This doctoral program in logistics, developed in Aragon with an international vocation, generates and consolidates lines of research focused on improving the competitiveness of companies.
The current doctoral program called "PhD Program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management" at the University of Zaragoza is an internationally recognized doctoral program that allows students to have an academic experience internationally within the framework of the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program.
The program is taught under the responsibility of the Zaragoza Logistics Center, a Research Institute attached to the University of Zaragoza.
Students work closely with our center to create new knowledge in fields of interest such as supply chain coordination, inventory management, supply chain finance and management, risk and security, and innovation supply chain.
This program follows the highest international quality standards for doctoral studies, with a very rigorous admission process, continuous performance monitoring, in the face of comprehensive examination and thesis defense, which allows graduates to obtain teaching positions in leading universities around the world or become innovation leaders of international companies. Here lies the main reason for the reduced number of students in this doctoral program if we compare it with other programs at Spanish universities.
The main objective of the Doctoral Program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management is the development of excellent doctoral students who go on to pursue important careers in research and education. An implicit objective of the promoters of ZLC and of this doctoral program is to project the excellence of Aragón in the training of human resources in logistics at an international level.
The exit profile allows graduates to obtain teaching positions at leading universities around the world or become innovation leaders of international companies as they will develop skills to create new knowledge in fields of interest such as supply chain coordination supply, inventory management, finance and supply chain management, risk and security, and supply chain innovation.
The students of the program acquire the basic competences indicated in article 5 of Royal Decree 99/2011 on doctorate. They are the following:
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:
00 - Additional skills are not considered
The requirements for access to doctoral studies are set by the RD 99/2011, of 28 January. In general, access to the programme is open to those who hold an official Spanish Bachelor's and Master's degree or equivalent, having passed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in these two degrees.
Students with a foreign degree issued by a country included in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) may apply for admission directly (info). If the degree was issued by a non-EHEA country, the application for admission with a foreign degree that has not been recognised (info) must be submitted.
Interested parties can find more information about acceso and admission at the Doctoral School section and at the administrative office of the programme (see contact details in the general information section of the programme).
Interested students can obtain further information about
Oferta de plazas: 8
Offer of places: 8
Admission to the Doctoral Program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
The Academic Commission of the Doctoral Program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management is the body that approves the admission of a student to the program.
To apply for admission to the doctoral program there are two application rounds throughout each academic year.
These rounds are published on the Zaragoza Logistics Center website. www.zlc.edu.es Applicants must submit the following information:
1. Application sheet
Online through the Zaragoza Logistics Center website (www.zlc.edu.es/education/mit-zaragoza-phd/) and the University of Zaragoza website (wzar.unizar.es/servicios/docto/).
2. ERG
Students must submit the results of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE); standard exam that constitutes one of the admission requirements in
graduate schools in different countries. This exam aims to measure a student's verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills.
3.TOEFL
As the Doctoral Program is taught entirely in English, applicants from non-English speaking countries must prove their command of spoken and written English by taking the TOEFL exam (Test Of English as a Foreign Language). This exam assesses how the student combines listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills to perform academic tasks.
4. Files and titles
The records and titles of all undergraduate and graduate programs completed by the student are requested.
5. Resume
Previous professional experience is relevant but not essential.
6. Letters of recommendation
Each student must submit three letters of recommendation from their professors, supervisors or tutors, preferably from both the university where they did their previous studies and from industry.
7. Motivation for taking the Doctoral Program
Reasons for joining this program must be included. The applicant must prepare a statement of goals and objectives clearly presenting her views. You should collect your particular interests, whether experimental, theoretical, or topic-oriented, and show how your training and this program reinforces your interests. You should explain your long-term career goals. This statement should be no more than 500 words.
8. Research area motivation
You must submit a motivation letter - of no more than 500 words - towards the area or line of research of your interest. You can cite examples of your work experience and previous training in the area of interest.
Preferred profiles:
The entry profile for this program corresponds to:
Graduates in Engineering (five-year Engineering or Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Engineering adapted to the EHEA) as well as graduates of degrees (bachelor's degrees, or degrees and master's degrees in the field of Economics, who accredit previous knowledge in logistics research methodologies and supply chain management.
The Academic Committee will also consider the admission of students from another master's degree with comparable content taught by any institution of the European Higher Education Area or from foreign countries if they allow access to doctoral studies in the country of issue.
Selection criteria:
With all the documentation provided by the student, the following will be evaluated:
15% GRE test result
15% TOEFL test result
15% Previous professional experience in logistics and supply chain management and related areas
5% Previous knowledge in research methodologies in logistics and supply chain management and related areas
30% academic record
15% Personal motivation to develop a doctorate and motivation for research on this subject
5% Other contributions of your resume
Selection process
The steps of the selection process are as follows:
1. Evaluation of applications received
2. The Academic Commission of this Doctoral Program, made up of the coordinator and three professors, scores each of the selection criteria from 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 the best). Each reviewer gives a single final score after reviewing the entire application. The final grade, also from 1 to 10, determines the decision as follows:
a. [8.5 - 10]: Immediate pre-admission
b. [7.5 - 8.5): Pre-admit standby
c. [6.5 - 7.5): Waiting list
d. Below 6.5: Rejected
3. Interview with previously admitted applicants (according to the aforementioned criteria, English, professional experience, personal motivation for the doctorate and for the area of logistics and supply chain management, previous knowledge in research, as well as as well as other considerations about the adequacy of your profile).
4. Selection of the candidates.
This program follows the highest international quality standards for doctoral studies, with a very rigorous admission process, so that in the selection process there are applicants who usually meet all the necessary training requirements. Even so, the program establishes a previous year of stay at the Zaragoza Logistics Center, to follow specific courses that are offered by this center and that can be consulted on the program's own website, and that allow the doctoral student to complete their specific training.
Doctoral students, as researchers in training and students of the University of Zaragoza, must register annually with the corresponding fees for the academic supervision of the doctoral programme while they continue their doctoral training. The enrolment period will be the one established for this purpose in the calendar of the corresponding academic year.
As a general rule, enrolment will be done online through the Virtual Secretariat of the University of Zaragoza, having previously obtained a personal identification number (PIN) and password from the identity management service of the University of Zaragoza. Those who are unable to enrol online will be allowed to do so in person by going to the Doctoral School Section during opening hours. For the first, second and subsequent enrolments, doctoral students will have to present various documents about their previous studies, depending on whether they have been studied in countries within or outside the European Education Area.
The website of the Doctoral School provides complete and updated information about the enrolment procedure including key points, prices, discounts and insurance, legalisation and translation of documents and various practical details.
The procedures for the supervision of students on the programme are set out in article 11 of Royal Decree 99/2011 regulating doctoral studies. Thesis supervision is also covered by Title I of the Regulations on Doctoral Theses of the University of Zaragoza.
Doctoral students admitted to the programme will register annually for academic supervision at the University of Zaragoza. The academic committee of the programme will assign a thesis supervisor and a tutor, who may or may not coincide. The thesis supervisor will be responsible for the overall management of the student's research tasks, for the coherence and suitability of the training activities, for the impact and novelty of the subject matter of the doctoral thesis in his/her field, and for guiding the planning and, where appropriate, its adaptation to that of other projects and activities in which the student is enrolled. The tutor is responsible for ensuring that the training and research activity is in line with the principles of the programme and the Doctoral School and will ensure the interaction of the PhD student with the programme's Academic Committee, the body responsible for supervising the progress of the research and training and for authorising the presentation of the thesis of each PhD student on the programme.
The supervision of doctoral students will be set out in the Doctoral Charter which, once enrolment has been completed, will be signed by the doctoral student, his/her tutor and supervisor, the programme coordinator and the director of the School for Doctoral Studies. For further information on thesis supervision, please contact the programme's administrative office (see contact details in the programme's general information) or the programme coordinator.
The mechanisms for monitoring doctoral students are in accordance with the provisions of Article 11. Doctoral supervision and monitoring of RD 99/2011, of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies.
Before the end of the first year of enrolment, the PhD student must present a document that includes the research plan and the personal training plan. This may be improved and detailed throughout their stay on the programme and must be endorsed by the supervisor and tutor.
The research plan shall include, at least, the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and timetable for achieving them.
The personal training plan will contain a forecast of the different training activities to be carried out during the doctoral thesis (courses, seminars, mobility actions, etc.).
The activities document is the record of all the activities - stays, courses, attendance at conferences, etc. - that the PhD student carries out from enrolment in the doctoral programme until the submission of the doctoral thesis.
These documents, as well as the director's and tutor's reports, are managed through the doctoral management application, SIGMA.
The academic committee of the programme will annually evaluate the progress of the doctoral student in terms of his/her research plan and the activities document together with the reports that the director and tutor must issue for this purpose. A positive evaluation will be a prerequisite for continuing on the programme. In the event of a negative evaluation, the PhD student must be evaluated again within a maximum period of six months. In the event that significant shortcomings continue to occur, the Academic Committee must issue a reasoned report, after hearing the interested party, and the doctoral student will be definitively withdrawn from the programme.
Once the thesis has been completed, the PhD student must proceed to its deposit and defence in accordance with the provisions set out in the thesis regulations of the University of Zaragoza and in the procedure that develops it, available on the EDUZ regulations website
People interested in pursuing doctoral studies in this program can obtain information on the Internet, through the Zaragoza Logistics Center website, in education, in the MIT-Zaragoza doctorate section, on the website of the Doctoral Program in Logistics and Supply chain management.
https://www.zlc.edu.es/es/educacion/doctorado-en-logistica-y-gestion-de-la-cadena-de-suministro/
The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza offers its doctoral students various transversal training activities focused on facilitating the acquisition of the necessary skills to actively participate in the knowledge society and to successfully manage in a complex and changing labour market. The activities in module 1, Communication skills, help PhD students to effectively disseminate research and its results and to share knowledge in an attractive way, both in writing and orally. Module 2, Scientific Information Management, provides training in searching, processing and managing bibliographic information. Module 3 includes activities that improve the doctoral student's readiness to manage in a professional environment. The activities in module 4, Research and Society, provide doctoral students with a space for reflection on issues of interest to participate fully and responsibly in today's diverse, digital and global society. Module 5 contains activities on instrumental or technical aspects necessary to apply cutting-edge research methodologies.
The training offer is completed with online activities for all G9 doctoral students, teaching and research training activities organised by the Institute of Education Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and with those carried out within the framework of inter-university and international Doctoral Conferences.
The complete offer for each academic year is published here.
Title: Impartation of seminars They will work on and discuss the subjects of the doctoral student's research. Debate of up to thirty minutes with the audience, made up of other doctoral students and doctors participating in the Doctoral Program. These dynamics will allow the student to collect suggestions and aspects to reinforce in their research, as well as compare results from other researchers in the area.
Duration: 10 hours
Control procedures: The doctoral student prepares a brief report based on the content of the seminar given and the comments and suggestions received by the assistants, researchers and professors from among the doctors of the Doctoral Program that will be evaluated by the tutor. Each record will be incorporated into the Activities Document of the participating doctoral student.
Title: PhD Summer Academy This is an intense period of learning, debate and discovery in which doctoral students from this program and other guests, program professors, world-renowned guest professors and editors of the main publications in this area , work in seminars around the fundamental concepts and the latest trends in supply chain management. .
Duration: 90 hours
Control procedures: The professors in charge of carrying out this activity will propose an application work that, together with the dynamics of the courses, will serve to evaluate the training of doctorates. For this activity, the Academic Committee will appoint a professor who coordinates the sessions, who will complement the evaluation of the training. Each record will be incorporated into the Activities Document of the participating doctoral student.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, ZLC has decided to cancel the 13th edition of the Summer Academy for PhD Students in Logistics and Supply Chain Management due to the Covid-19 situation. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. For any query and/or refund, send an email to phdacademy@zlc.edu.es.
Title: Research stay at the Center for Transport and Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) Student research stay at MIT for a period of four months. This activity aims to complete the student's research training through interaction with the Center for Transportation and Logistics research group at MIT, as well as with the companies with which they work and participate in the activities that take place there.
Duration: 600 hours
Control procedures: Through reports of the stay, developed on the one hand by the doctorate describing the activity carried out and the research results achieved and on the other, a report issued by the host researcher or, failing that, by the thesis supervisor, and endorsed by the Academic Committee. These reports will be included in the Doctoral Student Activities Document.
Title: Mobility Actions In addition to the research stays at the Center for Transport and Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States), they may be completed with stays in other research groups at other universities with which the program has a relationship narrow or in national or international companies, subject to the availability of financing. Zaragoza Logistics Center will annually carry out an economic forecast to support this research period. The student must attend 6 seminars throughout their training. The recommended distribution will be two a year for TC students and one a year for TP students, except in the third or fourth year that should attend two. .
Duration: specific in each case
Control procedures: The Academic Committee will appoint a rapporteur professor for each activity, who will be in charge of evaluating the training and use of the doctorates. The interventions of each doctoral student in the sessions of lines of research other than that of the interested party will be particularly valued.
Title: Attendance at conferences and presentation of papers Attendance at national or international conferences of the specialty, subject to the availability of funding, and presentation of papers. These include: Workshops organized by most of these congresses, where training activities and workshops are proposed for doctoral students: Logistop and/or Alice, International Congresses: EUROMA, INFOMRS, POMS, MSOM, Academy of Management, among others.
Duration: 48 hours
Control procedures: Prior to participating in the congress, the doctoral student will present to his tutor the objectives pursued by attending the congress, as well as a proposal for the presentation of the research results. After the congress, the doctoral student will prepare a report about the activity carried out in the congress, including a summary of the most outstanding results in his opinion of those presented at the congress, also completed by the relevant documentation (attendance certificates, certificate of having personally presented the paper), which will be evaluated by the tutor. Each record will be incorporated into the Activities Document of the participating doctoral student.
Title: Transversal Skills Series of courses or workshops to promote the acquisition of transversal skills. The courses may be combined with those offered by the Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza. This training activity will allow students to develop and enrich their communication skills in the scientific-technical field. .
Duration: 18 hours
Control procedures: The professors in charge of carrying out this activity will propose an application work that, together with the dynamics of these courses, will serve to evaluate the training of doctorates. Each record will be incorporated into the Activities Document of the participating doctoral student.
Doctoral students enrolled on doctoral programmes benefit from the mobility grants established in various national and international calls for applications. The calls of the Erasmus+ programme stand out. In the Modality Erasmus+ Studies, doctoral students can choose from a wide range of destinations as most of the agreements signed by the University of Zaragoza with other universities include places for doctoral students from all branches.
This mobility is carried out in accordance with the procedure Q-312_1. Procedure for the Management of the International Mobility of Undergraduate, Master and PhD Students.
With regard to the Erasmus+ Internships mode, doctoral students have access to two calls: the University of Zaragoza's own call and the one carried out by the Campus Iberus of International Excellence for the universities that are part of it, including Zaragoza.
Other interesting mobility calls are the Erasmus+ Short Mobility, the UNITA mobility, the external internships, those specifically aimed at Ibero-American students and those that finance international stays for pre-doctoral students, among others.
The mobility of doctoral students at the University of Zaragoza is also encouraged through the signing of co-supervision agreements with several foreign universities.
The Doctoral School of the University of Zaragoza has rules, regulations and procedures to facilitate the achievement of its various objectives. It is worth highlighting the Internal Regulations of the Doctoral School, the Instruction of the Doctoral School: Requirements for access, admission, dedication and permanence in the doctoral studies of the University of Zaragoza adapted to R.D. 99/2011. 99/2011; the Procedure for the elaboration of the Report on the Quality of Doctoral Studies and its different Programmes (ICED); the Code of Good Practices for the School and the doctoral programmes; the Doctoral Charter; the Procedure and model agreement to request the mention of doctorate industrial in the thesis or the Regulation of extraordinary doctoral awards. The aforementioned documents, drawn up with the participation and consensus of the various bodies of the Doctoral School, are published on its website.
The regulations section of the Doctoral School's website contains other important regulatory references for doctoral studies such as RD 99/2011 regulating official doctoral studies, the Regulations for Doctoral Studies (2012) and the Regulations on doctoral theses (2014), both from the University of Zaragoza.
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).
Doctoral activity in an academic year is governed by the deadlines established in the specific doctoral academic calendar. This calendar, which is approved well in advance, sets the periods for application for access, admission to programmes, registration at the University of Zaragoza, presentation by doctoral students of the research plan and the activities document, as well as the deadlines for the defence of doctoral theses.
The website of the Doctoral School publishes the calendar for the current academic year, as well as for the two previous years.
Zaragoza Logistics Center, together with the University of Zaragoza and the Departments, Institutes, research groups and professors involved in
In collaboration with the doctoral program, they offer the necessary resources and services to carry out doctoral theses.
It should be noted that given the topics to be investigated around Logistics and Supply Chain Management, laboratories with large material infrastructures are not required.
These resources include the following.
1. Laboratories
ZLC is directly related to the development of PLAZA - the largest logistics park in Europe. With its facilities at the center of this logistics park, the research center sits in the middle of a large-scale laboratory whereby it will serve as a model for close cooperation between industry and academia. Doctoral students have a private office equipped with all the necessary office supplies at their disposal. In addition, the center has all the computer equipment, internet, accessories, new technologies, so that the research staff can carry out their research and their publications, as well as communicate with collaborators from all over the world.
the world.
In addition, the center's servers and computer network allow researchers to be able to work inside and outside the necessary office systems and specific software to carry out projects.
Among the experimental means and computations available to the students of the doctoral program, the following means stand out in accordance with the nature of the activity to be investigated:
1. Three virtualized servers
2. Advanced simulation methods, software and hardware
3. Optimization licenses in logistics and transport:
2. Libraries and documentation
Researchers and doctoral students at Zaragoza Logistics Center have access to the center's library, which brings together the best specialized bibliographic collection at a national level, made up of 1,622 books on this subject. In addition, the students of the Program have access to the MIT online libraries, which stand out especially for being one of the most sophisticated and complete digital libraries in the world, which includes access to documentary collections, bibliographic databases and publications. scientific, related to the doctoral program.
The University has the university libraries with extensive and easily accessible hours that can be used by the students of the program. Libraries offer students a wide range of services such as book loans, access to paper and electronic collections, computer spaces, and individual and group work spaces.
3. Administrative support for doctoral students
Zaragoza Logistics Center has an administrative support office for the Doctorate program, which is complemented by the accounting, human resources and IT teams. Special mention should be made of the ZLC OTRI office, which is recognized according to its registration number
No. 218 since 2008 and which is in charge of facilitating those calls for research projects at local, regional, national and international levels, as well as the interconnection with those companies with which researchers, professors and doctoral students collaborate.
In addition, the Section of the Doctoral School is the unit of the University of Zaragoza in charge of providing technical and administrative support to the university community linked to doctoral studies.
4 International Relations Service
Through the administrative support of ZLC and the reception offices for international students of the University of Zaragoza and the International Relations Service, it promotes mobility, welcomes international doctoral students and facilitates their integration into the University.
International doctoral students are provided with support and information about the city, accommodation, courses in Spanish and other languages, medical assistance, and grants and scholarships, among other aspects.
5 Student Mobility Center
The University of Zaragoza, through the Office of the Vice President for Scientific Policy, forms part of the EURAXESS European Network of Aragon, an information point that provides personalized assistance to both foreign researchers who travel to Aragon to carry out their research work,
as well as Aragonese researchers who are interested in moving abroad temporarily. The International ZLC office and the EURAXESS network provide support on issues such as procedures for obtaining visas, residence cards and their renewals, validation of university degrees, job offers, Social Security and health care, schooling and other useful information for facilitate the displacement and integration of the researcher in the country of destination.
Detailed information can be found at:
http://www.unizar.es/gobierno/vr_investigacion/sgi/eramore/index.html
6 Promotion of mobility
The mobility of doctoral students is explicitly included as one of the action instruments of both the ZLC and the ZLC itself.
Zaragoza's University. Given the marked international nature of ZLC and as part of the doctoral program, students spend research stays at MIT, complemented by stays at other typically American universities, as well as presentations at international conferences. For this purpose, the doctoral student has a travel bag for this purpose.
The Doctoral School and its Administrative Section will support the participation in calls for mobility grants for Doctoral students.
It is the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program, together with the Academic Commission, who coordinates the Mobility actions, to ensure that the student has what is necessary at the destination University for their training and research.
Some indicators of this recent activity are:
-83% of the students come from other countries.
-100% have carried out research stays in other countries during their doctorate, enjoying travel grants to attend congresses and seminars.
-100% of the program's professors have fully completed their doctorate, or have carried out research stays at prestigious foreign universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University or the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, among others .
Doctoral students, during the planned research stays at CTL-MIT and explicitly included in the collaboration agreement, will have access to the research resources of the destination center, which will be governed by the access rules of said center.