3. Access and admission of students

3.1. Information system prior to the enrolment and procedures for reception and orientation of incoming students in order to facilitate their entry to the university and to the teaching.

In the dissemination of information the Program websites of the Doctoral School and the University, and the promotion carried out through the three responsible organisations, will play a very important role: 

• Institutional dissemination by the University of Vigo: the general information on the Degree, along with the Degree’s guidebook, will have the usual public institutional dissemination of the University of Vigo (publication on the institutional web server of the university and distribution of printed guides within Galicia and North of Portugal territory). On the website of the University of Vigo it is currently available the following information: Institutional Dissemination of the Doctoral School. The PhD Programmes will be assigned to the Doctoral School as stated in the Regulations of Doctoral Studies of the University of Vigo. The Doctoral School takes on the functions of organisation, planning, management and supervision of the doctoral studies, so that the relevant information will be enabled on the website of the corresponding School. The conditions, procedures and terms for processing the doctoral thesis defence at the University of Vigo are laid down in the Regulations for Doctoral Studies of the university (approved by the Governing Council in February 2020). All the information on this procedure will be available on the website of the Doctoral School, and until its activation, on the Department of Postgraduate Studies. It includes information on:

• General information provided by the website of the University of Vigo.  On the homepage of the University of Vigo (http://www.uvigo.es/en), under “Study”, "What to study", “PhD Programs” can be accessed. This internet address contains the list of PhD Programmes, constituting the updated range of postgraduate studies available at the university. It includes information on the formal name given to the PhD programme, nature of the programme (own or inter-university, indicating in the latter case the participating and coordinating universities), information on access and admission conditions to the PhD Programme, research topics developed in the programme, contact details of the coordinator, verification report and active link to the specific information of each PhD Programme. 
• For information on the enrolment procedure, the information is active on the homepage of the University of Vigo website (http://www.uvigo.es/en), under “Study”, in a field called “Students management”. That page contains detailed information on the call for enrolment for EHEA degrees, Master’s degrees and PhD programmes from the University of Vigo. In particular, regarding doctoral studies, it includes information with regard to:
  • Enrolment period and procedure for academic supervision of doctoral thesis (incoming students and continuation of studies) for the entire range of postgraduate studies available at the university. 
  • Information regarding public rates and tuition waivers 
  • Conditions of modification and/or cancellation of enrolment.
  • Stages for presentation of the doctoral thesis for its defence (procedures and terms)
  • Public information regarding doctoral theses on deposit, information with regard to the acts of public thesis defence , information on the procedure for the annual call for “Extraordinary Doctorate Awards”.
• PhD Programme own web http://doctic.uvigo.es: it will be the main information system about the PhD Programme, including all the information deemed of interest concerning organizational, administrative and curricular aspects. There, it is available all the information needed by the student prior to the enrolment and it will also be the primary mechanism of information for students during the academic year. This webpage will also include links to the information and counselling services for students of the University of Vigo
• International dissemination of information leaflets and posters: an awareness campaign will be carried out by post, addressed to universities and research centres in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as these are the countries of origin of the students who have completed the Master’s degree from which this PhD programme comes.
• Briefings at the School of Telecommunication Engineering, whose graduates may form part of the PhD student body.
• Dissemination among former students of the Programme who, once completed their theses, may be in other universities where there might be new students interested in the programme.

Given the heterogeneity of the potential student body, in both their previous education and their geographical location, the type of information that should initially guide the prospective student through the webs and leaflets is the following:

• Information regarding conditions of entry. At this point, special attention will be devoted to the recommended entry profile in order to guide mainly those applicants with foreign degrees and which are not adapted to the European Higher Education Area, since our previous experience denotes that they often find difficulties both to identify the level of the studies they expect to access and the validity and appropriateness of their degrees to apply for these studies.
• Administrative information, such as enrolment procedures and modalities, fees or grants.
• Information on the characteristics of the PhD Programme, such as content, skills to be developed, working methodology and evaluation criteria, among others.

Regarding the procedures for reception of incoming students, they will be personalised, being the tutor the one guiding them in academic and administrative aspects and in the integration into the university system. Furthermore, at the beginning of the academic year there will be briefings in which all students can participate either in person or via video/audio conferencing in order to specify the information and to familiarise students with the organization and educational aspects of the PhD programme as well as the institution involved. 

3.2. Entry requirements and admission criteria

Access to doctoral studies 

To access a doctoral programme under Royal Decree 99/2011 (modified by RD 576/2023), you must meet one of the following requirements:

• In general, for access to an official doctoral programme it will be necessary to be in possession of the official Spanish degree, or equivalent, and a university master's degree, or equivalent, provided that at least 300 ECTS credits have been earned in these two courses.
• Those who are in one of the following cases may also access:
  • Be in possession of official Spanish university degrees or equivalent Spanish degrees as long as you have completed at least 300 ECTS credits in all of these courses and have obtained a level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education. The correspondence can be consulted from the MECD website.
  • Be in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems belonging to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), without the need for its approval, which accredits a level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework provided that said degree allows access to doctoral studies in the country of dispatch thereof. This admission will not imply, in any case, the approval of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than that of access to doctoral studies.
  • Be in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems other than the EEES, without the need for its approval, after verification by the university that this accredits a level of training equivalent to that of the official Spanish university Master's degree and that entitles the holder to issue the degree degree for access to doctoral studies. This admission will not imply, in any case, the approval of the previous degree held by the interested party or its recognition for purposes other than that of access to doctoral studies.
  • Be in possession of another Doctorate degree.
  • Likewise, university graduates who, after obtaining a place in training in the corresponding test for access to specialized health training places, have passed with a positive evaluation at least two years of training in a program to obtain the official title of one of the specialties in Sciences of the health.

Article 23 of the Doctoral Studies Regulations (RED in its Spanish acronym) establishes the basic guidelines for full-time and part-time enrolment.

Doctoral students may enrol full-time or part-time. For the latter, the condition of part-time doctoral student granted by the DPAC will be an indispensable requirement, if applicable. This will be requested from the DPAC by using supporting documents. For the condition of part-time doctoral student, consideration of work, family or personal reasons will be made.

a) Employment reasons will preferably be situations that are fixed or stable, not temporary situations, such as temporary contracts, internship contracts or collaboration grants with a duration of less than six months.

b) Family or personal reasons will include, among others, situations requiring a need to care, care of the elderly or disabled children, large families with school-age children and situations of gender violence.

c) Students with a degree of disability greater than 33% will obtain from the DPAC, if requested and documented, the status of part-time student.

The change of enrolment mode may be requested in the ordinary enrolment periods, subject to a favourable report from the DPAC, and extraordinarily in other periods due to changes in the doctoral student's work, family or personal circumstances.

The procedure for part-time enrolment will be as established in the annual call for enrolment.

The university, at the proposal of each DPAC, may establish a maximum percentage of part-time doctoral students enrolled in the program from the total number of students enrolled.

Admission to Doctoral Studies

In the case of the PhD programme in question, the recommended entry profile is: Telecommunication Engineer, Master in Telecommunication Engineering, Master in Signal Theory and Communications, Master in Telematics Engineering, Master in Radio Communications and Electromagnetic Engineering, Master in Cibersecurity or Master in Computer Vision, all of them from the University of Vigo.

For those students with national or foreign Master’s Degrees related to Information and Communication Technologies, their affinity will be considered by the Academic Committee of the PhD Program. The skills of the Official Spanish Degree will be taken as reference.  In this cases the Academic Committee may subject the admission to the successful completion of specific additional training courses that will be established in each case within the master’s teaching offer in the field of ICTs from the University of Vigo.

As some compulsory activities will be taught in English, the accreditation of linguistic competence in this language (B1 level) is a requirement, by means of a certificate from the “Centro de Linguas” (Language Centre) or equivalent. Applicants who are natives of a country where one of the official languages is English or those who can prove that they have completed a previous degree (bachelor's or master's) in which English is the vehicular language are exempt from presenting this accreditation. In case that the competence cannot be accredited, this requirement can be replaced by the Academic Committee by others which ensure that this competence in English language will be achieved within the first year.

When applying for admission, a preliminary thesis project related to one of the lines of research that make up the doctoral programme must be submitted. This preliminary project must be endorsed by a doctor from the DocTIC programme. To this end, applicants will be given the opportunity to contact the programme's teaching staff..

Those students willing to form part of this PhD Programme shall present their application in the manner determined by the rules of admission and enrolment approved by the Academic Committee of the PhD Programme for each academic year, which, in turn, will address that established by the University of Vigo. To this end, students must meet the requirement and hand over the supporting documentation.

The admission process will follow the principles of objectivity, fairness, merit and ability, and will take into account the following criteria:

• CV of the applicants, taking into consideration:

1. Telecommunication Engineer, Master in Telecommunication Engineering, Master in Signal Theory and Communications, Master in Telematics Engineering, Master in Radio Communications and Electromagnetic Engineering, Master in Cibersecurity or Master in Computer Vision, all of them from the University of Vigo.
2. For those students with other Master related to Information and Communication Technologies, and for foreign degrees with related contents to the PhD Program, the treatment will be similar, that is to say, this affinity will be studied. In this cases, the Academic Committee may subject the admission to the successful completion by the applicants of specific training complements that will be established in each case within the Master’s teaching offer in Telecommunication Engineering,    Cibersecurity or Computer Vion, all of them from the University of Vigo.
3. Academic record
4. Professional experience in the field of the PhD Programme

• Preliminary thesis project
• Letters of recommendation from Professors of previous degrees
• Other academic and/or professional merits
• If deemed necessary, a personal interview

In any case, the admission and selection will be restricted to the number of available seats established for the PhD Programme. Initially, the following criteria are established:

The Academic Committee of the PhD Programme may establish new criteria consistent with the above mentioned in order to specify the application of the principles and criteria stated.

Regarding the adaptation of systems and procedures for admission to students with special educational needs derived from disabilities, the University of Vigo, in order to support students with disabilities and to promote equal opportunities and full integration into university life is running PIUNE programme (Integration Support Programme for Students with Special Needs). Through this program students will receive: 

- Attention, welcome and advice from UNATEN (Attention unit for students with specific educational needs).

- Study support (curriculum adaptations, technical support resources, etc…)

- Assistance in a range of activities by volunteers from the University of Vigo.

The details of the scope to the attention to disabilities at the University of Vigo are available on the Internet at: https://www.uvigo.gal/es/campus/atencion-diversidad/que-podemos-ayudar.

3.3. Students 

DocTIC comes from the transformation and grouping of the doctoral programmes on Signal Theory and Communications (TSC) and Telematics Engineering (IT) and Communications Technologies (TC). Currently these programmes are in line with RD1393/2007, and heirs of those programmes according to RD778/1998. It has been running since the 2013/2014 academic year, the number of domestic and international students enrolled in the last five years is shown in the table below:

From the data in the table, it can be seen that the percentage of students enrolled from other countries ranges between 42.4% and 51.2%, a significant value in all academic years. Similarly, from the data on the table, a realistic estimate for consideration of the number of students enrolled in the coming academic years would be 80 students, of which 45% would come from other countries.

 3.4. Additional training courses

In the event that the students lack the complete previous training required by the programme, the admission may be conditioned to the completion of specific additional training courses.

If so, the programmes, through their memory, shall determine the additional training courses for each student, which must be specified by the Academic Committee of the PhD programme without exceeding 15 ECTS. The completion of these additional courses will be prior or simultaneous to the enrolment for academic supervision of doctoral thesis. If its prior to the enrolment, they will only enrol in these additional courses and the supervision commitment will not be signed nor will the “Document of activities” of the PhD student be opened, until their completion.

The additional training courses must be completed within three consecutive “four month term”, otherwise, they will be removed from the programme.

Those specific additional training courses may consist of subjects or modules from master or EHEA degrees and they shall be considered as doctoral level training, for the purpose of public fees, award of grants and financial aids for study. In the case of being carried out prior to the enrolment, its development will not compute for the purposes of the established deadline for the completion of the thesis. These credits will not compute for the purposes of the ordinary requirements of entry to the PhD Programme.