

Activities

Social and Legal Sciences Training

Training activities:

• Scientific Congress of Researchers in Training (COMPULSORY, AS OF THE SECOND YEAR)
• Training workshop of Doctorate studies at the University of Córdoba (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Experiment design and the principles of data analysis (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Scientific communication and dissemination (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Research Methodology in the Social and Economic Sciences (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Scientific dissemination and knowledge transfer in the human, economic and social sciences (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: bibliographical searches and analysis of the quality of scientific production (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Academic and Scientific Writing (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Ethics Applied to Science and Professional Life (OPTIONAL)
• Research Management: Protecting your research results
• Research Management: Drafting competitive research projects
• Research Management: Conveying Science to Society (OPTIONAL)
• Innovation management (OPTIONAL)
• Advanced information management tools (OPTIONAL)
• The Social Responsibility of Science and Technology.(OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training. Theory, Methodology and the Evaluation of Scientific Research (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal training in research. Scientific writing and presentations in English (OPTIONAL)
• Transversal research training: Technology transfer, the protection of research results, and the creation of technology-based companies (OPTIONAL)

Apart from those set out in the Training Plan and those offered by the IDEP, this Doctoral Programme recommends the following

• Violence against Women and Girls (UN Women)
• How to turn an idea into a thesis. A practical approach to research through the study of migrations.
• The writing and evaluation of legal articles in high-impact journals
• The illustrated research process: a transdisciplinary approach
•  A doctoral thesis without transfer? Concept, planning and action through a study on the narratives of migrant women
• How to publish in high impact journals?
• Introduction to the management of statistical software R for data analysis

This section will be updated with the new training proposals.

Form for the presentation of the training plan

Social and Legal Sciences Training

Competences

Basic competences

• CB11 - Systematic understanding of a field of study and mastery of the research skills and methods related to it.
• CB12 - The ability to conceive, design or create, implement and adopt a substantial research or creation process.
• CB13 - The ability to contribute to expanding frontiers of knowledge through original research.
• CB14 - The ability to perform analysis that is critical and evaluates and synthesizes new and complex ideas.
• CB15 - The ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community, and society in general, about their fields of knowledge in the modes and languages commonly used by the international scientific community.
• CB16 - The ability to promote, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic and cultural advancement within a knowledge-based society.

Personal skills and abilities

• CA01 - Managing in contexts in which there is little specific information.
• CA02 - Ascertaining the key questions that must be answered to solve a complex problem.
• CA03 - Designing, creating, developing and undertaking innovative and novel projects in their field of knowledge.
• CA-04 - Working both on a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
• CA05 - Integrating knowledge, dealing with complexity and making judgments with limited information.
• CA06 - Intellectual criticism and the defence of solutions.

Other competences

• CO01 - Understanding the relevant problems on the frontier of knowledge in the Social and Legal Sciences research field in which the doctoral thesis is carried out
• CO02 - Knowing how to formulate original hypotheses that contribute significantly to the advancement of the social and legal sciences
• CO03 - Being familiar with and knowing how to select the design and data analysis techniques most apt for the field of research in any of the four research lines selected and that converge in this Social and Legal Sciences Doctoral Programme.

Control and Monitoring

Control and Monitoring

The monitoring of doctoral students' progress is carried out both continuously (through the "activities notebook") and through activities scheduled annually (annual follow-up).

For continuous monitoring, the University of Córdoba features a computer application (SIGMA) available to doctoral students in which all mandatory and optional activities forming part of the comprehensive training of doctoral students will be recorded. When registering one's research plan, and, after this point, in the annual follow-up, doctoral students must present to the Academic Committee a proposal of the activities and the objectives of the work to be carried out in that year, which must be approved by one's thesis advisor and tutor, if applicable. If they are not activities already established as mandatory by the programme, their workload and the procedure that will be used for their evaluation must be stipulated.

Each time the doctoral student completes one of these activities, they must record it on the aforementioned application, and their tutor or advisor is to validate it and accept it as a training activity for the doctoral student. Annually, doctoral students will send the Institute of Postgraduate Studies the supporting documentation on the activities carried out.

In order for doctoral students to present their progress on their research plans, especially in relation to the methodology and the most significant advances and results achieved, the programme’s Academic Committee will appoint one or more Monitoring Committees annually, comprised of three PhDs, one of whom must be from outside the programme, and the other two heads of research teams attached to the programme. If the necessary financial means are available, an international expert will be appointed as a doctor external to the doctoral programme. Likewise, the document of activities carried out and the reports that the thesis tutor/advisor must issue for this purpose will be presented.

The Monitoring Committee must issue an individual report with an assessment of the work carried out and the student's degree of progress relative to the previous year. This assessment will take into account the student's degree of fulfilment, the evaluations obtained on the training activities, as well as the aforementioned reports. A positive evaluation will be an essential requirement to continue in the programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, which will be duly reasoned, the doctoral student will undergo a second evaluation within six months, for which purpose a new research plan will be drawn up. A second negative evaluation will result in permanent dismissal from the programme.

Annually, the Doctoral Programme's Academic Committee will send to the Institute of Postgraduate Studies, on the date established by the Masters and Doctoral Committee, the results of the follow-up. If during the academic year there are significant modifications to the work plan presented, these must be communicated by the doctoral student, with the approval of their advisor, to the Academic Committee, which will announce a decision in this regard within 20 days.El seguimiento del doctorando se realiza tanto de forma continua (a través del cuaderno de actividades) como a través de actividades programadas anualmente (seguimiento anual).

Research Plans

Doctoral students will present to the Academic Committee of the Social and Legal Sciences Doctoral Programme, by the deadlines determined by the Masters and Doctorate Commission, and within the first academic year of their enrolment in the Doctoral Program, a research plan endorsed by the person responsible for serving as an advisor on the thesis and/or by the person who is serving as a "tutor" on it. Students have a tool available to present the research plan, accessible at the following link. The Academic Committee of the Social and Legal Sciences Doctoral Programme will decide on the admission of said plan and the suitability of the advisor. If the project is not accepted, the Academic Committee will determine the procedure by which the research plan can be presented again.

In the event that the research plan is not submitted by the established deadlines, the doctoral student will be dropped from the Programme.

The research plan will include a working hypothesis, the objectives to be achieved, the methodology and means to be used, as well as the timeline to complete it. This plan can be improved and detailed throughout one's stay in the Programme, and must be endorsed by the person who is serving as one's thesis tutor and/or advisor.

Presentation and reading of thesis

The presentation and reading of the thesis will be carried out according to what is set down in the regulations governing doctoral studies at the UCO, following the procedure that can be found via the following link.

Internationalization

The University of Córdoba offers different forms of support promoting the internationalization of the doctorate, mainly in the form of calls for international stays to obtain the "International Mention" distinction and the completion of theses under "co-tutelages," with one of the student's tutors being at a foreign university. These calls can be viewed in the  Doctoral Calls/Resolutions.

In addition, the Doctoral Programme in the Social and Legal Sciences collaborates with foreign institutions, which can be found in the corresponding section.

Verified report

• Download

Self-reports and annual monitoring reports

• Self-report for the renewal of accreditation 2019
• Final report for the renewal of accreditation 2019
• Monitoring report 2015
• Self-report 2016
• Monitoring report 2016
• Self-report 2017
• Monitoring report 2017
• Self-report 2021
• Monitoring report 2021
• Self-report 2022

Improvement Plans

• Improvement Plan 2023/2024
• Improvement Plan monitoring 2023/2024
• Improvement Plan 2022/2023
• Improvement Plan 2021/2022
• Improvement Plan monitoring 2021/2022
• Improvement Plan 2020/2021
• Contingency Plan for the COVID situation

Quality Assurance System

        - Regulation SGC

• Minutes of ordinary session on March 23, 2020
• Minutes of ordinary session on  May 14, 2020
• Minutes of ordinary session on October 5, 2020
• Minutes of ordinary session on December 3, 2020
• Minutes of ordinary session on Febrery 18, 2021
• Minutes of ordinary session on September 17, 2021
• Minutes of ordinary session on November 12, 2021
• Minutes of ordinary session on January 14, 2022
• Minutes of ordinary session on February 18, 2022
• Minutes of ordinary session on December 16, 2022
• Minutes of ordinary session on February 08,2023
• Minutes of ordinary session on October 30, 2023