Online Doctoral Programme in Tourism (interuniversity: UMA, UA, UCA, UCM, UEX, ULL, Nebrija, UOC, URJC, USC, US, UVIGO)

The aim of this training is to acquire and develop the following skills:

• Dealing with contexts in which there is little specific information.
• Find the key questions to be answered to solve a complex problem.
• Design, create, develop and undertake novel and innovative projects in their field of knowledge.
• Work both in a team and autonomously in an international or multidisciplinary context.
• Integrate knowledge, deal with complexity and formulate judgements with limited information.
• Intellectual criticism and defence of solutions.
• Ability to conceive, design or create, implement and adopt a substantial process of research or creation.
• Ability to contribute to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge through original research.
• Ability to carry out critical analysis and evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
• Ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community and with society in general about their fields of knowledge in the modes and languages used by the academic community. knowledge in the modes and languages commonly used in their international scientific community.
• Ability to promote, in academic and professional contexts, scientific, technological, social, artistic or cultural progress within a society based on the cultural progress within a knowledge-based society.

Deposit and thesis oral defense

On completion of the doctoral thesis, the PhD student must apply to the programme's Academic Committee for authorisation to deposit the thesis.

The application must be accompanied by the following documents:

• Favourable report from the thesis supervisor and, if applicable, from the members of the thesis committee, on the authorisation of the deposit.
• The document of activities that the doctoral student has carried out.
• A summary of the doctoral thesis of a maximum of 4,000 characters, written in Catalan, Spanish and English. If the doctoral thesis is written in a language other than these in accordance with article 26, a summary in this language must also be submitted.
• A copy of the doctoral thesis, the student's curriculum vitae and the activities document, in electronic format.

Two doctors who are experts in the field of the doctoral thesis will produce independent and anonymous reports on the thesis.

Once the above reports have been requested, the thesis supervisor will be asked to propose between five and seven doctors from five different universities or institutions who may form part of the panel responsible for judging the thesis. The academic committee of the programme will proceed, in view of the documentation received, to authorise or not the doctoral thesis defense.

Once the defense has been authorised, the chair of the examining board sets the date for the reading and defence of the thesis and the Doctoral School convenes the public defence of the thesis, which consists of the presentation and defence of the research work prepared by the PhD student to the members of the examining board.

The members of the examining board ask the PhD student any questions they consider appropriate. Likewise, persons holding a doctoral degree who are present at the public event may ask questions at the time and in the manner indicated by the chair of the panel.

After the reading and defence of the thesis, each member of the examining board gives a written assessment of the thesis and its defence and issues a written report with the overall grade awarded to the thesis according to the following scale: "not pass", "pass", "good" or "excellent".

To be eligible for the doctoral program, candidates must meet the general requirements of the University and those specific to the programme.

First, prospective candidates must demonstrate that they meet one of the following requirements:

• Holding an official Spanish bachelor's degree, or equivalent, and a university master's degree, or equivalent, and having completed at least 300 ECTS credits in all these two programmes.
• Holding an official Spanish university degree, corresponding to previous regulations of university teaching, and having completed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in all official university studies, of which at least 60 must be at master's level.
• Holding an official university degree from a country that is part of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) that qualifies for entrance to official master's degree courses, and having completed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in all official university studies, of which at least 60 must be at master's level.
• Holding an official Spanish graduate degree, the duration of which, in accordance with Community law, is at least 300 ECTS credits. In this case, students must take the specific training components on a compulsory basis, unless the corresponding doctoral programme includes research training credits equivalent in formative value to research credits from master's degrees.
• Holding an official university degree in which, after obtaining a training place in the corresponding test of access to specialised health training places, they have completed at least two years of training in a programme to obtain an official degree in one of the specialities of the health sciences with a positive evaluation.
• Holding an official university degree from a country outside the EHEA, without the need for official validation, after verifying that the level of training is equivalent to that of official university master's degrees and that it allows access to doctoral studies in the country issuing the degree.
• Holding a Spanish doctoral degree obtained in accordance with previous university regulations.
• Holding a degree in architecture or engineering with an advanced studies diploma, obtained in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 778/1998, of 30 April, or having achieved the research sufficiency regulated in Royal Decree 185/1985, of 23 January.
• Holding an official university degree that has obtained correspondence with level three of the Spanish Framework of Qualifications for Higher Education (MECES), in accordance with the procedure established in Royal Decree 967/2014, of 21 November, establishing the requirements and procedure for officially validating and declaring equivalence with regard to the official university degree and academic level and for validating foreign higher education studies, and the procedure for determining correspondence with the MECES levels of the official titles of architect, engineer, graduate, technical architect, technical engineer and diploma holder.

Prospective candidates who have not earned the credits for initiation to research in a university master¿s programme shall be obliged to undertake the complementary training determined in each case by the programme.

Admission to the doctoral programme of prospective candidates who hold only an official undergraduate degree which under EU law has a duration of 300 ECTS and who have not completed the courses and earned the credits for initiation to research in a university master's programme will be contingent on successful completion of the complementary training corresponding to the module, itinerary or initiation to research courses for the corresponding training period.

The programme's working languages are Catalan, Spanish or English. However, the university establishes as an entry requirement to demonstrate a level equivalent to B1 or upper-intermediate level of independent user of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The level of English of the students who do not have an English level certification will be assessed by the Selection and Monitoring Committee during the course of the interview.