Defence modalities

There are three possible types of thesis defences at the USC depending on the way the people involved act: face-to-face, blended or virtual.

• Face-to-face defences: The defence takes place at the USC facilities with all the members acting in person.
   
  • Face-to-face defence notification
• Blended defences: These are the defences in which at least the PhD student and one member of the tribunal attend in person. The means enabled for remote attendance of the remaining members is Microsoft Teams or videoconferencing using the equipment at the faculties.
   
• Virtual defences: These are the defences in which all members attend electronically via Microsoft TEAMS. For additional information about virtual defences check this link.
   
  • Telematic defence notification

Defence notifications can be signed by the secretary, the president of the examining committee or, on their behalf, the coordinator of the PhD Programme.

The notification will be sent to the corresponding Doctoral Programme, which will be in charge of transferring the data to the Xescampus application.

If the existence of a substitute is known, the notification will include the name of the substitute.

To schedule the day on which your defence can be held, keep in mind:

• Deadlines: The thesis defence will take place within a maximum period of 3 months from the day following its authorisation by the EDIUS. In order to give it the necessary publicity established in the current regulations, you must communicate the date of the defence act sufficiently advance to give it at least 7 calendar days of publicity.
   
• Working days: The defence must be carried out during the school year of the academic calendar at a USC centre (except virtual defence). You can check the non-teaching periods here.

After the defence

The minutes will be sent electronically signed by the secretary of the committee to doutoramento [at] usc.es (doutoramento[at]usc[dot]es) within 24 hours.

If the documentation cannot be signed electronically, it can be signed physically and sent to SXA by certified mail or courier, to the address:

The Academic Management Service will transfer the data of the defense to Xescampus and may be consulted by the PhD student and the thesis supervisor(s) through their respective Virtual Secretaries.

The PhD student may pay the deposit of the doctoral degree in the Academic Management Service.

The administrative staff supporting the doctoral programme must do the following in the Theseus application:

1. Include, check and modify, as appropriate, the definite examining committee associated with the thesis.
    
2. Score the thesis in the application by including the qualification obtained for the thesis.