Frequently Asked Questions
The University of León offers 17 doctoral programmes.
You will be able to develop your research in all fields of knowledge: Arts and Humanities, Sciences, Health Sciences, Social and Legal Sciences or Engineering and Architecture.
There are several ways of accessing doctoral studies: Master’s, Bachelor’s, Diploma of Advanced Studies… each with its own specificities.
Explore how to access the programmes here.
Pre-registration can be done through the following platform.
For the exact dates for the current academic year, please consult the School Calendar.
Provided that your research allows it, and with the approval of both your tutor and directors, as well as the Academic Committee, you will be able to carry out your doctorate at a distance.
You can access the PhD with qualifications obtained outside the EHEA. These must be submitted duly apostilled in accordance with the Hague Convention or, where appropriate, with the recognition of a Spanish Embassy. In addition, a certificate must be presented accrediting that the degree gives access to the doctorate in the country where it was issued.
All of the above must be submitted in an official translation, in the event that they have been issued in a language other than Spanish.
By accessing the PhD offer of the University of León, you will be able to consult the existing research lines in each programme. The researchers responsible for each of them are listed. Evaluate the affinity of your research with the existing lines, and ask the researchers for this document.
You can consult their contact details in the Directory of the University of León.
Once you have been admitted to the programme, you will have one month to submit your original documentation or certified copy, and to complete your enrolment.
Students who, in the opinion of the Academic Committee, do not have sufficient research experience, will be required to undertake complementary training. These will consist of passing a certain number of ECTS credits of a Master’s degree at the University of León.
Access to the programme will be conditional on passing these ECTS credits, which can be taken at any time before the defence of the doctoral thesis, although it is always advisable to take them as soon as possible after access.
Public doctoral enrolment fees are published annually by decree of the Autonomous Community. The cost is around €400, to which must be added €32.93, for the first registration, as a registration fee.
Depending on the student’s circumstances, the final fees may vary slightly, for reasons of school insurance and university services.
There is a variety of grants available for the development of doctoral studies, from the University, the Autonomous Community, the State…
You can find more information on the subject in the Scholarships and Grants section of our website.
It is compulsory for all students at the University of León to be insured against any contingency arising from their research activity. For students under 28 years of age, school insurance is included in the registration fee. Students over 28 years of age will have to take out external insurance. There are several possibilities of external insurance depending on the student’s circumstances, in our website you can consult the insurance that must be taken out in each case.
Doctoral enrolment must be renewed annually. Now, from the second enrolment onwards, you can renew your enrolment online using Automatrícula. Simply, during the enrolment period , you will have to access the Doctoral Studies Management platform, following a series of simple steps.
Part-time doctoral studies can be requested when pre-registering, or at any time during the doctoral programme, by means of an application form. Documentation accrediting the need for this circumstance must always be attached.
The duration of doctoral studies varies depending on the modality. If it is a full-time programme, it lasts 4 years, up to a maximum of 5 years. If it is a part-time programme, it lasts 7 years, up to a maximum of 8 years.
Do I have the possibility to extend my stay in the doctoral programme?
Yes, both full-time and part-time doctoral students are entitled to apply for a one-year extension.
Upon admission to a doctoral programme, the Academic Committee will assign you a tutor and at least one supervisor specialised in the appropriate field of research.
The supervision commitment is a “contract” between doctoral student, tutor and directors, in which all parties undertake to carry out the tasks inherent to the position they hold. It will be given to the PhD student at the first enrolment, and each time a variation in the above-mentioned parties is requested.
The Research Plan is a document that will include the methodology to be used and the objectives to be achieved, as well as the means and time schedule to achieve them. This plan may be improved and detailed throughout your stay in the programme and must be endorsed by the Director and the tutor.
The Research Plan must be submitted during the academic year, always before the May deadline.
In the event that your Research Plan is assessed negatively, you will be sent an email, urging you to make the necessary changes, giving you a period of 6 months to do so. Failure to do so will result in the cancellation of the registration.
This is an additional distinction to his doctoral degree, reflecting the development of his research outside the national territory.
To be eligible, it will be necessary to carry out a stay of at least 3 months in a foreign university or research organisation. In addition, at the time of submission of the thesis, it must be reported by two international experts.
This is an additional distinction to their doctoral degree. To be eligible for it, a contract must be signed between the doctoral student and a public or private company. In addition, the doctoral student must participate in an industrial research or experimental development project carried out in the company or public administration in which the service is provided, which may not be a university.
Carrying out the thesis on a joint supervision basis involves obtaining a degree from the University of León and from another university by means of an agreement. The doctoral student may join an existing agreement or propose a new agreement between universities. The conditions for participation are set out in the aforementioned agreement, and vary slightly from one university to another.
To apply for the Diploma of Advanced Studies or the Certificate of Research Proficiency, all you have to do is send an e-mail to doctorado@unileon.es. We will indicate the procedure and the account number where you can pay the corresponding fees.
Yes, if you are interested, please consult the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
Once you have been admitted to the doctoral programme, you will be assigned a tutor and at least one thesis supervisor, assigned by the Academic Committee from among experts related to your field of research.
A doctoral thesis can be supervised by a maximum of 3 thesis supervisors. To apply for inclusion, you only need to fill in the form you will find in the “Forms” section of our website, and send the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
If, at any time during your research, there is a substantial change in your research, and this implies a change in the topic previously established in your thesis, you must request approval. You will have to fill in the form you will find on our website, and send the request to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
In the event that the change of topic does not involve a substantial change in the research, and it is a change in the wording of the topic, it will not be necessary to submit the previous application.
To apply for any type of extension of the stay, you will have to download the application form from the “Forms” section of our website, fill it in, as appropriate, and send the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
There are two options when applying for a temporary leave of absence from the doctorate:
1.- Request for temporary withdrawal for a full academic year: this must be requested at the beginning of the academic year, and always before enrolment has been formalised. This will paralyse your stay for the full academic year.
2.- Request for temporary leave limited in time: if you are enrolled in the doctorate, and a contingency arises during the same, for example, a sick leave or maternity leave, you can request the suspension of the stay for the entire time that the contingency is maintained over time. It will be necessary to attach documentation that accredits this circumstance, and that limits it in time.
In any of the above cases, you must fill in the appropriate form that you will find in the “Forms” section of our website, and send the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School, together with the supporting documentation, if applicable.
To apply for an international stay you must fill in the appropriate form that you will find in the “Forms” section of our website, and send the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School, together with the letter of acceptance from the University or Research Organisation that has accepted your application.
To request a transfer from one doctoral programme to another, you must request authorisation from the Academic Committees of origin and destination, filling in the appropriate forms on our website, and send the request to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
The procedure for depositing theses is regulated by Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, which regulates official doctoral studies. In addition to the above, it completes and specifies:
1.- For students enrolled for the first time in the academic year 16/17 and before: “Reglamento de las enseñanzas oficiales de doctorado y del título de doctorado de la Universidad de León”, approved by agreement of the Governing Council on 25 September 2012.
2.- For students enrolled for the first time in the academic year 17/18 and subsequent years: “Regulations for the defence of the Doctoral Thesis at the University of León”, approved by agreement of the Governing Council on 9 November 2017.
You will have access to them on our website.
Due to the large number of procedures and authorisations necessary to carry out the defence of a doctoral thesis, the Doctoral School recommends that you deposit your thesis at least 2 months before the date on which you plan to carry out the defence. This will give you enough time to solve any inconvenience that may arise during the process.
Depending on the type of doctoral thesis to be deposited, a different set of documents will be required for each case. You can consult all the specifics of your case on our website. In any case, there is a series of documents common to all modalities:
1.- Complete thesis file.
2.- Archiving of the Thesis for publication (removing all content that may infringe copyright) 3.
4.- Curriculum Vitae
5.- Contribution: scientific article published during the development of your doctoral thesis.
6.- 2 Reports from national experts on your doctoral thesis. In the case of the International Mention, the experts must be international.
Items 4 and 5 are only necessary for students who have enrolled for the first time in the academic year 17/18 and subsequent years.
This is the document to be submitted by the Directors of a doctoral thesis, proposing the appointment of experts to form part of a Tribunal. It must consist of 7 members, 3 full members and 4 substitutes. In the section “Forms” we have a model to be filled in.
Among the full members, there may only be one member from the University of León. There is no maximum number of alternates.
The documentation required, in addition to that common to all doctoral theses, to defend in the Compendium of Publications modality is as follows:
- List of published articles (minimum 3)
- Waiver of the co-authors to use these articles as part of another doctoral thesis. We have a document for non-doctors and another for doctors.
- Publications report.
- Impact factor report of publications.
Yes, you can defend your thesis by videoconference, with the participation of all or only some of the participants in the defence. To do so, you must send a letter to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School, addressed to the Director, requesting the defence by this means.
This is an assessment of the suitability and novelty of a doctoral thesis by a pair of experts in the subject of the study. These specialists will be appointed by the academic committee of the doctoral programme, having heard the supervisor(s).
On our website, we have sample forms to be used as a template.
They may not be a member of the panel that judges a thesis:
1.- Tutor and thesis supervisors
2.- Persons who incur in causes for abstention or disqualification according to Law 40/2015, of 1 October, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.
3.- Experts who have issued reports on the thesis.
4.- Co-authors of scientific articles related to the thesis.
If you undertake a stay with the intention of obtaining the International Mention, this must be for at least 3 months. This does not necessarily have to be continuous, nor in the same institution.
Yes, you can request the non-publication of your Thesis for one year, which can be extended for a maximum of one more year.
The way to apply is by filling in the appropriate form that you will find in the “Forms” section of our website, and sending the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
Once you have defended your thesis, and completed all the necessary procedures to close your file, you will be able to apply for the issue of your Doctorate Degree by the University of León together with the European Diploma Supplement.
You can apply by filling in the appropriate form that you will find in the “Forms” section of our website, sending the application to the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School and paying the corresponding fee, €256.
Teseo is a database with information on doctoral theses provided by all universities since 1976. The system collects the information of the doctoral thesis through a thesis file and associated files.
You must register your doctoral thesis and, as a minimum, complete the fields relating to the summary of the doctoral thesis and the keywords. The rest of the fields will be completed by the Administrative Unit of the Doctoral School.
