How quality is ensured
The doctoral program has a quality management system designed to monitor and supervise the doctoral training and its results. The system involves different agents which act as established by the Procedimiento para la elaboración del Informe de la Calidad de los Estudios de Doctorado y de sus diferentes Programas (ICED)
The University Doctorate Commission is in charge of ensuring the global quality of doctoral studies at the University of Zaragoza. Among its functions is the preparation of the Annual Report on the Quality of Doctoral Studies and Programs. This report consists of the following sections: Analysis of global indicators of the quality of doctoral studies as a whole and by fields of knowledge; analysis of the quality of the programs under analysis in the year of the report and recommendations for improving the quality of the programs.
The Academic Commission of each Doctoral Program is the responsible for its definition, updating, quality and coordination. In addition, the program has a Program Quality Evaluation Commission, formed by the Academic Commission, two PhD students chosen among the students of the program and a representative of the Administration and Services Personnel. The commission is chaired by the Program Coordinator. This commission prepares the Program Quality Assessment Report (IECP) for consideration by the University Doctoral Commission. To carry out the report, the following aspects are analysed access, admission and enrollment processes in the program; training activities offered to doctoral students; mobility of doctoral students of the program; theses addressed in the program and other results of the training; evaluation of the degree of satisfaction of the different agents; improvement proposals.
In addition, and if this is the case, the program will apply other mechanisms and procedures for quality assurance provided in its verification report.
To facilitate the monitoring and improvement of the program, the coordinator must prepare the Innovation and Improvement Plan of the program, which identifies aspects susceptible to adjustment in the organisation, planning and development of the objectives of the program and propose suitable actions of innovation and improvement.