Doctoral Program in Geology 2020–2021

The RD 99/2011 highlights the high professional training of doctors in various fields, especially those that require creativity and innovation. Therefore, the doctors of the program will have acquired, at least, personal skills and abilities to:

1. Develop in contexts in which there is little specific information.
2. Find the key questions that must be answered to solve a complex problem.
3. Design, create, develop and undertake innovative and innovative projects in their field of knowledge.
4. Work both as a team and independently in an international or multidisciplinary context.
5. Integrate knowledge, face complexity and formulate judgements with limited information.
6. The criticism and intellectual defence of solutions.

No additional competencies are considered

The requirements for access to doctorate studies are set in RD 99/2011 and can be consulted in the corresponding Instruction of the Doctorate School (pdf). In general, an official Spanish Bachelor's and Master's degrees or equivalent are required, with a minimum global extension of 300 ECTS credits.

Candidates with university degrees issued by a country of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) may request admission directly (info). If the degree is issued by a country outside the EHEA, the application for access with a non-homologated foreign degree must be submitted (info).

Those interested can expand their information in the administrative section of the Doctoral School (web) or the administration of the program (see contact data in the program general information section).

Admission to the doctorate program in Geology

The academic commission of the program has to admit the doctoral student. To obtain such admission, the student must contact the academic commission of the program by requesting it at the administrative headquarters of the Doctorate in Geology program.


Preferred profile

The preferred profile, which gives direct access to the Doctorate program in Geology without the need for additional courses, is that of graduates in Geology who have completed the Master in Earth Sciences or Geological Engineering. These degrees may be from any higher education institution with official studies of Spain. Likewise, students from countries outside Spain may be admitted if the accredited degrees in the field of Earth Sciences correspond to a level of training equivalent to that of the official Spanish Master's Degree and entitle them to access Doctoral studies in the country of expedition.

The student must prove the following training requirements:

Capabilities: Search and management of geological documentation, both in the field and laboratory. Fieldwork skills are required, such as the ability to move in open areas, cope with adverse situations (weather, difficult journeys) and field data adquisition on all types of terrain (mountain, plain).

Previous knowledge: Knowledge of Geology at grade level or equivalent in Earth Sciences; know how to use tools to locate and obtain field data: topographic maps, geological maps, compass, GPS; and the specifics of each specialization.

To be admitted to the program, a level B2 of the Common European Framework for Language Recognition (CEFR) is required for those students whose native language is different from that of the program.

Admission criteria and evaluation of merits

In the event that there are more applicants than places, the academic commission will apply the following weighted selection criteria.
- Academic resume of the candidate: type of training and grades obtained: 55%
- Previous research experience. It will be valued to have obtained a collaboration scholarship, participation in practical work (field work, laboratories), articles or communications: 20%
- Scholarships and / or study grants available: 10%
- Other academic merits. Other studies, knowledge of other languages, completion of complementary training courses will be valued: 15%

1a) Related profiles: Income profiles related to the preferred profile are considered:
    · Graduates + Master in Biology
    · Graduates + Master in Geography
    · Graduates + Master in Marine Sciences
    · Graduates + Master in Natural Sciences
    · Graduates + Master in Environmental Sciences
    · Graduates + Master of Science in Antiquity
    · Graduate + Master in Civil Engineering
    · Graduate + Master in Building Engineering
    · Master's Degree in Territorial and Environmental Planning,
    · University Master in Cultural Heritage Management
    · University Master's Degree in Geographic Information Technologies for Spatial Planning: GIS and Remote Sensing

2a) Complements to be taken: Students who request admission to the PD in Geology, having completed the related profiles, may be required to take complementary courses, which will be determined in each case by the academic commission. These courses will preferably taken from the Master in Initiation to Research in Geology from the University of Zaragoza or other Master's degrees in the field of Earth Sciences. The Academic Commission will determine those specific courses to be taken by the applicant based on their entry profile and the line of research in which they are going to carry out their doctoral studies. In no case may they exceed 18 ECTS. Detailed information on the subjects from which the training supplements will be chosen can be found at http://wzar.unizar.es/acad/ posgeol / contenido / master.html

1b) Other profiles: Any other case other than the preferred profile not included in the previous section (“related profiles”),

2b) Complements to be taken: The academic commission of the program will assess the applicant's training path and will establish the appropriate training complements for each case. These complements will consist of a training period of up to 30 ECTS, of subjects related to Geology and research methodology in Geology, to be determined among the subjects of the Degree and the Master in Geology of the academic offer of studies of the University of Zaragoza or, where appropriate, other equivalents, that the academic commission of the Doctoral Program may also consider appropriate. In this regard, the possible proposals of the doctoral student and his / her thesis director may also be taken into account.

Doctoral students, as researchers in training and students of the University of Zaragoza, have to formalize every year the enrollment with the corresponding rights to the academic tutorship while continuing their doctoral training. The enrollment period will be set  in the academiccalendar approved each year by the Doctoral School. 

As a general rule, enrollment will be done online through the Secretaría Virtual ofthe University of Zaragoza. Previously a personal identification number (NIP) and password will have been obtained in the identity management service. Face-to-face registration will be allowed to those who cannot do it online, by going to the doctoral school during public service hours. PhD students must submit every year in which they enroll, documentation about their previous studies, depending on whether they have been taken in countries of the European Education Area or outside that space.

Full and up-to-date information on the enrollment procedure, including key points, is provided on the website of the Doctoral School, as well as prices, discounts and insurance, legalization and translation of documents and some others practical details.

The procedures for the supervision of doctoral students are set in article 11 of Royal Decree 99/2011, which regulates doctoral studies and the rules about Thesis (Reglamento sobre Tesis Doctorales de la Universidad de Zaragoza). The doctoral student admitted to the program has to enrol each academic year in academic tutelage at the University of Zaragoza. The Academic Committee of the program will assign a Thesis Director and a tutor, who may or may not be the same. The Thesis Director will be the person in charge of the overall management of the doctoral student's research tasks, of the coherence and adequacy of the training activities, of the impact and novelty in his/her field of the subject of the doctoral thesis and of the guide in other projects and activities where the doctoral student is involved. The tutor is responsible for the adaptation of the training and the research activity to the principles of the program and the Doctoral School and will ensure the interaction of the doctoral student with the Academic Committee of the program, the body responsible for supervising the progress of the research and training and the authorization of the thesis presentation of each doctoral student of the program.

The supervisory functions of the doctoral students will be documented in the Doctorate Letter which, once the registration is made, will be signed by the doctoral student, its tutor and its director, the program coordinator and the director of the Doctoral School. Those interested can expand the information on the thesis supervision in the administrative headquarters of the program (see contact information in the general information of the program) or by consulting the program coordinator.

The follow-up of the training process leading to the presentation of the doctoral thesis is carried out through the research plan and the doctoral student's document of activities. The research plan is presented before the end of the first year of enrolment and includes, at least, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and the temporal planning to achieve it. The plan may be improved and detailed later and must be endorsed by the Director and the tutor. The document of activities is the register of all the activities -research stays, courses, attendance to congresses, or others- that the doctorate carries out from his enrolment until the presentation of the doctoral thesis. Annually, the Academic Committee of the program will evaluate the follow-up of the research plan together with the document of activities. The positive evaluation will be an essential requirement to continue in the program. In the case of a negative evaluation, the doctoral student must be evaluated again within a maximum period of six months. Those interested can expand this information in the administrative headquarters of the program (see contact information in the general information of the program) or by consulting the program coordinator.

There are no other specific program procedures.

The Doctoral School offers an annual series of voluntary activities for all doctoral students. This formation has a transversal and interdisciplinary nature. The offer is dynamic and covers the following formative aspects: communication (oral and written), access and information management, and skills for a future social and professional performance.  Information about the activities, admission and enrolment can be found in the website of the Doctoral School  (info).

Doctoral students enrolled in doctoral programs benefit from mobility aids established in various national and international calls. The calls for the Erasmus + program stand out.

In the Erasmus + Studies mode, doctoral students can choose a wide range of destinations, since most of the agreements signed by the University of Zaragoza with other universities include places for PhD students of all branches.

In the Erasmus + Stays / Practices in companies modality, PhD students access two calls: the one from the University of Zaragoza and the one carried out by the Iberus International Campus of Excellence for the universities that comprise it, the one from Zaragoza among them.

Other mobility calls are specifically designed for Latin American students and for international stays of students with predoctoral contracts. The mobility of doctoral students of the University of Zaragoza is also encouraged with cotutela agreements signed with foreign universities.

The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza has rules and procedures to achieve its various goals, which have been written with the agreement of the different levels of the Doctoral School, and are published on its website.

The regulations section of the Doctoral School website contains other important regulations, both national and of the University of Zaragoza, such as RD 99/2011 por el que se regulan las enseñanzas oficiales de doctorado, el Reglamento de los Estudios de Doctorado (2012) y el Reglamento sobre tesis doctorales (2014).

Rules of duration and permanence in the doctorate are established in Instrucción de23 de mayo de 2018 de la Escuela de Doctorado relativa al acceso, admisión,dedicación y permanencia en los estudios de doctorado de la Universidad deZaragoza (R.D. 99/2011).

Full-time thesis should be complete in three years, from the date of admission to the doctoral program, although the Academic Committee of the program may authorize the extension of this period for one more year. Part-time doctoral students will have five years from their admission to the presentation of the thesis, and the Academic Committee may authorize an extension for two more years. Exceptionally, an additional year of extension can be added.

PhD candidates may request a change in dedication (full-time / part-time) as well as the temporary withdrawal for justified reasons of the Academic Committee. They can cause a definitive withdrawal and see their file closed in these cases: if the available time to deposit the thesis is exceeded or if they receive two consecutive negative evaluations of the research plan.

These processes are explained in detail on our website (info) and the doctoral students are told how to proceed in cases of temporary withdrawal (info).

The academic year is governed by the deadlines established in the specific Doctoral School´s academic calendar.

This calendar sets the periods of request for entry, admission to the programs, enrollment at the University of Zaragoza, as well as how the students must present every year the research plan and the activities document, deadlines for defending doctoral theses, etc.

The Doctoral School website publishes the calendar of the current course as well as the two previous courses (info).