The Doctoral School welcomes new students and presents the special awards

45 doctoral programmes at the UPC

The UPC offers 45 doctoral programmes covering five areas of knowledge: Architecture, Urbanism and Building Construction; Sciences; Civil and Environmental Engineering; ICT Engineering; and Industrial Engineering. Doctoral programmes are official postgraduate courses providing advanced training and research practice in specialised areas. Fees are set by government decree. Doctoral study is geared towards the writing, presentation and defence of a doctoral thesis, successful completion of which qualifies students for the award of the doctorate and for access to university teaching and research positions. In the 2019–2020 academic year, 285 doctoral theses were read at the UPC.

In addition, the University actively participates in the Industrial Doctorate Plan, promoted by the Government of Catalonia, in which doctoral candidates carry out research in the framework of a company’s strategic research project. Today, the UPC offers the most industrial doctoral programmes in Catalonia (a third) with a hundred companies involved.

45% of the students of the UPC’s Doctoral School are international and a third obtain the International mention. The employment rate of UPC doctoral degree holders is almost 97%.

A total of 31 doctoral degree holders have received the 2020 special doctoral awards, with which the UPC’s Doctoral School recognises the best doctoral theses defended in the 2017–2018 academic year. The awards have been presented during the welcome event for new doctoral students, broadcasted live on the UPCtv channel.

Nov 08, 2020

The welcome event for new doctoral students of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), which has been held on Friday 6 November, has started with a welcome speech by the rector of the UPC, Francesc Torres, and the director of the Doctoral School, Francesc Sepulcre. The event has also be attended by one of the winners of the 2020 special doctoral awards; and a representative of the Doctoral Student Council, who has presented the Council and its functions.

During the event the 2020 special doctoral awards have been presented remotely. In this edition the awards are given to doctoral degree holders who obtained a cum laude distinction for the defence of their thesis in the 2017–2018 academic year. 31 doctoral degree holders in Architecture, Urbanism and Building Construction; Sciences; Civil and Environmental Engineering; ICT Engineering; and Industrial Engineering have received a special award. 

After the awards presentation, Anna Rovira, from the Libraries Service, has provided some useful tips to take advantage of UPC libraries. Bérénice Martín, from the International Relations Bureau, has talked about advice and support regarding legal proceduresJordi Pujol and Carmina Villar, from the Language and Terminology Service, have shared language resources for doctoral students. And, finally, Jesús Alcober, from the Institute of Education Sciences, has talked about resources for teaching and research staff.

The event has been held remotely and broadcasted live on the UPCtv channel.