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Admission: New Doctoral Studies regulated by RD 99/2011

 

 

In general, to gain access to an official PhD programme the candidate must hold a Spanish degree or equivalent and a Master's degree.

Access may be granted where the following cases apply:

  • Hold an official Spanish university degrees or equivalent Spanish degrees provided that at least 300 ECTS credits have been passed in all of these courses and accredit level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education.
  • Hold a title obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems belonging to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), without the need for its homologation, which accredits a level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework provided that said title authorizes access to studies of PhD in the issuing country. This admission will not imply, in any case, the homologation of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than access to PhD studies.
  • Hold a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems outside the EHEA, without the need for its homologation, after verification by the university that it accredits a level of training equivalent to that of the official Spanish university Master's degree and that it authorizes in the country of issuance of the title for access to PhD studies. This admission will not imply, in any case, the homologation of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than access to doctoral studies.
  • Holder of of another title of Doctor.
  • Likewise, university graduates who, after obtaining a place in training in the corresponding entrance test to specialized health training places, have passed with a positive evaluation of at least two years of training in a program to obtain the Official title of one of the specialties in Health Sciences.


Required documentation to be attached to your application for admission

- of the previous studies that can give you access to the doctorate. Consult what documentation and how to attach it.

- a photograph

- DNI/NIE/if you are a foreign student, an authentic copy of the Passport, if you do not have the TIE/NIE card.

- Also consult the information of the doctoral program you have chosen, in the section Documentation for admission, it will indicate the documentation that you must attach.

- In case you have a functional diversity equal to or greater than 33%, in order to apply to the permanence regime in the program, you must attach, to the application for admission, the certificate certifying this condition.

 

Admission

The candidate who wants to access a doctoral program must apply for admission to the academic committee of the doctoral program through the online service and follow the procedure established by the coordination or administrative management responsible for the doctoral program, regarding the proposal of tutor and director of the thesis. The candidate must also propose, in the application, if he/she wants to do the thesis full time or part time, here you will find the information about the dedication regime.

Admission to the doctoral program is decided by the rector.

Check the periods in which you can apply for admission online in the  information of the doctoral program. 

You will find information about the academic tutor and the direction of the thesis in the section “Lines and direction” of each doctoral program. According to the indications of the program chosen in the application form, you must attach the document “Endorsement/acceptance of direction and tutoring” to the application. This document must be signed by each person who has accepted. In the notification of admission to the program you will be assigned the tutor, the direction of the thesis and the line of research. You will also be assigned the regime of permanence (full-time or part-time) and, if applicable, it will be indicated if you must take complementary courses in the first year.

Before starting the online application check the access requirements, and in the section on Mandatory documentation to attach to the application, what documentation you must have to attach to the application.

We recommend that you check this video before starting the application  in this link to the Spanish version (video in Spanish; click on the CC button to display the English subtitles):

 
Summary of the steps to follow in the online service

1. To access the application you need a university identification number (NIU) and a password. To obtain them:

  •  If you are not a UAB student, enter your identification data to register.
  • If you are or have been a UAB student but do not remember your NIU number and/or do not remember your password, please re-enter all your identification data to retrieve them.

2. Make the application, select the doctoral program you are interested in. We recommend that you have the documentation required by the program ready.

3. Enter your personal and academic data in the different sections of the application. Your name(s) and surname(s) must be the same as those on your DNI, TIE/NIE/passport. You must attach the necessary personal and academic documents to the application. The documents are attached in .pdf, .jpg or .doc format (maximum 4 MB). Failure to attach the documents requested by the program may result in the rejection of your application for admission.

4. If you need an early admission, before the date of resolution indicated in the calendar, and motivated by the application or award of a scholarship, you must indicate it in the comments field when you apply, as well as indicate the name of the scholarship. The program coordinator, depending on the situation, will resolve your early admission, if applicable.

5. Save the application on the last screen of the online process. If you wish, you can download the application receipt. You will receive the resolution of the application by e-mail to the address you have indicated in the application.

6. You can check the status of your request by entering the same application.

 

Consult some indications that may be useful for you to pre-register online:

A) What to do if you have taken a master's degree in Spain and you do not find it in the list of masters that are listed in the university where you studied it?

If you have a master's degree (official) in a Spanish university and when you indicate the university does not appear in the list of masters, you can indicate as follow:
Considerations for filling in personal information

  1. Choose the option "Master obtained outside Spain".
  2. In the country selection popup screen, enter "Spain" and search for the university (you can use * to facilitate the search, for example: * Rioja *).

In the field of studies indicate the name of the studies you have taken (for example: "Master in Information Technology")

B) What to do if you do not find the foreign university in the list of the country where you have studied? You must select, provisionally, another university in the country and in the remarks field of the application form indicate the name of the university where you obtained your degree. Also send an email to ed.admisiones@uab.cat to request the registration of your university. Once the registration is done, the Doctoral School will make the change in your application

C) Considerations for filling in personal data:

- In the institutional e-mail section, if you do not have it indicated, you must add your personal e-mail address.

- As for the addresses, you have to include both, the usual one and the one during the course. If you do not already know the latter, you must indicate the same address that you have indicated in the usual address.

- Regarding the postal code of birth, if you were born in a Spanish town that has more than one code, you can indicate any of them. If the town of birth is a foreign town, you must enter the code 99999 and in the description indicate the town.

D) You must indicate if the studies that give you access to the doctorate have been completed or not. If at the moment of applying for admission you are not in possession of the corresponding degree or substitute certificate, because you have not completed these studies, you must indicate this in the Academic Data section by checking the option “pending completion” and once you have filled in this field, click on the following button to continue with the online application process.

E) If you apply for admission to more than one UAB doctoral program, the application will retrieve the information of the mandatory documentation that you have indicated in the first application. If the second application asks for other documents, you must attach them and indicate them as optional documents.

F) If you choose the option of doing the doctorate part-time, you must attach this application with the mandatory documentation of the doctoral program.

G) If you attach the documentation according to what is indicated in this information: See what documentation and how to attach it, you will not have to submit the documentation for enrollment. If you do not attach it as indicated and your admission has been resolved, you must submit it before you can self-enroll.

H) Language of the documentation. The documentation can be provided in Catalan, Spanish or English. Documentation issued in French, Italian or Portuguese can be translated at the Language Service of the UAB. The interested party must be responsible for this procedure and the costs involved. Documentation issued in other languages must be accompanied by the corresponding translation into Catalan, Spanish or English by a sworn translator, by any diplomatic or consular representation of the Spanish State abroad or by the diplomatic or consular representation in Spain of the country of which the applicant is a national.

I) Documentation of previous foreign studies, it is necessary that it is legalized if it corresponds to countries outside the EU. To legalize the documentation that accredits these studies you must follow the procedure detailed in the section 'Legalizations'.

J) Remember that you must attach the document “Endorsement/Acceptance of direction and tutoring” to the application. You will find the model in the list of documentation specific to your program. If the person/s who will supervise your thesis is external to the UAB, when you make the application you must first check if he/she is registered -you must search (LUPA) for the supervisor by surname and if you find him/her with a code, you must select him/her so that he/she is registered in your application. In case you do not find it in the search, you must send the external director document, fill it in and sign it, once you receive it, you must attach it to the application. It is recommended that you complete this procedure in advance before applying for admission.


YOU CAN NOW ACCESS THE PRE-REGISTRATION APPLICATION FORM

Once the application has been saved, you will enter the selection process. You will receive the result of the resolution in a personalized way in the e-mail address you indicate in the application, according to the calendar of each doctoral program. Check your SPAM folder to make sure it has not been treated as junk mail.

Monitoring your application

You can monitor your application using the same page as you made it. Below are the explanations of the different stages:

  • Application made by student: your pre-registration has been saved.
  • Incomplete application: there are documents missing from the application.
  • Validated by the administrative office: the application and attached documents have been checked.
  • Admitted: the coordinator has considered the pre-registration and proposed an offer or admission. This status is provisional until the Doctoral School has considered the proposal and makes the final resolution. The notification is sent to the person concerned by email.
  • Offer of admission: the Doctoral School has made a definitive offer. The PhD student must wait to register.
  • Waiting list: the coordinator has considered the pre-registration and has agreed on admission but there ara no places on the PhD course.
  • Application rejected: the coordinator or the Doctoral School have considered the application but do not agree to admission as not all the requirements have been fulfilled.

 

Resolution of the application for admission to the doctoral program.

Once the application has been submitted, you will enter the selection process. You will receive the result of the resolution in a personalized way to the e-mail address you have indicated in the application, according to the calendar of each program. Check your SPAM folder to make sure it has not been treated as spam.

Once you receive the admission notification, if you need a document with more information about the doctoral studies, you have this document of complementary information

Once you receive the notification, you must formalize the following procedures:

  • Enroll in the doctoral program within one month at the Doctoral School. See the 'Enrollment' section. Enrollment calendar: Notifications received from January 29, 2025 to July 18, 2025 will start the enrollment on July 18, 2025. You have one month from this date to register. For notifications received on or after July 18, 2025, you have one month from the date you received the notification to register.
  • If the notification of admission indicates that it is conditional on obtaining the degree of the studies that you had not completed at the time of application, once you obtain the document certifying that you have obtained the degree, you must send the document by e-mail to ed.admissions@uab.cat. The Doctoral School will inform you that you have obtained the degree and the admission will be definitive. From this moment on, you will be able to formalize the registration in the online service, and you will have one month to do it.
  • If the admission notification indicates that you have to take Complementary Training, the Doctoral School will contact you to inform you of this enrollment. In the first year you must be enrolled in the First Follow-up and Complementary Training.
  • Once you have completed the registration, you should check the section After registration to find out what further steps you have to take. There is a time limit for these procedures.
  • If you do not complete the registration, your admission to the doctoral program will be cancelled.
  • I after you have formalized the enrollment of the first follow-up and have the evaluation of this registered in your file, regardless of the date on which you have been admitted this first year, each academic year, you must enroll on the dates indicated in the enrollment calendar of each course. See the information in the section Enrollment for other courses.
  • If you do not present yourself for the follow-up evaluation, you will not be able to continue in the doctoral program and you will not be able to enroll in any more courses.

For more information about the doctorate you can consult: : 'New in Royal decree RD99/2011' and web site of the Doctorate School.

If you did not find in this page the information you need, you can contact the Doctoral School at ed.admissions@uab.cat (if you send an email, you must identify yourself by indicating your ID / passport, NIU, name and surname).

Phd student's guide

You are switching to a different regulatory framework (Royal Decree), but continuing on the same PhD programme:

To continue the doctoral studies you must re-apply for the doctorate according to the admission requirements and following the procedure for new students.

 

You are switching to a different PhD programme governed by RD 99/2011:

If you are registered on a PhD programme and you want to switch to another PhD programme governed by RD 99/2011, you must apply to join the programme through the general procedure for the admission to a PhD Programme but providind as complementary document in the pre-registration application the Report on a change of PhD programme.

To obtain the password for self-registration, follow this link.

Remember:

Once admitted you should contact the coordination of the PhD programme to process in this new programme the research plan, the activity document and the commitment document. In the 'After registration' tab of your PhD programme, you will find information on these procedures.

 

If you did not find in this page the information you need, you can contact the Doctoral School at ed.admissions@uab.cat (if you send an email, you must identify yourself by indicating your ID / passport, NIU, name and surname).

Extra information

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