Doctoral Programme in Humanities and Communication

In order to be eligible for the doctoral programme, the candidate must meet the general requirements of the UOC and the specific requirements of the programme.

First, you must prove that you are in one of the following cases:

• Hold an official Spanish undergraduate degree, or equivalent, and a university master's degree, or equivalent, and have passed at least 300 ECTS credits in all of these two courses.
• Hold an official Spanish university degree, corresponding to previous university teaching regulations, and have passed 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 enables access to official master's degrees, and having passed a minimum of 300 ECTS credits in all official university studies, of which at least 60 must be at master's level.
• Hold an official Spanish undergraduate degree, whose duration, in accordance with EU law, is at least 300 ECTS credits. In this case, the student must take the specific training components on a mandatory basis, unless the corresponding doctoral programme includes research training credits, equivalent in formative value to the research credits from master's degree studies.
• To have an official university degree in which, after having obtained a training place in the corresponding test of access to specialised health training places, you have passed with a positive evaluation at least two years of training of a program to obtain the official title of any of the specialties of health sciences.
• Holding an official university degree from a country outside the EHEA, without the need for homologation, after verifying that the level of training is equivalent to that of the official university master's degrees and that it empowers the issuing country of the degree to access doctoral studies.
• Hold a Spanish phD degree obtained in accordance with previous university regulations.
• Be a graduate, architect or engineer and be in possession of the diploma of advanced studies, obtained in a way provided for in Royal Decree 778/1998, of 30 April, or have achieved the research proficiency regulated in Royal Decree 185/1985, of 23 January.
• Hold an official university degree that has obtained correspondence with level three of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (MECES), in accordance with the procedure established in Royal Decree 967/2014, of 21 November, establishing the requirements and procedure for homologating and declaring equivalence with regard to the official university degree and academic level and to validate foreign studies of higher education.  and the procedure to determine the correspondence with the levels of the MECES of the official titles of architect, engineer, graduate, technical architect, technical engineer and diploma.

If the candidate has not passed the research initiation credits in a university master's degree, they must take the bridging courses determined by each programme, if applicable.

If the candidate is only in possession of an official undergraduate degree that, in accordance with the rules of COMMUNITY law, has a duration of 300 ECTS credits, or has not taken and passed a minimum of credits of initiation to research in a university master's degree, their permanence in the doctoral programme is subject to the passing of the bridging courses that correspond to the module,  the itinerary or the subjects of initiation to the search of the corresponding formative period.

The vehicular language of the programme is English, so another access requirement will be to demonstrate a level equivalent to B2 or high intermediate level of user independent of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. If you do not have an English level accreditation, it will be assessed by the Selection and Monitoring Committee in the course of the interview.

In addition to the general and additional requirements established by the University itself, the Doctoral Programme in Humanities and Communication establishes the following specific requirements:

• If you're not a citizen of an English-speaking country, you must provide proof of a level of English equal to or higher than B2 in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).
• If you have attended school or have completed a bachelor's or master's degree (or equivalent qualification with regards to enrolment in the doctorate programme) in English in a country where English is an official language, you will be deemed to have an equivalent level to the one required.
• You may also demonstrate your linguistic competency in English by means of another official certificate that proves you have a level equivalent to or higher than the one required. You can consult this equivalency table to see examples of certificates that correspond to these levels.

Candidates for the doctoral programme who do not reach the required level will be given the opportunity to access the doctoral programme with a B1 level if they undertake to attain a B2 level before completing the research plan at the end of the first year. According to regulations, if the student does not attain this level, the research plan cannot be approved.

The UOC's Centre for Modern Languages offers English courses to attain the minimum level required for admission into the different doctoral programmes.

The UOC offers an online English language proficiency test, which can be accessed via this link, to accredit your knowledge of English. A score of between 72 and 94 accredits a level corresponding to B2 as defined by the CEFR. When taking this test, you must specify the code that corresponds to the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya): 4418. This code does not exempt the student from paying the corresponding exam cost and fees.

If you apply for a UOC grant, you must accredit a level equal to or higher than B2 from the time of application. For other grants, financial aid or research contracts, please consult the terms and conditions and requirements for each case (level of English and part-time or full-time format).

If you apply for admission to the UOC's Doctoral Programme in Humanities and Communication, you must submit the following documentation:

- A photocopy of your DNI, NIE or passport.

- A letter of motivation/presentation in which the candidate makes a brief presentation of his/her career as well as the specific motivations that underpin his/her application, a description of his/her research interests, as well as a brief concrete research proposal (maximum 5 pages) and prepared with the future research group or thesis supervisor that must host it.

- A letter of endorsement from a UOC professor or researcher who is a doctor in which he/she explains his/her interest in the project and in eventually directing the student's doctoral thesis, which must be identified by name and surname

- Curriculum vitae stating the master's or postgraduate programmes and courses taken related to the research interests expressed in the motivation letter and, where appropriate, the previous scientific production.

- Example of a recent academic work (in Catalan, Spanish or English).

- Academic certificates corresponding to the previous studies to the doctorate, where they contain the subjects taken and the qualification obtained, the call, the type of subject, the number of credits, as well as the average grade of the academic record, if they have not provided them to prove compliance with the access requirements.

When degree, bachelor or master's degree certificates are provided that do not mention the average of grades out of 4, the standardized spreadsheet where the median saying is calculated.

- Certification proving the level of English required by the doctoral programme.

- The documentation that certifies compliance with the access requirements. You will find more information in the section corresponding to the space: Procedures/Requirements and documentation of access of the Campus. 

In the case of university degrees obtained in higher education systems outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and not homologated, it is necessary to authentication of the university degree through diplomatic channels (or, where appropriate, through the Hague Convention Apostillary). When the certificates, qualifications and academic records are not written in an official language of The Spanish State or in English, it is necessary to accompany the documentation with the sworn translation into Catalan, Spanish or English. Failure to submit this documentation or the fact that the data it contains does not match what has been exposed in the application may result in the non-admission to the doctoral programme.

Once the access documentation has been reviewed and your application accepted, admission to the doctoral programme is conditional on the presentation of the official documentation. 

Applying for admission to the doctoral programme or for the doctoral grants programme are two separate things, but both processes use the same registration form. Applications for admission to the programme are assessed using the criteria established in the doctoral programme's official specifications, as published both in the Spanish Government's Official Gazette and on the UOC's website. Whereas applications for the grants programme are assessed using the criteria established in the call for applications, and each programme assesses the applications taking into account specific criteria to classify them.

Nevertheless, both processes use the same rubric. This table has the rubric and a description of how the Humanities and Communication doctoral programme's Academic Committee processes the applications.

1 December 2022: Start of the call for applications for access and admission to doctoral programmes.

12 February 2023: End of the call for applications for access and admission to doctoral programmes.

15 February 2023: Publication of the provisional lists of applications to be assessed. The lists will be published on the Doctoral School website.

16 February to 25 February 2023: Period for appeals of the applications to be evaluated.

27 February 2023: Publication of the final lists of applications to be assessed. The lists will be published on the Doctoral School website.

2 May 2023: Publication of the provisional resolution on the accepted online and granted candidates. The lists will be published on the Doctoral School website.

3 May to 19 May 2023: Period for appeals of the selection of online and granted candidates.

26 May 2023: Publication of the final resolution on the candidates admitted to the doctoral programmes and those who are granted. The lists will be published on the Doctoral School website.

July 2023: Start of the enrolment period 2023-24.

September 2023: Start of the academic year 2023-24.