Introduction of the Doctoral School

Doctoral studies are official university courses of study that are taken up after completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees and that lead to a doctoral degree, which is the highest academic degree.

Doctoral students acquire the skills and competencies needed to conduct quality research. Research is an exciting, constructive and public-spirited activity and a keystone of the economic and cultural development of society.

To train future researchers is the main aim of the UPC’s Doctoral School. To this end, it manages and organises doctoral activities and teaching in accordance with its commitment to quality teaching and research.

Research areas at the UPC are divided into doctoral programmes.

The UPC’s Doctoral School acts as a catalyst for the collaborations that are set up between companies and other schools with its doctoral programmes and research groups in order to find solutions to the scientific and technological challenges of society. It also manages and organises administrative and legal processes related to such collaborations.

We believe that quality research can only be achieved through the actual internationalisation of doctoral studies; therefore, the UPC’s Doctoral School is an active member of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education, it periodically participates in the UNICA Master Class and it is a member of the SEEEP Platform of the Consortium Linking Universities of Science and Technology for Education and Research (CLUSTER), in which its students actively participate.

History

The establishment of the UPC’s Doctoral School was approved by the Governing Council in February 2012, and its governing bodies were created one year later, in February 2013. The current management team took office throughout 2022.

The Doctoral School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya is subject to the regulatory framework of Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, regulating official doctoral studies; the agreement of the Board of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, of 6 October 2011, on doctoral studies and the procedure for creating doctoral schools; articles 34 and 35 of the UPC Statutes, which describe the nature and functions of the Doctoral School; the Regulations on the Organisation and Functions of the Doctoral School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya; the Internal Regulations of the Doctoral School and the Academic Regulations for Doctoral Studies.