DOCTORAL SCHOOL

Training activities

To enable doctoral students to acquire the academic and professional competences defined for the Doctoral Degree, the University of Alcalá offers a series of training activities, divided into two types:

1. Cross-curricular training activities, of an optional nature, which aim to develop personal competences and capacities common to all doctoral programmes:

• Seminar. Every year, the Doctoral School (EDUAH) offers seminars for all doctoral programmes on topics related to searching for and managing information, oral and written presentation of research, project preparation, ethical aspects of research, etc.
• Junior researcher workshops, held every two years at the University of Alcalá, at which doctoral students present the progress of their research work to their peers and professors. Students are recommended to take part in this activity during the second or third year of the doctoral programme.
• Research placements in companies and institutions that have research departments, organised by the doctoral programmes, with the aim of enabling doctoral students to better understand how the world of work works and to incorporate research methods from this business or institutional environment into their work. The management of these placements is delegated to each doctoral programme. See Regulations for doctoral students' research stays in universities, organisations, institutions or companies

2. Programme and/or branch-specific training activities, which aim to develop competences and personal skills specific to the doctoral programme. Organised by each doctoral programme, they may be optional or compulsory (consult the activities available and their nature in the section of the doctoral programme you are studying).

These cross-curricular and specific activities are only part of the possible activities that can be carried out to complete the doctoral training. Students and their tutor/director must establish a more complete and ambitious plan of activities, taking into account other internal/external activities (seminars, conferences, courses, placements, etc.) for the proper conduct of the training period, which will be evaluated annually by the Academic Committee. 

In order to provide an offer allowing our students to build an adequate training plan, the EDUAH has made a significant effort to expand the offer of online activities. It is hoped that this will continue to be expanded in the future. However, it should be borne in mind that the UAH is a face-to-face university, not a distance learning university.

DATRES Training Activity Management Platform

In order to manage the offer and enrolment in the training activities of the EDUAH (cross-curricular) and of the different doctoral programmes (specific or branch-specific), the EDUAH has set up a new platform, DATRES, which expedites and improves the procedures.

This platform covers:

1. Transversal training activities. Organised by the EDUAH, optional and free of charge.
2. Specific and/or branch-specific training activities. Organised by each Doctoral Programme, optional/compulsory and free of charge. These activities may be publicised to students by the doctoral programmes themselves.However, it is important to bear in mind that not all branch-specific activities are managed from this platform.

Access to the DATRES platform is via the direct entries on this page, using the institutional email address assigned to each UAH doctoral student: @edu.uah.es. For more information about username and password click here.

Once in the application, you can consult the courses on offer, as well as pre-register for them when the registration period opens. Within DATRES you will also be able to obtain the certificates for the activities you have done; in the same way, you will be able to consult your doctoral student's file.

How can I register for a training activity?

Registration for transversal activities is managed through the DATRES application. It can be done when the students receive an email from the EDUAH announcing the activity and containing all the relevant information. This email will include a link for registration. During the registration period, students will be able to register or unsubscribe from the course.

The selection of students for each activity will be done by taking into account the preferences indicated in the offer (years of matriculation), although, once these requirements have been met, priority will be given to those who have not taken any previous activity in that academic year and, finally, by the order of registration. The aim of these selection criteria is to ensure that all students can take at least two activities per academic year.

Once the registration process has been completed and places have been allocated, the selected doctoral students will be notified by e-mail. If all the places offered are filled, a waiting list will be established in case vacancies arise before the start of the activity.

Those students enrolled in an activity who fail to take it for no good reason will lose priority for the following activities they apply for. In addition, the corresponding academic committees of the doctoral programmes will be notified so that they can take this into account in their annual assessment. To avoid this happening, if a student has enrolled in an activity and subsequently wishes to withdraw from it, he/she may do so before the end of the enrolment period.

Activity certificates and surveys

At the end of the activity, the course satisfaction survey must be completed. Certificates for the activities carried may be downloaded from DATRES.

Reservation of places for students with officially recognised disabilities

The EDUAH sets aside 5% of the cross-disciplinary activities offered in an academic year for those students with a certified degree of disability equal to or greater than 33%.

Such students will be able to access one of the activities offered by the EDUAH on this basis and will be able to apply for admission to the rest of the transversal training activities under the same conditions as the rest of the doctoral students

Other Cross-Curricular Training Activities

In addition to the cross-curricular training activities offered by the EDUAH, students can also take courses, seminars and other activities offered by other Spanish or foreign universities or institutions, either in person or by distance learning, and obtain the corresponding certificate. Some examples of online platforms are:

• Coursera
• edX
• MiriadaX

However, the contents of all these activities must comply with the definition of cross-curricular training (i.e. the acquisition of competences common to all the branches and disciplines of the doctorate) and must have the prior approval of the thesis tutor and supervisor.