Competences and abilities

As a minimum requirement PhD students at the UAB are guaranteed the acquisition of basic competences through compulsory activities and their own research, with an annual evaluation of their training and the progress of the thesis, and a final assessment through the presentation and defence of the PhD thesis. The basic competences are the following:

  • Systematic comprehension of the field of study and mastery of the skills and methods of research related to that field.
  • Capacity to conceive, design or create and put into practice and adopt a substantial process of research or creation.
  • Capacity to contribute to the breakdown of limits to knowledge through original research.
  • Capacity to carry out critical analysis and evaluation and to synthesise new and complex ideas.
  • Capacity for communication with the academic and scientific community and with society at large in their areas of knowledge in the manners and languages that are habitually used in the international scientific community.
  • Capacity for promoting scientific, technological, social, artistic or cultural advances in academic and professional contacts within a knowledge-based society.


Obtaining the qualification offers the PhD student great professional capacity in different areas and especially in those that require creativity and innovation. PhD candidates should also have acquired personal capacities and skills to:

  • Operate in contexts in which there is little specific information.
  • Find key questions to answer in order to resolve complex problems.
  • Design, create, develop and carry out new and innovative projects in their area of knowledge.
  • Work independently and in teams in an international and multidisciplinary context.
  • Integrate knowledge, deal with complexity and make judgements with limited information.
  • Make intellectual criticism and defence of solutions.

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