Admission: New Doctoral Studies regulated by RD 99/2011
In general, to access an official doctoral programme, you must be in possession of official Spanish Bachelor's degrees or equivalent and a university Master's degree.
You can also obtain access if any of the following cases apply:
a) You are in possession of official Spanish university degrees or equivalent Spanish degrees, provided that you have passed at least 300 ECTS credits in all of these courses and can accredit level 3 of the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (MECES). These include:
— Spanish university degree with 240 ECTS credits and official Master's degree with 60 ECTS credits.
— Spanish university diploma and official Master's degree with 120 ECTS credits.
— Spanish Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine or Architecture.
— 5-year Spanish Bachelor’s degree, with MECES level 3 and 300 credits from the system prior to the European Higher Education Area (all three requirements must be met).
b) You are in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems belonging to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which does not need to be officially recognised, which accredits level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) provided that in the country where this degree has been issued it entitles access to doctoral studies. Admission does not imply, under any circumstances, the official recognition of this degree or recognition for purposes other than that of access to doctoral studies.
c) You are in possession of a degree obtained in accordance with foreign educational systems outside the EHEA, which does not need to be officially recognised, which the university has previously verified that it accredits a level of training equivalent to that of an official Spanish university Master's degree and which, in the country where it has been issued, authorises access to doctoral studies. Admission does not imply, under any circumstances, the official recognition of this degree or recognition for purposes other than that of access to doctoral studies.
d) You are in possession of another doctoral degree.
e) You are in possession of a university degree and, once the specialised health training period has been obtained by passing the corresponding entrance exam, you have passed at least 2 years of training in a programme to obtain the official title of one of the specialisations in health sciences.
f) Have a licentiate degree, architecture or engineering degree without ECTS credits equivalent and are either in possession of the Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) of Royal Decree 778/1998, of 30 April, which regulates the third cycle of university studies, the obtaining and issuance of the doctoral degree and other postgraduate degrees or have achieved research proficiency in accordance with Royal Decree 185/1985, of 23 January, which regulates the third cycle of university studies, the obtaining and issuance of the doctoral degree and other postgraduate studies.
Obligatory documentation to be attached to your application for admission:
— Documentation of the previous studies completed that can give you access to the doctoral programme. Check what documentation is required. (In Catalan)
— A photograph.
— DNI or, if you are a foreign student, NIE or TIE, or, if you do not have a NIE or TIE, an authenticated copy of your passport.
— Documentation indicated in the Documentation for admission section of the information sheet of the doctoral programme you have chosen.
— In the event that you have a degree of disability equal to or greater than 33%, the certificate accrediting this condition, for the purposes of applying the corresponding permanence regime.
Admission:
If you wish to access a doctoral programme you must apply for admission to the academic committee of the programme through the online application for this purpose and follow the procedure established by the coordination or administrative management responsible for the programme with regard to the proposal for tutoring and supervision of the thesis. You must also declare whether you want to do the thesis full-time or part-time. You will find more information on the Annual PhD reviews page.
Admission to the doctoral programme is decided by the rector.
Check the periods during which you can apply for admission online in the Admissions section of the doctoral programme you have chosen.
You will find the information on the academic tutors and the supervision of the thesis in the Research lines and supervision section of the file of each doctoral programme. In accordance with the instructions in the file of the chosen programme, you must attach the Endorsement/acceptance of supervision and tutoring document. This document must be signed by the person who has accepted the tutoring and/or supervision of the thesis. The notification of admission to the programme includes the tutor and the supervisor of the thesis, the line of research, the maximum length of admission to the programme (full-time or part-time study) and also, where applicable, any bridging courses that you have to take in the first year.
Before starting the online application, check that you meet the requirements for access, in the Requirements and admission criteria section and consult the Obligatory documentation section to find out what paperwork you need.
We recommend that you watch this video before starting the application:
Summary of Online Application Procedure:
1. To access the application you need a university identification number (NIU) and a password. To obtain them:
o If you are not a UAB student, enter your identification details to register.
o If you are or have been a UAB student and you remember your NIU (university identification number) and password, go straight to the application.
o If you are or have been a UAB student but you do not remember your NIU (university identification number) and/or you do not remember your password, re-enter all your identification details to retrieve it.
2. Make the application by selecting the doctoral programme you are interested in. You must have all the documentation required by the programme ready.
3. Enter your personal and academic details in the different sections of the application. Your name and surname must be those that appear on your DNI, TIE, NIE or passport. The application must be accompanied by the necessary personal and academic documents. The documents are attached in PDF, JPG or DOC format (up to a maximum of 4 MB). Failure to include requested documents in the application sections may result in the denial of admission to the program.
4. If you need early admission due to the application or award of a scholarship, you must indicate it in the corresponding field and put the name of the scholarship. Depending on the situation, the programme coordinator will decide on your early admission if necessary.
5. On the last screen of the process, save the application. If you wish, you can download the proof of the application for admission. You will receive the resolution of your application at the email you included in the application.
6. You can check the status of your application by entering the application.
Incidents that may occur when introducing the previous studies:
If you have completed an official Master's degree at a university in Spain and it does not appear in the list of Master's degrees, you can indicate it as follows:
a. Choose the option Master's degree obtained outside Spain.
b. In the pop-up window to select the country, enter "Spain" and search for the university (asterisks can be used to facilitate the search, for example: “*Rioja*”).
c. In the Studies field, put the name of the studies you have completed (for example: "Master's Degree in Information Technology").
If you do not find the foreign university in the list of the country where you have completed your previous studies, provisionally select another university in the country and in the Observations field of the application , enter the name of the university where you obtained the degree. Send an email to ed.admissions@uab.cat to request registration from the university. Once registered, the Doctoral School will make the change to your application.
Important instructions before applying for admission online:
A. Considerations for filling in personal data
a. If the Institutional email address section is empty, enter your personal email address.
b. You must enter both your usual address and your termtime address. If you still don't know your termtime address, put your usual address as the termtime address.
c. For your birth postcode, if you were born in a Spanish town that has more than one code, you can enter any of the codes. If your town of birth is foreign, enter the code 99999 and put the name of the town in the description.
B. You must indicate whether you have completed your studies or not. If at the time of applying for admission you are not yet in possession of the corresponding degree certificate or replacement certificate because you are finishing your degree, indicate this in the Academic details section of the application by ticking the option Pending completion. Once you have given the information in this section, click on the Next button to continue with the application.
C. If you apply for more than one doctoral programme at the UAB, the application will retrieve the mandatory documentation you provided in the first application for access to the doctoral programme. If other documentation is requested in the second application, you can attach it as optional documents.
D. If you choose the part-time option for the doctoral programme, attach this part-time application to the mandatory documentation of the doctoral programme.
E. If you attach the documentation of the previous studies and the personal documentation in accordance with what is indicated in Information on the access routes and the different degrees for admission to the doctorate, you will not need to present the documentation for enrolment, which is recommended. If you do not attach the indicated documentation and your application for admission is accepted, you must submit this documentation before being able to register online.
F. Language of documentation. The documentation can be provided issued in Catalan, Spanish or English. Documentation issued in French, Italian or Portuguese can be translated at the UAB Language Service. The interested party must be responsible for organising this and the cost it entails. With regard to documentation issued in the other languages, the corresponding translation into Catalan, Spanish or English, carried out by a sworn translator, by any diplomatic or consular representation of the Spanish State abroad or by the diplomatic or consular representation in Spain of the country of which the applicant is a national must be attached.
G. The documentation of previous foreign studies must be legalised if it is from countries outside the European Union. To legalise the documentation accrediting the foreign studies taken, you must follow the procedure detailed in the Legalisations section.
H. Remember that you must attach the Endorsement/Acceptance of Management and Tutoring document to the application if it is a specific document requested by the programme. You will find the model document in the list of specific documentation for your programme. If your supervisor or supervisors are from outside the UAB (external), when you make the application you must first check that they are registered in the application. To check this, use the search tool, which has a magnifying glass icon, and search for the person by their surname and, if you find that they have a code, you must select it so that this person is registered in your application. If you do not find this person with the search, you must send them the External supervisor document so that they can fill it in and sign it. Once it has been completed and signed, you must attach it to the application. We recommend you carry out this procedure in advance before making the application for admission.
At this point you can access the application to apply for admission.
Once the application has been saved, you will enter the selection process. You will receive the result of the resolution of the admissions at the email address you put on the admission application. You will receive the notification in accordance with the calendar of each doctoral programme. Check your spam folder to make sure it didn't end up there.
Tracking of your application status:
You can track the status of your application from the app where you made it. Below is an explanation of what each status means:
• Application by the student: The applications has been successfully registered.
• Application incomplete: Missing documentation in the application.
• Validated by the administration: The application and the attached documentation have been reviewed.
• Admitted: The person who coordinates the programme has reviewed the application and made a proposal for admission. This status is provisional and ends when the School for Doctoral Studies has reviewed the proposal and issued the final resolution. The notification is sent to the interested party by email.
• Access granted: The School for Doctoral Studies has made the final admission. The PhD student will have to register.
• Waiting list: The person coordinating the programme has reviewed the application and granted admission, but there are no places on the doctoral programme.
• Application denied: The person coordinating the programme or the Doctoral School has reviewed the application, but they do not grant admission because one or more of the requirements is not met.
Resolution of the application for admission to the doctoral programme:
Once the application has been registered, you will enter the selection process. You will receive the result of the resolution of the admissions in a personalized way at the email address you have put in the admission application. The decision will be made according to the calendar of each doctoral programme. Check your spam folder to make sure it didn't end up. Once you have received the notification of admission, if you need more information about doctoral studies, you can consult this additional information.
Once you have received notification of the resolution, you must carry out the following:
• You must enrol through online enrolment. Check the Registration section. Registration calendar:
a) Notifications received from 29 January 2025 to 18 July 2025: Registration begins on 18 July 2025. You must register within one month of that date.
b) Notifications received from 18 July 2025: You must register within one month of the date you received the notification.
c) Exceptional notifications for the award of scholarships received from 1 February 2026: You cannot self-register, you will receive an email from ed.admissions@uab.cat at the address you provided in the application.
• If the notification of admission indicates that it is conditional on obtaining the degree of the studies that you had not completed at the time of making the application, once you are in possession of proof of having applied for the degree, you must send it to the address ed.admissions@uab.cat. The School for Doctoral Studies will register that you have already obtained the degree and admission will become final. The School for Doctoral Studies will inform you that you can now register online. You have one month to register.
• If the admission notification indicates that you must take bridging courses, the School for Doctoral Studies will contact you to inform you of the registration for the subjects you have to take and the credits. You must also self-register within one month of notification.
• Once you have registered, check the After registration section to find out the subsequent procedures you have to carry out, because they all have fixed deadlines.
• If you do not register, admission to the doctoral programme will be null and void.
• In subsequent years, regardless of the date on which you were admitted to the doctoral programme, you must register in October. To register for subsequent courses, consult the information in the Registration: other courses section.
• Every year you must present to a progress review panel, in accordance with your programme. In the event that you do not present yourself for review (non-assessable grade), you will no longer have continuity in the doctoral programme and you will not be able to make any further registrations.
For more information on the doctoral studies, you can consult What new features does the new Royal Decree 99/2011 imply? and, for information on other procedures or formalities, you can consult the website of the School for Doctoral Studies.
If you have not found the information you need, you can contact the School for Doctoral Studies at ed.admissions@uab.cat. If you send an email, identify yourself by indicating your ID card or passport and your NIU, name and surname.
To continue the doctoral studies you must re-apply for the doctorate according to the admission requirements and following the procedure for new students.
You are switching to a different PhD programme governed by RD 99/2011:
If you are registered on a PhD programme and you want to switch to another PhD programme governed by RD 99/2011, you must apply to join the programme through the general procedure for the admission to a PhD Programme but providind as complementary document in the pre-registration application the Report on a change of PhD programme.
To obtain the password for self-registration, follow this link.
Remember:
Once admitted you should contact the coordination of the PhD programme to process in this new programme the research plan, the activity document and the commitment document. In the 'After registration' tab of your PhD programme, you will find information on these procedures.
If you did not find in this page the information you need, you can contact the School for Doctoral Studies at ed.admissions@uab.cat (if you send an email, you must identify yourself by indicating your ID / passport, NIU, name and surname).