Criteria for the assessment and weighting of merits

The academic committee of the doctoral programme has final responsibility for regulating admission to the doctoral programme. In the admission process (handled by the academic committee), each student is requested to submit the following:

• Academic record.
• Curriculum vitae.
• A letter explaining their interest in taking the doctoral degree and the research area in which they wish to complete their thesis.
• Contact details for two references from whom recommendations of the candidate may be requested.
• Details of the proposed thesis supervisor, provided the person concerned has indicated their willingness to take on this responsibility.

This information is stored on the intranet so it can be consulted by members of the academic committee of the doctoral programme. All applications for admission submitted in the previous period are considered at regular meetings of the academic committee. Admission decisions are made within one month. The mechanism used is consultation by e-mail, indicating the intranet folder in which information on a candidate is to be found. Members of the academic committee are given three weeks to raise any objections to an applicant’s admission. In the case of disagreement (i.e. members with opposing opinions), a face-to-face meeting may be requested to decide whether a student is admitted. The proposed thesis supervisor may be invited to attend this meeting to give an opinion on the candidate.

If the applicant does not propose a thesis supervisor, the academic committee will propose that one be assigned. Based on a candidate’s preferences concerning the research topic of their thesis, the member of the academic committee whose area of specialisation is most pertinent will be asked to propose a thesis supervisor. If the member responsible for this area is unable to propose a supervisor, the same request will be made to a member with expertise in another area. If all members of the academic committee have been consulted and a suitable supervisor cannot be found, the candidate’s application will not be accepted.

Along the admission process, a score of 0 to 10 is assigned based in assessment with the following points, weighted as indicated in parentheses:

• Academic record and previous studies (30%)
• Research experience (10%)
• Knowledge of languages (10%)
• Other relevant aspects described on the applicant’s CV but not covered by the three previous points (5%)
• The assessment from a potential thesis supervisor of the applicant’s doctoral thesis proposal (30%)
• Assessment of the academic committee of the doctoral programme (15%)

Students will be admitted if they obtain a total score of more than seven points.

Together with the admission decision, the academic committee will issue enrolment recommendations if the student is required to take bridging courses. The recommended credits (up to a maximum of 30) will correspond to subjects in the field of network engineering that can be completed as soon as possible.